Southwest Airlines Community

We've made the flight from Portland to Sacramento and back several times over the past couple of years taking our toddler daughter to see a doctor in California. During one winter flight, the pilot let us know that we were passing over Crater Lake shortly and, luckily, I was on the right (as in "got to see it," not "righty-tighty") side of the plane. The snow covered the mountain, and the water in the lake was the deepest blue I'd ever seen. Just a beautiful, beautiful sight. ... View more

How funny... I was actually going to write up my own top three tonight on my blog when I came across this entry and the link to that article! Talk about evidence for that whole collective subconscious theory... By the way, SWA was going to be number two on my top three list, just behind Google and just ahead of Costco. ... View more

I caught the part where they were asking for in-flight baguette service, but the rest was over my head... Sorry, bad joke. I bought some French software a year or two ago and it cracked me up when I noticed that the woman on the cover was wearing a beret and carrying a baguette... Made me wonder what the American English version would look like if they sold it overseas... Would it be an over-weight, loud man carrying a super-size McDonald's value meal? ... View more

I'm with Chris above... I don't care how old the pilot is, as long as he/she gets me from Point A to B and back, I'm fine. Makes much more sense to require continuing testing of vision, motor skills, reaction times, etc. than to place an arbitrary cap on the age of pilots. Sure, maybe it makes sense to perform the above tests more frequently with age, but that's the only way I think age should come into play. Of course, this post is being brought to you by the guy who just came back from his first doctor appointment in which the physician was notably younger than he is, so I'm a little age sensitive today... Justin ... View more

I always thought penguins tasted like chicken... ... View more

I like monkeys. Don't particularly care for chatty people in the bathroom. I don't care if I know you, please don't talk to me while I'm doing my business. I don't want to talk to you while you're doing yours, either. Why does peanut butter taste so much better when it's melted? During my first trip to Canada, a homeless guy asked me for change. I reached into my pocket, gave him what I had, and we wished each other a nice day. Two steps later, I remembered that the Canadian one and two dollar denominations are coins. Probably gave that guy $17. Nuts... Random enough? Justin ... View more

First, let me start by stating that I'm a huge Southwest fan. Er... poor choice of words. I mean that I really, really appreciate SWA. In fact (insert shameless self-promotion here), I just finished a post on my own blog about that very fact (justinstanley.net). Anyway, the point is that I'm not exactly unbiased in my opinions. That said, though (and regardless of the credibility of the story that sparked this whole discussion), I think that a couple of people here have valid points about the discriminatory part of this policy. I do think that, if you essentially take over two seats, you should be required to purchase a second one. I also think that Southwest's policy to refund that second seat if the plane isn't over-booked is commendable. However, I also think that the policy SHOULD apply to the wide passengers described in earlier comments as well as to the overweight. Imagine having to sit next to a linebacker whose wide shoulders make your flight difficult. Aren't they also occupying two seats? Of course, the wording of the policy would have to change slightly. If, as someone else mentioned, the policy currently says that you just have to be able to lower the armrests, then the wide-shouldered are probably ok. A better, fairer method would be to state that you must be a certain width at your widest point. Problem there, of course, is that you'd have flight attendants measuring people, and I think that would produce for more embarrassing moments... ... View more