July 1971 - Age 9 - flew 1st southwest flight from Dallas to Houston - flew in at night and amazed as a kid seeing the lights of such a huge city.
July 1999 - Age 37 - flew 1st scheduled commercial flight on Suncountry Airlines out of aging Humphrey Terminal (10 gates).
2001 - Favorite Airline (Suncountry) shuts down operations and I no longer have the option to fly 1st class, nonstop from MSP to Houston and DFW for $229 roundtrip. My 300,000 miles are useless and I get an apology letter from Corporate.
2000-2002 - Resorted to flying Vanguard Airlines from MSP to Kansas City and then on to DFW. Then catch the $16 bus over to Love Field to board a SWA flight to get to Houston, San Antonio or Austin.
2002 - Moved to Minnesota from Houston and experienced the NWA monopoly. Purchased many tickets for $649 to fly from MSP to MDW and then pick up SWA at Midway to complete my business travel. A Minnesota resident who hated NWA and all of their whining employees.
2003-2006 - ATA is my new option for MSP to MDW and once again, my business travels duck the nonsense that is dished out by NWA. Doesn't matter if I stay over a saturday night or book 5 months in advance, I still can't afford/justify flights on NWA.
2006-2008 - I fly MSP to MDW on Airtran for $39 each way for 2 years. Of course I always jump on SWA at Midway to get to my final destination. 3 airports and 2 carriers to get to my destination but save 10's of thousands of dollars over 3 year period by NOT flying NWA.
May 2008 - I fly the final flight on Airtran from MSP to MDW for $109.
June 2008 - The only way to get cheap airfare is to take Airtran from MSP to Atlanta and then fly west or north out of that obnoxious airport in Georgia. Why? Because now that there is no longer ATA, Airtran, Vanguard or a reasonable city/flight on Sun Country (which came back by the way) MY ONLY OPTION TO GET TO CHICAGO IS ON NWA AND AS SOON AS AIRTRAN PULLED OUT, Suddenly, THE FLIGHTS ON NWA THAT WERE $59 EACH WAY IN APRIL OF 2008 ARE NOW $499 ROUNDTRIP FROM MSP TO MDW. Criminal NWA! Just wrong of you to do such a thing. Supply and demand huh?
October 2008 - The long awaited announcement wakes me up at 6:38 in the morning. I'm sleeping soundly but the Minneapolis newscast is blaring in the background. I think I'm having a dream and that SWA has announced that after 15 years of "thinking about it" they ARE FINALLY GOING TO BITE THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS in a monopoly market and set up shop in St. Paul! I put my feet on the ground beside my bed, grab the remote and hit rewind on the DVR. This is REAL ! I'm not having a dream! Finally the favorite airline of North America is going to allow naive Minnesotans the opportunity to discover that you DON'T have to pay $1012 to fly from MSP to Hartford with 3 weeks advance notice and an overnight stay on Saturday.
My 1st airplane ride was on Southwest and now that my home airport will be serviced by Southwest, this will probably be my last plane ride. As my team of Doctors keep telling me that lung cancer survival won't be an easy road, my days ahead are brightened with the opportunity to travel each week on an affordable airline. I will actually get to see friends and family across the country next year.
THANK YOU SOUTHWEST! This announcement brings great joy!
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