Southwest Airlines Community

Greetings, everyone!  Today we're putting a third roundtrip out for sale in both the San Antonio-Baltimore/Washington and San Antonio-Orlando markets for the peak summer travel season.  They'll be effective from June 1 through September 6, giving our Customers in--and visitors to--the Alamo City more options than ever! The third Baltimore/Washington-San Antonio flight will get Customers out early and get them into San Antonio in plenty of time for a mid-day meeting--or lunch on the River Walk (margaritas, anyone?).  The return trip gives our Customers the whole day in San Antonio before their flight.  From San Antonio to Orlando, our mid-morning flight is perfectly timed to get our Customers into Central Florida right around hotel check-in time, while the return flight allows our Customers to take their time getting out of the resort and to the airport.  All of these new flights also offer a great variety of connecting opportunities in San Antonio, taking advantage of our comprehensive, coast-to-coast service scope there. This added service is yet another example of Southwest's recently enhanced capabilities to respond quickly to changing market conditions.  And what better place to demonstrate our growing nimbleness than San Antonio (which, of course, was one of our very first airports 39 years ago!).  All of these new flights are available for sale on southwest.com or by calling 1-800-I-FLY-SWA.  And remember--here at Southwest, we never charge for phoning us, and we never charge for your first two checked bags....unlike some of our competitors....who DO.              ... View more

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  Since everyone's "March Madness" brackets are in tatters by now, we thought we'd give you something schedule-related to chat about.  Today, we put our flight schedule out for sale from August 14th, 2010, all the way out through October 30th, boosting our days of available inventory up to 227.  Labor day?  Now available!  College football game weekend trips?  Now available!  Trips to the Great State Fair of Texas in Dallas?  Yep--now available! This is another big schedule change for Southwest.  We're deleting 83 roundtrip flights while adding 25 roundtrips, or a net decrease of 116 flights from the network.  Still, only eight entire nonstop markets are being discontinued, while one new one is being added.  The banner headline about this new schedule would be "Seasonality"--we're using our flight schedule optimizer more and more with every new schedule to respond to normal seasonal shifts in traffic.  We're not just adjusting frequencies, but adding and deleting entire markets as needed.  For example, five of the eight discontinued nonstop markets in the previous schedule are expected to return--service between Baltimore/Washington and both Seattle and Los Angeles, and between Seattle and St. Louis will probably return next summer, and nonstop Milwaukee-Tampa Bay and Kansas City-Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood will most likely come back for the winter schedule (and in the meantime, we'll still be able to get you between those points via direct and connecting service!).  You can also definitely see that we're responding to seasonal spikes and dips by looking at total departure counts at our big Stations.  Orlando's weekday departure count will decrease by 15 flights, and Tampa Bay's will decline by 11, as will Baltimore/Washington's.  These reductions are, essentially, just trimming flights that we had previously added for the high-demand Summer travel season. The other big headline in this schedule is that we're going to restructure our Washington/Dulles service.  It's been a small, boutique operation since we opened it about three years ago. We are making some changes based on current Customer demand, and we're going to refocus our service there to strengthen connectivity to the Midwest and Western parts of our network.  We're eliminating our nonstops between Dulles and both Orlando and Tampa Bay, and will re-direct our Dulles-Las Vegas nonstop to a second Dulles-Denver nonstop (and note--we'll still offer direct, no-change-of-plane service between Dulles and Vegas!).  This will take us from 11 daily departures to eight at Dulles.  (see pdf file attachment below.)    As always, of course, Network Planning (formerly known as Schedule Planning) taketh away, but Network Planning giveth as well.  We're continuing our growth at Denver by adding 11 more flights--two more flights between Denver and Los Angeles and one added roundtrip each between Denver and Detroit, Indianapolis, La$ Vega$, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Phoenix, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tucson, and the already-discussed second roundtrip to Washington/Dulles--bringing us to a total of 144 daily departures.  It's hard to believe but by August, Denver will be our fifth-largest Station, eclipsing our very first two airports, Dallas Love Field and Houston Hobby.  Orange County also will see the return of nonstop LUV to and from Chicago/Midway.  We're still growing Boston/Logan, adding three more nonstops to Philadelphia and another to Baltimore/Washington, bringing us to a total of 25 daily departures from Beantown.  I call that wicked awesome! In a schedule-related note, you hopefully have noticed the beautiful redesign of our website, southwest.com.  Want to know when we're extending the schedule next, and by how far?  The info is always available to you on southwest.com--it's just moved a bit!  All you have to do is click on "Travel Tools" under "Customer Service" at the bottom of the homepage,  and you'll see upcoming schedule releases under the "Feel Free To Wing It" section. Happy booking, and enjoy your travels, everyone!   ... View more

Good morning folks!  When we first announced our new service to Boston (BOS) last year , one of the most frequently-asked-for markets was BOS-Philadelphia (PHL).  It wasn't in the initial plans---but starting June 27th, we're jumping in with five daily roundtrips!  Flights and fares are available now at southwest.com ! While we're at it, next time you're flying on Southwest through Philadelphia,  check out our expanded facilities, which are being "christened" today with a ribbon-cutting celebration.  Great new digs  call for great news--and the coming of PHL-BOS service fits the bill.   Happy booking, everyone!   ... View more

Some of you may have seen our tv ads recently talking about our Southwest's involvement in our communites. And I don't mean just the communities we serve--I mean all of the communities that Southwest Employees live in.  Unlike other airlines, Southwest has Employees that reside in every single city we serve, and at the same time we live in a lot of communities that Southwest doesn't even serve (flight benefits are a very nice thing!). I want you guys to understand that this isn't a marketing tag--this is a personality trait that Southwest Employees share.  Seriously.  It's one of the three tenets of "Living The Southwest Way," to have a Servant's Heart.  And while we have as our Corporate Charity the amazing Ronald McDonald Houses nationwide, we all are also involved in far more than that one cause in our hometowns.  I've seen my SWA Family go way over the top serving their home communities in my 20 years with this remarkable Company....but you guys just have to hear about this one. It's just wonderful. Southwest has served St. Louis since 1985, and we have an amazing Team assembled to work our operation there.  That also means we have some Employees that have been working for SWA at Lambert for quite a while.  One of those is Rolando, a Leader at STL who's a friend and one of the nicest guys I've ever known.  He lives a Ground Ops routine.  Go to work, go home.  Go to work, go home.  You never know what your hours will be.  Occasionally stop by the grocery, the hardware store, the dry cleaner.  Life is life. Late last year, Ro noticed that the clerk who had served him at his dry cleaners for years wasn't around.  He asked about her and learned that she had been diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer.  Ro's wife is a breast cancer survivor, so he knew immediately that he had to get involved in helping the clerk.  He, and his STL colleagues, visited the clerk and realized the depth of the need.  ( Oxygen tanks at the front door, because she had labored breathing..)  (The landing from thegarage area.)   (The old kitchen floor.)   Enter Extreme Makeover, Southwest Edition. Ro and his crew almost replicated the ABC television crew's best efforts.  They moved the clerk, her daughter, and grandchildren out of the house to rooms donated by the St. Louis Airport Hilton--and then hit the house renovations hard!  They partnered with the local Home Depot get materials to renovate their dilapidated home, as well as with the generosity of Carol House Furniture in St. Louis to provide beautiful new stuff to move into the renovated space. The kicker?  All of this work was done on each Employee's own time.  Days off, off-work hours....their own time.  Done purely for LUV and because it was the right thing to do.  (New bedroom furniture.) The result?  A family that my Southwest Family knew just from living in  the same town got life-changing help from their Southwest Airlines neighbors.  This was not a corporate thing.  It was a St. Louis thing--and they nailed it!  (New landing from garage) The amazing thing about this Company is that we are all empowered to try to make our communities better.  We can't help everybody and every effort, but we can help some folks.  And we work at it, and it's worth it!  (new kitchen) You can read an article about the effort from the St. Louis Dispatch here.  But all I can say is, GREAT JOB, Team STL.  Once again, you guys have made us proud. You make me proud. And this really **is** who we are, everyone.  Thanks for reading. Bill       ... View more

(in the Key of F flat to the tune of "Rawhide" please:) Growin', growin', growin', Southwest keeps on growin', Gary is a-crowin', DENVERRRRRRRR..... Yep, buckaroos, Southwest is adding flights again to Denver!  Effective June 13th, we're using two aircraft to add a second nonstop between Denver and Ft. Lauderdale, a second Denver-Ontario, and a second Denver-Boise (or, as they say in Idaho, Boi-SEE).  We're also adding Denver-Houston/Hobby Flight #4.  This will give us 133 weekday departures to 42 nonstop destinations from Denver International--which, by the way, turns 15 years old this year, and was recently named one of the 13 most beautiful airports in the world by Travel & Leisure magazine.  We certainly think it's a beautiful facility--just look at the way we keep adding flights there! The new service, along with our other more than 3,100 daily nonstop flights, are available for sale now at southwest.com.  Happy trails!    ... View more

NEWS FLASH:  This morning, Summer, 2010 becomes bookable!  Seats are available for booking from today all the way out until August 13, giving us 241 days of bookable inventory, which I'm pretty sure is a new record (for Southwest, anyway). Those of you that have been longtime readers of this blog will remember the absolute thrashing I got a couple of years back about not being out for sale further in advance (you can reread the post and its comments here, and the followup I posted a short time later here).  I can assure you all that I certainly remember it....I'm still in therapy for it.  But my point is that we heard you, loudly, clearly, PAINFULLY, and we're constantly working now to make our schedule available further and further in advance for your booking and planning pleasure! There is lots of good, new stuff is in the Summer '10 Schedule.  While we're not adding airplanes, we're able to add flights next summer by taking advantage of the shorter flying times that are made possible by more favorable summertime winds--and using our schedule optimizer to "stitch" that time together in ways that are usable for added flying  (have I bragged about our schedule optimizer lately??).  We're also implementing lots of frequency changes, shifting capacity from winter markets into summer ones.  In total we're adding a net gain of 82 one-way flights across the nation, and because I know how much you LUV 'em, I've linked a summary of market-by-market changes summarized into two .pdf files--one for weekday changes, and a separate one for all of the Saturday changes.  First and foremost:  we're adding our 69th airport, Panama City Beach, effective May 23rd!  (Yes, this is a few days later than the rest of the May schedule additions.) We'll be the first new airline flying to a brand new eco-friendly airport serving the Northwest Florida Beaches, and the airport code assigned to the new city couldn't be more appropriate--ECP (Everyone Can Party!).  We'll serve four nonstop destinations from Panama City Beach (Nashville, Houston, Baltimore/Washington, and Orlando), with direct and connecting service to 58 other Southwest airports, so nearly everyone on the LUV Network can visit the incredibly beautiful white beaches, crystal blue waters, and laid-back, friendly people along the Northwest Florida coast. Besides ECP, we're bringing back a number of "old favorites" for the summer, like nonstops between Nashville and Oakland and between Norfolk and Las Vegas.  We're bringing back transcon nonstops between Baltimore/Washington and Los Angeles as well as our first-ever Baltimore/Washington-Seattle nonstop service.  Baltimore/Washington, in fact, scores in this schedule big-time with the addition of ten more daily departures (bringing our total daily departure count at BWI to 181--the most Southwest has ever had!).  Other big winners are Nashville (nine added flights), and Seattle (eight added flights).  St. Louis also is in the "winner's circle" next summer, with ten added daily departures and a whopping eight new nonstop markets--including service from Lambert to Los Angeles, San Diego, Raleigh/Durham, New Orleans, and **finally** adding nonstops in one of our most-frequently-asked about markets, St. Louis-Nashville.  These schedule additions bring us up to 83 daily departures from St. Louis, the most we've had in over a decade. Of course, I've got news involving Denver!  We're expanding our Mile-High Success Story by adding nine more departures to and from Denver to existing destinations like Spokane, Baltimore, Tampa, and cities in California, and Saturday-only new nonstop service between Denver and New York's LaGuardia Airport (gotta love "slotless Satudays!").  And we're not done yet--we'll be adding even more Denver service later in the summer.....and you'll hear about it first here at "Nuts About Southwest!" Happy booking, everyone!  I'll be watching for comments and questions as they come through and will be happy to respond to any questions/comments you have.  Make some summer plans, y'all, and remember...starting next May--Everyone Can Party! ... View more

It's always fascinated me how many different cycles life's relationships have, and how constant many of them are from culture to culture.  One of those "whapped" me right in the face last month. When we have children, the parent/child relationship is established naturally.  I suppose the urge, the need, to love and care for our babies is somewhere in our DNA.  We sustain our babies when they're young, guide them as they grow, teach them as they mature, and pray that we don't destroy them as they transition into their teens.  Even after they move out of their teens, we are still parents, offering advice and nurturing them as our young adults start to make those important decisions and face those seminal moments that frame their adult lives. However, after they survive those rites of passage, at some point the parent/child relationship somehow becomes one of equals.  Friends, in a way--even best friends.  Confidants.  Each of you knows, implicitly, that you can rely on the other for anything.   This past week, I passed into that next life cycle with my son. You guys know my son: The Officer (I've blogged about him often).  He's a police officer in a beautiful city about 3 hours by road from here.  He is now very established in his career, does okay in the paycheck department, and thanks to the wisdom of his wife, my Adorable Daughter-In-Law (the ADIL), has a few bucks in the bank.   They recently bought their first house and have remodeled/restored it just beautifully.  Now I've visited them for the weekend before, but it was always Dad visiting Son/Wife.  This visit was different. This trip, we weren't talking about what he should do in his career, but what he is doing in his career.  It wasn't about what he wanted his plans for the future to be, but how he was working towards his future plans.  It wasn't "what are you making us for dinner?" but "where do you want US to take YOU for dinner?"  It wasn't me telling the server "I'll take the check!" but The Officer yelling to the waitress "the check is mine!"  To an observer, it looked like a couple of friends just enjoying each other's company.  Now, I realize that to the uninitiated this may sound trivial, but speaking for all of us who have hit this fulcrum point in the relationship with our children, this represents a change in our emotional landscape on a tectonic scale.  It means our babies have grown up.  They no longer need us, at least not to sustain and nurture them.  We've moved from Parent/Child to a relationship of equals (if structured by "seniority").  And, I have to say...after the shock of the realization, I am totally digging it.  I don't have to brace myself for their trips home to wreck my monthly budget.  I don't need to keep a free bedroom in the back of my house in case he and the ADIL need to move back home.  They've got their home now--and both are happy and secure in it. So for now, I've made my peace with this "status change" in my relationship with The Officer and the ADIL.  However, lurking in the back of my mind is the realization that this puts us one step closer to the final role change we all have with our children--and it's not one that I'm looking forward to.  It's the role reversal: when the parent becomes the child, and the child becomes the parent.  Having gone through that with my Mom over the past decade or so, I still have uncomfortable memories of the awkwardness and conflict that "trading places" caused.  But I also remember what got us through it without killing each other--and that's the love and trust we'd placed in each other our entire lives.  Hopefully, I'll keep that piece of wisdom in my "back pocket" and remember to pull it out and put it to good use when that reversal of roles happens to me, and to The Officer.  Happy Holidays, everyone!     ... View more

Exactly a week before Thanksgiving, about half of the Schedule Planning Department assembled on a fine November morning to volunteer at a house being built by Habitat for Humanity.  The reason only half of our group was there because the other half of Schedule Planning had been at the same house a week earlier for similar work;  the earlier group framed and raised the house, while my group sided, caulked, and painted.  I have to admit....the framers were mostly my younger and fitter colleagues....the painters, for the most part (and DEFINTELY including me!), were older, less agile, and.....wiser.  🙂   But both groups got the same things out of the volunteer event--we laughed, we shared, we functioned as a surprisingly well-skilled team, and we got to know others who also chose to serve their communities.  It's true that Southwest's primary corporate charity is the Ronald McDonald House, and heaven knows how many wonderful, heartstring-tugging dinners I've helped cook there.  But we also know that need in our country isn't limited to the guests at Ronald McDonald Houses.  Volunteerism is needed in every community we serve--even in those  we don't.  That's why many of our Employees get involved in communty volunteer efforts of every kind.  Food banks, clean-up efforts, Salvation Army, mentoring, Meals-On-Wheels--Southwest Employees are involved.  In fact, having a "Servant's Heart" is one of the three tenets of "Living The Southwest Way" (the other two are having a "Warrior Spirit" and having a "Fun-LUVing Attitude").  And my 35,000 Southwest Family members and I have perfected this to a "T"! Everyone gets something different out of volunteering.  Of course, by volunteering as a group for Habitat, we had an excellent team building excercise.  After seeing your Vice President smash the heck out of his thumb for the third or fourth time and STILL not spew out obscenities that would make Joan Rivers blush...I've gained even more respect for the man.  Watching a colleague get a fully-loaded brush-full of paint right in the face is both bonding and hysterically funny. And to have a coworker look at you and in complete innocence say, "Hey Bill, can I have your caulk?" and not collapse in fits of gutter-minded laughter is most definitely a character-building moment. But a wonderful bonus to the experience of volunteering is getting to know the other people in the community who are volunteering shoulder-to-shoulder with you, and learning their "back stories."  At our Habitat shift we met, of course, the employees of Habitat who supervise the volunteers and learned why they do what they do.  They're a lot like Southwest Employees: they passionately view what they do not as a job, but as a mission.  We worked with employees of Coca-Cola, who were endlessly curious about the Southwest Culture (and who were excellent trim painters!).  We worked with members of Builders Of Hope, a wonderful organization dedicated to rebuilding and stimulating formerly-blighted West Dallas (these guys were AWESOME teachers).  And then we worked with Ellette and Adam. Ellette and Adam showed up at the Habitat house with no fanfare and got right to work.  And they worked hard!  While we were talking (and painting, and painting, and painting), Ellette mentioned that she and Adam had just gotten married.  Aww, how sweet, we all thought.  When?  "This past Sunday," she replied.  "This is how we're spending our honeymoon week." Say what????  She explained that they wanted to spend the week celebrating the union of their lives by giving back to their community, and by giving back to everyone who had given to them.  During their "honeymoon" week they'd spent time packaging bags at food banks, delivering turkey dinners to the disadvantaged, cooking meals in a kitchen to feed the homeless, and now here they were at Habitat.  They were still having their honeymoon at night--staying in hotels, eating out, seeing theatre--but during the day, they were investing sweat equity in their community.  "We're so excited to be here," she told me. "We can't believe they got us into a Habitat volunteer opportunity so quickly!" HOW SELFLESS IS THAT?  I don't think I've heard of a better, more meaningful way to spend a honeymoon.  Way more memorable than a week in Cancun.  Far more relationship-building than a week on a cruise ship.  Ellette and Adam have a story that is both unique and inspiring.  And how better to give thanks for their marriage than to give of their recently-joined hearts to their communities through service!  Getting to know them and witnessing their committment to their fellow man will stay with me far, far longer than the soreness in my back from a day of painting and caulking. As we each head into our Thanksgiving celebrations, I hope you all take a moment to reflect and give thanks for everything you have.  I hope you'll make every effort to communicate to friends and family how thankful you are to have them in your lives, whether that's in person or long-distance.  And...I hope you'll invest some of your time volunteering in your community as a demonstration of your thankfulness.  There is nothing that will give you a greater return. Thanks for the lesson in humilty, Adam and Ellette.  Breathe peace, everyone....and breathe thanks.  Happy Thanksgiving! Bill     ... View more

See.....didn't I tell you to keep watching for more surprises here on "Nuts About Southwest"? Today we're announcing more growth for our burgeoning Denver franchise, so I guess you could say that this is a (ahem) "Denver Post."  Starting on March 14th, we'll add new nonstop service in five markets: Denver-Hartford, Denver-Boise, Denver-Ontario, Denver-Detroit, and Denver-Washington/Dulles.  Each market will have one daily nonstop, roundtrip flight.  With this new service, Southwest will have 120 weekday departures from Denver International Airport. And in true informercial style....."But Wait! There's More!"  Beginning in May of next year, we're adding more service in seven other markets from Denver:  Sacramento (for a total of three roundtrips), Tulsa (for a total of three), New Orleans (going to two), Portland (total of three), Oakland (for a total of four), Baltimore/Washington (also increasing to four), and Seattle (total of three). This brings us to 127 weekday departures from Denver, making DEN our seventh-biggest Station--ahead of such airports as Los Angeles, Oakland, Orlando...and gaining on our first two airports: Dallas and Houston!  And not to leave Saturdays out...on Saturdays in the May-August 2010 schedule we're introducing nonstop, roundtrip service between Denver and New York-LaGuardia!  We're able to add this new service to slot-restricted LaGuardia because slots are not as restricted on Saturdays. Southwest has never grown an operation as fast as we've grown Denver.  And, I can absolutely attest to that first-hand:  recently, I made connections at Denver flying between Dallas and Minneapolis/St. Paul, and what I saw was a stark contrast to what I saw just before Southwest returned to the Denver market.  Back then, Concourse C was all but a ghost town.  Gate areas were lifeless.  Podiums were unmanned.  Concessions had very little business.  The moving sidewalks had (literally) nobody on them.  Contrast that with what I saw weekend before last:  gate areas full of typically happy, animated Southwest Customers.  Podiums staffed with Southwest Employees providing Positively Outrageous Service.  Concessions full to overflowing with patrons.  Moving sidewalks full of people (including the ubiquitous little kid running backwards on them...never fails...).  Southwest has literally brought Concourse C to life with our soon-to-be 127 flights!  With the new service next May, we'll be up to 12 gates on Concourse C--a huge increase from just two gates and 13 departures when we started in 2006.  We're also busy putting a distinctly Denver stamp on our DEN operation by hiring many local residents.  In fact, our headcount at DEN is up to just shy of 400 Employees, including many Colorado natives! It's been a busy two days here in Dallas telling you guys about new, planned service in 2010, so I may take a day off--but please comment, as I'll be watching and answering!  Have a great weekend, everyone!     ... View more

It's Media Day at Southwest's Galactic Headquarters here in Dallas, and we have a LOT of news to share.  2010's first new city....expansion at a long-time Southwest destination....once again Southwest is getting creative to respond to demand for our service! The biggest news of the day is that Southwest intends to begin service at the brand-new International Airport being built near Panama City, Florida next May.  We're bringing low fares and GREAT service to the land of sugar-white-sand beaches, incredibly gentle blue waters, and an amazing variety of visitor accommodations just in time for vacation season, Summer, 2010!  Up until Southwest's arrival, this part of Northwest Florida has been plagued by high fares and a lack of full-sized airline service.  We're going to change that.  Southwest's entry into the Panama City market will make it possible for all of America to experience the incredible beauty of Northwest Florida! While we're not ready to announce specific service plans just yet (we'll announce all the specifics this December, so stay tuned!), the "how" of our entry into the Florida Panhandle is as interesting as the "why."  For the first time ever, we've formed a strategic alliance with a corporate partner to enable Southwest to bring a new airport onto our network.  The corporate ally in this venture is our friends at the St. Joe Corporation, with whom we've been talking for over a decade.  Even if the St. Joe name isn't familiar, trust me, you know them.  They are the largest landowner in the State of Florida, owning over a 600,000 acres of prime Florida Panhandle woodlands and beaches.  They're also developing world-class resort communities in the area including the award-winning, jaw-droppingly-beautiful "Watercolor" complex.  Lots of other local groups are also actively helping Northwest Florida launch its new international airport.  Both the Bay County Tourism Development Council and the South Walton Tourism Development Council have stepped up to the plate to make the new airport a success, as has Coastal Vision 3000.  If you've never visited the Panama City area, believe me, you have an incredible treat in store.  I'm already planning my family's vacation there next summer (whale watchers, take note....*gr*)!  In other big news about our May 2010 schedule, today Gary announced our intent to grow our St. Louis operation by adding new nonstop service in six markets, and additional flights in two others.  We'll be adding two new nonstop, roundtrip flights each weekday between St. Louis and both Los Angeles and Nashville; and one daily roundtrip between St. Louis and New Orleans; Raleigh/Durham; Seattle; and San Diego.  (Sidebar to all of you nascent "schedule geeks" out there--St. Louis-Nashville service may be the single most frequently requested new market between existing Southwest airports during my 16 years in Schedule Planning.  So, to all of you that have asked for this service through the years, this one's for you--NOW KINDLY GO BUY A TICKET!!!!)  These additions come on the heels of our other recent St. Louis announcement that we're adding new nonstop service between Lambert and both Boston and Minneapolis/St. Paul this coming January.  In fact, we're so pumped about our growth in St. Louis that we'll add a third St. Louis-Minneapolis/St. Paul flight with all of the other new service in May.  All told, by next may, we plan to be operating 83 weekday departures from our gates in Lambert-St. Louis International's East Terminal (which is the newest and most modern terminal at Lambert!). Again, all of this awesome new service in St. Louis and Panama City will begin next May, and will be available for sale this December.  But don't wait until December to check out this blog again--you never know what other surprises we've got in store for you!   ... View more

Today we started accepting bookings from March 14 through May 7, 2010.  Party on, Spring Break!  Hippity-hop, Easter!  Hello, Passover!  Time to plan a trip and book something.  LET'S GO SOMEWHERE! We're adding over a hundred weekday flights to our network.   Some airports will see noticeable increases--Chicago gets 21 more daily flights, Baltimore gets 18, Orlando and Tampa each get 9 more flights.  To be clear--we are NOT back into growth mode.  We're able to add all these flights not by adding to our fleet, but by taking advantage of the seasonal decrease in flying time going from Winter into Spring.  You'd be surprised how much extra time an average decrease of five minutes per flight, spread across 3,200 flights a day, can create! Another interesting fact about our new March-May Schedule is how much more flying we're packing into the Saturday schedule.  Saturday is the air travel equivalent of "Leisure Day," and we're really loading extra leisure-oriented flights into the Saturday schedule.  For example--we're upping Orlando's daily departures from 104 to 129 on Saturdays.  We're going to keep that Disney Express hopping on "Leisure Saturdays!" In fact, we're adding quite a number of Saturday flights to and from our Florida cities, as well as to/from Las Vegas. As a nod to all of the "schedule geeks" out there--and I say that lovingly, because I am one!--we are publishing not one, but two of the market-based schedule frequency .PDF files on this.  One is for weekday service, the other for Saturday service.  Lots of changes--so enjoy!!! Happy booking, everyone! Bill ... View more

The oddest thing happened to me recently.  I was walking through the frozen foods aisle at WalMart, and a fellow shopper just ahead of me let out a big, loud sneeze.  I said "Bless you!" and he looked up; we made brief eye contact.  He got this sheepish look on his face like I had just accused him of shoplifting; our carts passed; and I didn't think anything of it.  A few minutes later, I was in the 20-or-less checkout aisle, and out of the blue, someone gave me a couple of pats on my left shoulder.  I looked to my left shoulder and saw "the sneezer" walking away.  He looked over his his shoulder and said "thank you--you made my day!"   This comes on the heels of something that happened this past Sunday.  We had a LOT of visitors at church this week, and a visiting couple sat next to me.  The lady sneezed LOUDLY during a prayer.  I reached over across the pew, patted her shoulder and said, quietly, "Bless you!"  After the service, she came up and gave me the BIGGEST hug, and her husband shook my hand--and they  both said that my "Bless you!" helped make their decision to join our church.   So--since when does simple civility make someone's day or cause them to join a church??  A simple "thanks!" would have been more than sufficient, and even that wouldn't have been a major deal.  I mean, I'm very happy that both events happened--but honestly I'm borderline troubled that these even made a ripple in the pond.  Both of these folks were surprised that I blessed them.  Since when was that out of the ordinary?  I was raised to say "Bless you!" when someone sneezes; apparently I'm not alone, as in Schedule Planning staff meetings, when someone sneezes, the chorus of "Bless You's!" rises up in unison like a liturgical response in a sanctuary.  I always thought it was a Texan/Southern thing, but since nearly everyone in my Department is from all over the country, now I think it's an American thing.   Saying "Bless you!" when someone sneezes implies many things, but it's really just using the opportunity of a respiratory spasm to show someone a little human compassion and some good wishes.  It's based on a historial (and false) belief born centuries ago that when someone sneezed, their heart stopped; blessing them made the re-start of their ticker more probable.  Unfortunately, in these days of soul-numbing anonymity, such niceties seem to have fallen off the map.  Why?  And why should we tolerate the gradual eradication of American nicety?  I just don't think we should go quetly into that dark--and lonely--night.   So here is my challenge.  Starting today, and for the next week--whenever you see/hear someone sneeze, give 'em a loud "Bless you!" and make eye contact with them.  Let them know that someone wishes them well.  Say it loudly--not obnoxiously, but say it loud enough so that they hear it, and hopefully anyone around will hear it as well.  We're going into allergy (and, somewhat more frighteningly, flu) season, so we should have ample oppportunity.  Let's see if we can pay good wishes forward!  And equally important to this little social experiment--if you  get any reaction (other than a polite smile!)--please post a comment here.  We'll see what a polite, and caring, army might be able to accomplish!   Let me hear from you, folks!!!!   And.......BLESS YOU!   Bill              ... View more