I advocate using Southwest quite a bit on this blog and my trip to New Jersey last week was an excellent example of why.  No muss, no fuss.  Check in was fast (I use Early Bird Check In) and the new terminal at Love Field is fantastic.

My flight to St. Louis was fast and uneventful and ditto from St. Louis to Newark.  It was efficient and pleasant and I was reminded twice just how nice the seats are on SWA compared to other airlines.

My trip home had some issues.  In the grand scheme of delays in Newark, mine wasn’t bad.  Some thoughts on that experience.

When a tarmac delay is absolutely, positively unavoidable, keep those window shades closed.   We pulled over into a waiting area and as soon as the captain announced we would be sitting for an hour or more, window shades snapped upwards.  I got up and met the flight attendant in mid-aisle and explained that I wasn’t looking for trouble but that I wrote the Flying Colors blog and recommended that she ask passengers to close those blinds again to avoid heat.  To her credit, she responded that it was a good idea and immediately did so.  As a result, by the time we did taxi, I was actually a bit chilly rather than over heated.  But I do wonder why that wouldn’t be a flight attendant’s first move anyway.

It’s clear to me that SWA is becoming more corporate and less people and that struck home when I sat in a cabin for 1+ hours with nary a peep from flight attendants or pilots on what was going on.  Even if you announce that it will be an hour wait, keep talking.  It helps.  It really does help.  People don’t feel forgotten.

Be very careful about your reasons for sitting.  The captains announced that they were told to hold.  Then they sat in a hold area for about 75 minutes or more not including taxi time (which can be considerable at Newark Liberty airport) and then took off on a new flight plan that had us ducking north considerably to avoid storms. See, right there, I know that the dispatchers loaded a lot of extra fuel and knew there would be a hold.  What if someone like me figures out the truth and calls y0u on it?  Just tell the truth SWA.  Tell your passengers that you had to board everyone and move out of the way and that you’ll be doing everything necessary to make people comfortable during the wait.  Don’t get caught in fibs.

I still know of no airline that can move planes into and out of gates as well as Southwest can.  While I watched their ops in St. Louis, I saw some old school SWA moves on the airplane dance that even today manage to impress me.  They had one flight depart for Baltimore and another came into the gate all in about 90 seconds.  Very well done.

All the nice business select seats with USB ports for charging?  Not a one that I tried actually would charge.  Not a single one.  I tried 4 rows of 3 seats each without any luck.  That’s just poor form.

I think that some people are taking advantage of Southwest’s bending over backwards to be accommodating.  I watched 4 people board in Newark from wheelchairs.  A husband and wife proved to be exceptionally able bodied in St. Louis and a third man miraculously found his ability to walk from the vicinity of gate 20 all the way down to around gate 5 and back.  I’m not saying for sure there was fraud going on but I will say that it is possible I witnessed a healing if some kind of fraud wasn’t going on.

Row 44:  One More Time I must say that Southwest has *got* to get on the ball and get this onto all of its aircraft.  This is a killer app that they should be using to their advantage and I observed . . . nothing.  No one even invited me to use it in the pre-departure briefing.  Hey Southwest!  I’ll endorse your Row 44 Wifi any day you want but you’ve got to get moving on that product.  You’ve had more than enough time to get it out there into the fleet.  There is money being left on the table here.

I tried the new seating that SWA is deploying onto its aircraft.  It’s not horrible.  It’s superior still to AA seating that I’ve experienced.  It is thinner and it is a touch less comfortable for that reason.  It’s also ever so slightly more narrow and that bothered me.  It wasn’t quite tight but it was pretty snug.  The seats also sit lower than the old ones and I suspect that’s to create the illusion of the seat pitch not changing.  Well, it didn’t change.  It’s not bad but it’s a bit of a downgrade and that makes me sad.

That said, it’s also the best “thin” seating I’ve experienced.  Thin seating is the new reality so I’ll still prefer SWA seats but not quite as much as I used to.

Southwest flight attendants continue to deliver a pretty consistent experience.  I find myself sympathizing with them a lot because they have to spend a great deal of the boarding time explaining to people why their Whopper Bag can’t go up into the overhead compartment and will have to be gate checked.

I watched at least 14 bags get gate checked on my return home and I think Southwest would be wise to start telling people at check in and prior to boarding that if they’re in the “C” group, they would be very wise to check their bag. Chances are, it isn’t going to fit and they’ll have to make the Walk of Shame up to the front of the aircraft to send it down below.

In the last few years, all but one flight I’ve taken was 100% full.  Most of those flights are on Southwest.  When I say 100% full, I mean just that.  100% full is actually not desirable and I think that Southwest needs to move more 737-800 aircraft into the system pronto.  I also think that Southwest needs to work a touch harder at earning a profit in light of the exceptional load factors being experienced.

Tomorrow, a story about Southwest that isn’t quite as positive.  I’m waiting because I want to see how Southwest performs today right to the end.  I’ll give you a hint though.

It involves me, 4 baggage agents, 2 police officers and about 22 minutes of recorded interaction with those people over a behavior.

Filed under: Airline Service, Travel Hints by ajax