Southwest airlines cattle car of the sky... Or not??

7:49

Today while I was at the airport I had decided to write this post, I even saw how it was going to read in my head. I have to admit it was going to be a rant. About how companys come up with a really good idea then the miss one part of it that spoils the whole execution...

Yes that was going to be this post... But once again southwest spoiled a perfectly good ranting blog by secereatly addressing the one part that in my opinion was poorly executed. In fact, I think they solved it in a way that was win win... Oh dear god did I just say that.. I have been in corporate america WAY to long.

Because of this I have had to break this up into 2 sections.

SECTION1:
abuse/ignoring the rules that are clearly marked and repeated over and over at the airport.

Ya I know that's a huge subject, and I can't possibly cover them all, how bout a few highlights from this evenings adventure..

The "plesently plump" woman in front of me who simply MUST carry all 6 bags through the X-ray line not take off her shoes or sweater (neatly tied round her velopous waist) and then chooses to argue with the nice TSA official saying "I need thse 3 gallons of gator-aid to stay hydrated on the plane."

Or the "family of 10" traveling with mom and dad, that all NEED to board with grandad cause he has a sprained ankle and a blue handycaped boarding card.

How bout the woman with boarding card A60 that thought she would just sneak on the plane first.

Or the guy that cut through the security line cause he was "late".. (At least he didn't have any luggage.)

SECTION2: what TSA/southwest did to restore my faith in right and wrong.

First and formost plesently plump lady was "escorted" to a special room which I am sure she had in depth descussions and reasonoing as to why she will be missing her flight tonight.

Second the family of 10 was instructed that they needed to sit in the first 3 rows due to pre-boarding/handycapped cards due to safty concerns

Third lady with card A60.. Ya she was sent to the back and shunned by everyone along the way... Kinda felt bad for her.. Till I remembered I was only there 20 minutes before boarding and heard the directions at least 5 times...

And lastly the guy who cut through the security line... Eh.. Will let that one go. He was cute..

Now I also have to take a moment to say a few words about southwest. On-top of all the things I have mentioned, they have done a few other things that I think will encourage me to fly them much mre frequently.

First and formost the boarding system. For anyone who reads this who doesn't know I am a big guy (tall mostly, 6'7" most on days). So I long for the exit isle that has enough leg room for me. Unfortunatly with how many flights us-air has cut back they are always full, and I am usually in the middle between 2 other large people. Espically since I am never given enough notice to book my flights in advance so its always last minute.

With southwest I can book business select (usually identical price to us-air standard price and I booked hours before my flight) and I am garunteed boarding pass 1 through 15. What this means is that after the pre-boraded people mentioned above, I would be at worst 15th in the plane. Since there are 17 seats on their planes that offer additional leg room I have a good chance to get a comfy seat this is a HUGE deal for me.

This brings up 2 other good points. 1 all souithwest flys is boing 737's so I know where the good seats are gonna be. And 2 unlike most other airlines, family and "familys traveling with small children. Board AFTER the first group.. How cool is that?

Add all that up with of the 9 of 10ish flights I have flown with them landing early, even the ones that took off late.. I am gonna have to think twice about flying usair again...

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Phoenix Airport christmas weekend

So I flew in to PHX on Christmas weekend, the Friday of Christmas weekend actually. the people were unreal, and then waited an hour and a half for luggage. was not an experience that was something that I would ever like to repeat. I ended up having to fly home on on southwest, and the more I think about it the more I think I will have to start flying them more often. This is the third time I have flown them, each time seems to be a little better, and now that I know I can guy the business class for a few dollars more, I think it might be worth it. Some of the ways that they do things seem to be much better at least in theory.

Random thoughts i guess.

Eletric Violen SeaTac

So I got to Airport today, decided I wanted some Wendy's. the only tables left were Right infront of a gentelman that was playing an eletric violin. His name is Geoffrey Castle.
http://www.geoffreycastle.com/ I was quite impressed with his music, and actually decided to purchase all three of his CD's. I loaded them into itunes and on-to my i-pod. I find the music to be really soothing. Peacefull

Manchester Airport.

So here I am at the manchester New Hampshire Airport. 2 hours early.. luckely I found a power outlet and could sign onto my sirius account and listen to some music. well I got up this morning, took a nice long shower (after my bath last night that I forgot to write about WOW jaccusi tub LOL) got the rest of my stupp put together and headed downstairs. The hotel has a breakfast they serve every day, today it was french toast and suasage. Along with some cereals and juices. I sat down and had some food thinking about what they day might have in store for me. in my 11 hours of travel time I have today. lol

Looking out the lobby window it looked like it had been raining, so that should lengthen my trip to the airport a little. It was about an hour drive down. I figured it woul de at least that for the trip up. I ended up leaving the hotel about 7:45 in the mighty POS tarus. I didn't even write about it because it was such a POS I didn't want to even take the time. LOL the drive to the airport was slow, it rained pretty hard the whole way and the tarus was not the most surefooted thing on the road espically with its half flat tires.

I made it to the airport a bout 9:10 after stopping to fill up the car with gas. I checked in and made it through security, found a spot to sit with power and here I am. 2 hours early for the flight still. Oh well better than being late I suppose. I fly from here to pensilvania, there I have a 3 hours layover. I am really hoping to be able to get a decent seat from there to phx since its 5 hours on the plane. I am also hoping that the battery on this laptop will last long enough to get through a movie, but I don't have alot of hope for that.

As an interesting side note, I noticed on the way up that the airbus 321 that I was on had those nifty air-power things. I think I will have to invest in one of those adapters for my laptop so that I can watch movies on long flights. of course with any luck I should stay on the west coast and hopefully will not have to many long flights.

Well I am just rambeling now, so I think I will call it quits for this post. I am sure there will be another one in philly... another airport I have never been to