Southwest Airlines Exceptional Service

My son and I traveled to Texas a few years back and my wife arranged for us to travel on Southwest Airlines. It was a new experience for me as I had not traveled by air for a number of years, ever since the deregulation of the airlines industry.

We boarded a Southwest airlines flight at SeaTac international airport headed for Oakland, California. The flight went smoothly enough and we arrived right on time in Oakland where we made our connecting flight to Phoenix, Arizona. Southwest didn’t provide meals during the flight but they did provide snacks. My son, a thirsty, hungry ten year old, ate snacks and drank sodas until I thought he wouldn’t have any room for a full meal. Wrong.

From Phoenix, we boarded another uneventful flight to Midland Odessa Texas where we rented a car, drove to our destination in Sanderson, took care of our business, and three days later drove back to Midland Odessa and caught an early morning flight back West.

Our first stop was Albuquerque, New Mexico. We landed, made a connecting flight to Phoenix, landed and found we had a two-hour wait until our flight to Reno arrived and prepared to receive us.

After killing time in the airport at gift shops (my son thought they were boring), restaurants ( I thought they were too expensive), sitting and watching the travelers come an go (my son thought that was boring), and watching airplanes arrive and depart (I had fun—an old aircraft mechanic’s addiction) which my son also thought was boring, we finally saw our flight arrive and boarded with the rest of the frequent fliers.

It was on that flight that things got really interesting—and funny.

Upon being pushed back from the gate, the pilot informed us we were about 20 minutes late for our arrival in Reno, Nevada.

Once in the air, my son wanted something to eat so when the steward came around, we turned in our order and he came back with my son’s food and drink—some peanuts and more soda. We were in the air a short time when the pilot announced matter-of-fact that we had were going to be about 45 minutes late for Reno due to fierce headwinds. I was worried that we would miss our connecting flight to SeaTac.

A little while passed and my son asked me again if he could have something to eat. I said, “Sure,” and my son pushed the steward call button. The steward was sitting in the front of the compartment playing with one of the passenger’s baby. He looked up when my son pushed the call button, hollered back at us, “Whaddaya want?” and I laughed as I said, “My son would like some more to eat, if that’s okay.” Much to my surprise the steward stood up, cocked his arm, and threw a bag of peanuts over the intervening 6 or 7 seats and passengers’ heads. I caught the peanuts and gave them to my son as we laughed and said we’d never been served on a plane like that before.

It was about then that the pilot came back on the PA and announced that we had made up about 20 minutes. Before long, he came back on and said we’d be landing in Reno shortly and informed us that we would be there 20 minutes early!

I told my son that either the pilot had found a different altitude where the headwinds were less or none-existent or he had firewalled the throttles, then got out, and pushed. It was extraordinary!

Another thing we found funny was how, in former days, the pilot would come on in a very smooth, cultured voice and, in a conversational tone, tell us about the weather, sights to see out the windows, altitude, speed, details about the plane or the destination, like the weather, the temperature, the local time, etc. When we arrive at Reno, Nevada, the pilot came on the PA and simply said, “We’re here.” Telling cutbacks, no doubt.

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