The view from 35,000 feet

Flying is a good way to appreciate the community of effort needed for success. I am not a nervous flyer, but I do appreciate the act of faith expressed in boarding an airplane for a cross country flight.

Today I am on my first Southwest Airlines flight. I have long heard the buzz about Southwest, its customer-friendly policies, smart business model, happy crew, and, less positively, its boarding procedures. However, since National is so convenient and easy to navigate it has my loyalty and I always look for flights leaving DCA. It took a free ticket to get me to be willing to go out of Dulles – it would take more to get me to consider BWI.

From the beginning (the donated ticket), Southwest was easy to work with. By the time I arrived at Dulles I had changed my return three times just based on emerging opportunities, something I would never have considered on another airline. You can’t change a free flight on line but each time I called I was talking to an agent after less than a minute on hold, greeted warmly, helped efficiently, and reassured that changing my flight was no problem – and would have incurred no additional cost had I been paying.

The Dulles based crew was no exception, Everyone was great, from the guys at the ticket counter who kidded around with me, to the gate agent with the up-beat attitude who complimented me for arriving so early and told me all I needed to know about the flight, to the two sets of flight attendants who were wisecracking, polite and acted as if by flying Southwest I had done them a personal favor. Collectively they had me hooked.

Another perk was the complete lack of what have become all-too-typical service fees, even for two checked bags. I was also surprised to see a full array of free snacks offered in three courses. Even the Spirit Magazine was a fun read.

Since I was able to check in online 24 hours before my flight the infamous cattle call boarding process was actually painless, eliminating the normal jockeying for position to board. On a 737 there were more than enough good seats to be had so I got my normal isle seat in a row over the wing. Of course I didn’t know that would happen, so I was slightly anxious.

The only downside that I have seen so far is that the easygoing, friendly staff seem to be part of a culture that attracts easy going friendly fliers. It may be a stretch to call that a downside, but I like peace and quiet and definitely don’t like to be assaulted by others conversation in flight (or anywhere else). I have never been on one flight, let alone two, where people talked so freely and loudly – really loudly. Having only had five hours of sleep last night, I was really hoping for a good nap, but that was not possible with the noise level. Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the Southwest culture. Perhaps the low fares and the Las Vegas destination attracted a distinct clientele. This is certainly true of most any flight on any airline to Orlando from November through April – or later. I am not sure if I prefer an airplane full of overly excited children and checked-out parents, or one full of people taking advantage of a cheap vacation to a city of fantasies.

Aside from the loud conversations, my first Southwest experience has been a good one. Of course I haven’t landed yet, but if this gets posted, it is safe to assume I landed safely. I don’t even know who all contributed to the positive experience, but I know that it was truly a group effort. Even if it means flying out of Dulles, I am sure I will fly Southwest again soon. Mostly it will be because of the airline’s many attributes, but I am also interested to see if passengers talk loudly en route to destinations other than Las Vegas. Just in case, next time I will be sure to pack my noise cancelling headphones.