My Southwest Experience.

I had wanted to fly SouthWest Airlines at least once before I left the US. The reason had more to do with their famous philosophy of putting Employees first & customers second, which I too greatly believe in. A happy employee community would naturally in turn take care of your customers. I had also read unconfirmed reports that they actually disallowed a customer from flying once for treating their employee shabbily.

The difference in experience started from the check-in itself when they asked everyone to stand in a queue based on the numbers on their boarding passes. I couldn't make out anything from that except that it regulated the crowd a bit and allowed them to segregate passengers which helped in giving instructions. You have to note here that SW doesn't have seat numbers assigned to individual passengers. You can sit wherever you want (As long as no one else is seated there of course !)

The drama then started when they started making fun of other airlines by actually asking on the PA system to keep credit cards ready as they serve peanutes (SW doesn't charge for snacks or check in baggages). The whole announcement of safety precautions was done in a very interesting fashion and not the usual dull manner which might have bored out the frequent business travellers. A lot of the Airlines seem to have adopted this practice of late, I have come across quite of few recently.

The cabin crew was very jovial and it reflected their genuine interest in the job. Mid way across the flight, to everyone's surprise, the crew got along together to organise games ! The first game started with asking people to jot down the names of American states that have the same first alphabet for the state & state capital. (like Indiana, Indianpolis). That was fun , the guy next to me got all of them right.

The next game was of course gambling, considering the flight was headed Vegas. All of them taking part had to put a dollar with their seat # into a bag and pass it onto the crew. They would then pick a lucky passenger and he gets the entire loot. One guy from my team made it this time.

And then the best of it, for the ladies. All ladies were asked to take out their lipsticks & give their best smooches ! Naah, not to their co-passengers as I was expecting ( I had a great looking lady near me),but to the napkin passed along with the peanuts. The crew collected the napkins and then, the pilot judged the 'best lips in the plane'.

The way the crew kept occupied everyone made sure the 4 hour long flight looked like a 30 min one. It makes so much difference in productivity when employees have fun on the job. Ah forgot to mention the final trick they played when we landed in Las Vegas - ' Hello everyone, the temperature outside is 42 degrees with slight rain, Thank you for flying with SouthWest , we wish you a great stay in Bahamas :) '