We’re always looking for tips on how our Customers and Employees live and work Green, so our Green Team was delightfully surprised to receive an e-mail from a Customer who frequents our 737s twice a week. Valued Rapid Rewards Member Jerome read our 2009 Southwest Airlines One Report™, and realized he had a pointer for us to add to next year’s report.
Every time Jerome printed his boarding pass, it would print two pages—the boarding pass on the first page and nothing on the second page. Wait a minute—this sounds like a lot of ink and extra paper. With Green at the forefront of Jerome’s mind, the blank page made its way into the recycling bin on the times when he forgot to tell his printer to only print the first page.
Jerome even did the math for us, which really hits the point home. He flies twice a week, so that’s 104 pieces of paper a year going to waste. Multiply this by the more than 100 million Customers we serve every year, and you get the idea.
Jerome—we heard you, and Green Team Member Terri shared this information with our Central Support Desk. In turn, this Team tested the problem on several different browsers and confirmed that a second blank page was in fact being printed. With the additional help of our Marketing Solutions and southwest.com Teams, the defect has now been corrected.
Our Customer Relations Team got wind of this and responded to Jerome not only thanking him for bringing the issue to our attention but for allowing us to improve one of our processes that impacts our Customers and the environment.
We want to continue to contribute to preserving our natural resources and the environment, so let us know your ideas on living and working Green. DING! You are now free to be Green.
Comments
The next thing Southwest needs to do is allow customers to keep the boarding pass on their smartphone & just scan the screen. Think of all the paper you could save then! Plus, then I wouldn't have to remember to print my boarding pass :-D
I love you guys because of stuff like this. Seriously.
GREAT idea, it sure will save alot of paper and ink!
That is so close. How about a barcode page displayed on my iphone instead of a boarding pass?
Is there any movement to implement paperless boarding passes like the legacy airlines are doing? My last trip was from ABQ-MSP on Delta, and one of the very few advantages of flying on Delta was the fact the they have paperless boarding passes available at both airports (paperless boarding passes being the ones that are sent to your cell phone, with a barcode that the TSA and gate agent scan to verify its authenticity). It worked very well on my phone, was very convenient, and saves on paper.
I would hope that Southwest would get on board to implement this, being the largest domestic carrier in the USA!
I've never flown Southwest but you would think testing the print nature of boarding passes would've been done prior to it going live. I hate getting a 2nd page with just a URL in the header or footer. Glad ya'll got it fixed but you guys should have already been aware and resolved this issue before it was brought to your attention.
Keith Freitag
I called your Customer Service Desk four times in the last six months for flight changes and every time I called I also told them the same thing about the extra sheet of paper. Do you only respond to emails?
It would also help if you switched to only black graphics and save on the color ink on the boarding passes...
If the second page is blank, "this sounds like a lot of ink and extra paper"? Also, you can re-use the second page if it's blank.
Nonetheless, happy you solved this. It's a consistent problem across airlines, except Virgin America, which manages to arrange a single sheet. Now, you guys, too!
Another green idea: does SW use APU's as often as they are available at airports to save fuel and local emissions?
I have a treasure trove of green ideas for you..
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