Out of the mouths of babes...

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Thu, 04/27/2006 - 09:13 — Paul Sacco

The other day my son came home with a project that he had worked on in preschool. It was a report on me, his dad. He got my first name and favorite color right, but guessed a bit low at my age. I suppose 14 seems pretty old to a five year old boy. The part that I found most amusing, though, is that when asked to complete the sentence "When my dad goes to work heÃ¢â‚¬¦", he answered "Ã¢â‚¬¦eats peanuts on airplanes." He must be so proud.

I remember thinking as a kid that my dad, an accountant, sat at a desk, typed up stuff, and shuffled papers all day. This job sounds a lot more fun.

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Comments

Paul. Great story. I'm still trying to figure out how to explain my job to my relatives let alone my little boy.

Its great to see that the blog is up and running. Now everyone can get to know you guys as closely as we have here at Dieste Harmel & Partners. Sometimes its hard to explain to people what a great company Southwest is, but hearing it from the horse's mouth will probably help.

Saludos y un abrazo a todos!

Victor C. — Thu, 04/27/2006 - 14:26

Paul;
A bit off topic but your blog does remind me that peanuts are not a good mix on airplanes. Many children today (my Grandaughter one of them,) would be at serious risk if a seatmate where to open the miniscule little bag containing peanuts. The mere smell alone is enough to send them into shock and immediate treatment with the Epi pen would be required to keep them from death. In the early days of aviation, the cabin crew was recruited from the Nursing profession, and I wonder what level of training is in place today to treat such an emergency.

Doug Robinson — Thu, 04/27/2006 - 14:49

Excellent point, Doug, which is why you should always let the reservations agent know when your
grandaughter is flying so that the flight attendants know not to serve peanuts on that flight. Better
yet, book her on early morning flights when possible. The planes are cleaned each night. Peanut
dust won't have as much of a chance to build throughout the day. Happy travels to you and your
grandaughter!

Beth H — Thu, 04/27/2006 - 16:09

Great Advice Beth! Just one thing to add, you can now notify us of Peanut Dust Allergies when booking online as well.
Under each Passenger name there is a button to "Add/Edit Disability Assistance Options". Click on this button and you will be directed to a page that has several options, including Peanut Dust Allergies, Wheelchair Assistance, etc.

There is also a link for "more information" where we go in to more detail on what Customers need to know prior to traveling, like the advice to travel on early flights and to notify the gate agent at the airport of your allergy as well.

Victor L — Thu, 04/27/2006 - 16:30

It is interesting how kids simplify our explanation about our chosen job or career. There's a hint of truth there... that is, if you take everything literally. Cute, though.

Anyway, glad to have Southwest start a blog like this. It's a great initiative to share with us what is behind the scenes. Perhaps, people will get a better understanding of why things are the way they are. And, in return, maybe Southwest will consider what the readers/passengers are saying (re: improvements, suggestions, etc) on this blog.

Melissa Petri — Thu, 04/27/2006 - 20:08

Granted some people (a VERY SMALL minority, less than 1% if I recall correctly) have an allergy to peanuts. Why should the whole plane be denied peanuts because of 1 person? Why not just forbid peanuts in the rows around that passenger? The air is recirculated often on aircraft. That should clear out the smell of the peanuts.

David Ross — Thu, 04/27/2006 - 20:15

I love airline peanuts!

Mark Lampa — Fri, 04/28/2006 - 01:36

Good read. Love you, dad

Mack Sacco — Fri, 04/28/2006 - 16:11

DAVID, WHEN YOU HAVE A CHILD WHO COULD DIE FROM BEING EXPOSED TO A CERTAIN SUBSTANCE I THINK YOUR VIEWS WOULD CHANGE. WOULD YOU PLAY RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH ONLY A 10 PERCENT CHANCE OF CATCHING A BULLET. DO SOME MORE RESEARCH.

TOM CZARNECKI — Fri, 04/28/2006 - 17:12

I am interested in how Southwest retain their employees. I am writing a research paper on the efficiency and loyalty that Southwest employees produce and express. What are the motivational factors that are used to
retain employees at Southwest. Can someone assist me with these questions?

Thank you

Eric G — Fri, 04/28/2006 - 18:39

Hey Eric,

As a 10 year Employee of Southwest Arilines, the best way that I can personally answer that question is to say that you are born to work for the LUV airline. It is just not a job, it is a way of life. A good place for some additional information would be to go to Southwest.Com and look under the About SWA tab. That has alot of great information.

Robin Sell — Fri, 04/28/2006 - 19:06

Hi Eric!

I am going to agree with Robin here. I've been a Customer Service Agent for SWA for four years now. I, like everyone else that works for SWA, was hired in part, for my personality. This is a fact I like to mention incessantly to my supervisors when my cash drawer is a couple cents over or short! When looking for prospective employees, SWA looks for compassionate, caring people that like to work hard and have FUN. In turn, they treat us like family - which inspires us to treat each other and our customers like family, too.

There are a couple of terrific books on the subject of our unique company culture that explain the concept in depth. You might want to check them out. One of the most informative is called "Nuts!" by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg.

Good luck on your research paper!

Laurie Sisk — Sat, 04/29/2006 - 09:38

Don't forget even if you do alert every possible airline employee about your peanut allergee, there could be a passenger on the flight who brings a gigantic bag onboard and start eating them right beside peanut allergy passenger. I'm interested to know what the flight attendants do in that case? I do feel for you if you have this allergy. Must be a very risky mode of transportation for you.

swa employee — Sat, 04/29/2006 - 13:07

I am a flight attendant for SWA and have been for almost 22 years. The banning of peanuts on flights where a passenger has an allergy is a fairly recent phenomenon. However, it is popping up more frequently. Recently I did have a passenger on board with a peanut allergy and we actually removed all peanuts from the aircraft. As luck would have it, a passenger seated next to the passenger with the allergy opened a bag of peanuts brought from home. I had the passenger with the allergy come stand in the back galley until his reaction subsided. Unfortunately, he did not bring his EPI pen, thinking all would be well. The peanuts were put away, and the passenger returned to his seat without further incident. It is important to understand as a flight crew, we do all we can to stop this from happening, but it is still MOST important to carry those pens just for situations such as this.

Linda Kirby — Sat, 04/29/2006 - 15:52

Peanut allergies are over-rated. What else would explain the rapid increase in the number of people supposedly "deathly" allergic to peanuts? Did peanut allergies magically increase so vastly all by themselves? I don't think so.

The above comment is an example of what happens in real life. You think that you need to ban peanuts from the entire plane or death will surely follow, yet the "deathly allergic" victim managed to survive even without an epi-pen. Hmmm...

Jim — Sun, 04/30/2006 - 22:57

As a Southwest Flight attendant I don't mind telling you that I just as soon serve "Pretzels" than running the risk of one of our passengers having an allergic reaction to peanuts. Most of our passengers have been very understanding when we've had to substitute Pretzles fpr Peanuts, and if you start having withdrawl symptons because you couldn't have your snack of choice, we'll be more than happy to have you take some Peanuts off the plane with you.
Oh, and by the way my grandson tells my daughter "there is Omi" every time he sees a Southwest plane; seems I'm much busier than I knew.

Ruth Berry — Mon, 05/01/2006 - 14:33

I was on a flight where pretzels were served on a flight instead of peanuts. I read the package. Guess what? The pretzels were made in a factory that contained peanuts and the pretzels may have peanut residue.

On most jetliners, if I recall correctly, the circulation is from the side of the aircraft to the center. There's no need to punish all of the passengers in order to protect one. Just make it a peanut-free zone for the set of three seats the pax is in plus the one beind and in front.

Sorry if that sounds cruel but it's the way I feel. I'm tired of a small - very small - minority dictating what the majority should do. This is not just the subject of peanut allergies but everything else where the minority imposes their will on the majority.

David Ross — Mon, 05/01/2006 - 17:39

One day on a Southwest flight my daughter asked me where we're stopping on our way to Tampa,,,I answered "Baltimore"...she
looked up at me and said.."Damn that Wright Amendment".......Of course our flights had nothing to
do with the Wright Amendment , but I couldn't help but break out in laughter.

Keep up that Southwest Spirit!!

Lynne Steer
CSA MHT

Lynne Steer — Tue, 05/02/2006 - 00:16

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