I had the pleasure and rare opportunity to fly a three-day trip over Thanksgiving with fellow blogger Carole Adams. Since Carole and I are based in different Southwest cities and our seniority is quite different, along with the fact that Pilots and Flight Attendants rarely spend more than one day together, a full three-day trip is almost unheard of. Carole is the consumate professional. She is always impeccably dressed, has the greatest personality, and is cheerful and fun to be around 24/7. I am fanatical about ontime performance (especially during the Holidays when so many people depend on Southwest to get them to family and friends). Having Carole as one of our Flight Attendants made the boarding process go very smoothly, and she does a wonderful job of getting Customers on and off the plane quickly and efficiently. During the 14 flights we made those three days, we were only tardy once and were as much as 15 minutes early on one flight.
Our Thanksgiving was spent in Tampa (TPA) after getting up very early in Detroit (DTW) and flying five legs. We arrived in Tampa about 4:00PM and drove to our hotel which is situated on a beautiful cove overlooking Tampa Bay. Southwest has an agreement, as part of our contract with the hotels that we utilize that on Holidays, that the hotel will provide Crew Members with a traditional holiday dinner on our arrival. Since the restaurant at this particular hotel has a seafood theme, I was skeptical as to what "traditional" might mean. We were served an outstanding dinner with salad, roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, veggies, cranberry sauce, sage dressing and pumpkin pie (Carole wouldn't share her pie!!). The wonderful meal and the beautiful view of the sun setting over Tampa Bay made it a picture perfect evening. I would have preferred to have been home with my wife, son, and relatives who were gathered at my house, but I was very thankful that I got to spend the day with members of my Southwest Family, as I am sure there were people around the country that couldn't be with any loved ones on this special day. So to Carole, Donna, Linda and Phil thanks for a great time and a fun filled three-day trip.
Comments
What a wonderful story. I hope to have the pleasure of flying with you one day in the future. I am "in the pool" waiting for a class. Hope you have a Merry Christmas and can spend some time with your family.
Nice li'l story.
nice.
I had the pleasure of flying SWA from El Paso to Dallas on Thanksgiving day and home again on Saturday. I know every person working for Southwest would probably have rather been home with family and friends, but they all were extremely gracious and I appreciate their kindness and willingness to allow me to spend Thanksgiving day with my family.
2 questions :
A) What happened to those cute little chocolates that said "Gobble, Gobble" I got last time I flew on Thanksgiving day? They were really cool.
B) How can your planes be full - I mean completely full - when the terminals were so empty? That was a bit of a shock.
And a few comments:
C) Those Nabisco blueberry bar things are awful. Hardly anybody eats them.
D) The "Plane Crackers" are really good.
E) The King brand peanuts are not as good as whatever brand was before them - the lowest bidder isn't always the best choice.
What struck me is how nice it is for the company to have an arrangement for holiday dinners. My husband has a job that requires out of town holiday work as well...but unfortunately with the way of the world these days...providing a holiday dinner for those away from home doesn't seem to be a big deal. (he ate a turkey sandwich from a deli)
What a nice touch - to know, at least, even though you have to work, the company recognizes your sacrifice - and tries to make it just a little better by "setting up" these arrangements.
Jenny
Captain Evans,
Thank you for sharing such a great story! I've said it before and will say it over and over again; one of the distinguishing features of Southwest Airlines is the camaraderie that exists among its Employees. As I've mentioned several times on this blogsite, specifically in my "guest blog" about airline attitudes ( http://www.blogsouthwest.com/2006/09/13/maybe-it%e2%80%99s-all-in-the-at... ) the differences in the way I see SW Employees interact with each other and the way that employees of other, unnamed AAirlines interact with each other are dramatic.
I often notice a distinct "caste society" within the "other" airlines, where pilots don't talk with anyone other than fellow pilots, and that example seems to fit for every job description for the employees that are visible to us passengers. But, your blog entry above is representative of, and indicative of, the respect and sense of togetherness that is shared by Southwest Employees towards each other. The recognition that it is a team effort is never as obvious elsewhere as it is between SWA folks.
Thank you for helping to set and to maintain such a high and professional standard of demonstrating the Golden Rule as it applies to treating people within your own organization! Although I've never met Carole, I'm betting that she would and could write a similar article praising YOU as well.
Safe travels to all of my SWA buddies during this holiday season,
Kim :-)
David, as one of Carole's closest friends, I can tell you that Carole only shares her pie when she has determined that it is no good.
Just yesterday, she actually brought a piece of pie to my house to show me how bad it tasted so that I would not ever make that recipe. But that's Carole, always looking out for others.
Jamie Gaines
I flew over the Thanksgiving holiday with crews that were on their last or next-to-last segments for their respective trips. They treated me and my family with smiles and good service as if they were just starting their trips. The only thing that would have made my flights better is if I ended up flying with Carole again. :)
Well that's the last straw. Southwest, e-mail me. We have an interview to arrange!
Don, I hope you liked your stay in Dtw.
Maybe you will get to fly the first n/s fom here to Mco next month!
Joe
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