Blog Alumni

blusk
Author Since 2006

Brian Lusk

Of all our bloggers, I am probably the oldest, but I don’t feel my age. I was born in 1952, just a couple of blocks from the Santa Fe Railway’s main transcontinental line in Clovis, New Mexico to an airline father, so transportation (planes and trains) got in my blood at an early age. As a child, my fondest memories are spending days at work with my dad on the ramp in Amarillo, Texas and on the old observation deck at Dallas Love Field. After graduating from Southern Methodist University in Dallas as a journalism major, I got my first airline job with Delta in 1976. During my time at Delta, I worked at Dallas/Fort Worth (during three separate occasions), Detroit, Oakland, Atlanta (at the old terminal), Portland, Oregon, Paris Orly, and Dayton, Ohio. My 18½ years with Delta were split between ramp/operations and ticket counter/gates. I joined Southwest (thankfully!) in 1995, as a Reservations Sales Agent, but then I moved to the communications group in the Executive Office, where. I corresponded with our Customers on a wide variety of topics, but I also got to work on different projects like this blog. About five years ago I moved into the Communication & Strategic Outreach Department and worked primarily in our social media area. Then in 2011, I got my dream job as Southwest's Corporate Historian. I enjoy sharing and preserving Southwest's past with our Employees and the public at large.

Fun Facts

Languages

English and Blog

Hobbies

Aviation and Railroading

Pets

My basset, Annabelle

High School

El Segundo High School, El Segundo, Ca and WT White in Dallas

College

Southern Methodist

Favorite Sports Teams

Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, Dallas Mavs, SMU, Cowboys

Favorite Travel Destinations

Scotland

Your Favorite Southwest Story

The current week's Flashback Fridays

Recent Activity:

Recent Activity Posts

Executive Punking

Jul 15 2008
Our tributes to Colleen continue with a slightly different approach.    In other posts this week, you have read a lot about how Colleen Barrett is a wonderful Leader and a giving person, and this is all true.  In regard to her amazing “business talents,” I think the most impressive is her intuition.  I’ve never seen a person with her ability to forecast the way an issue will play out. ... read more

Answer to the Colleen Flower Power Poll

Jul 21 2008
Here is the correct answer for last week's poll. Like most who grew up during the turbulent 1960s, portions of the “flower power” movement rubbed off on Colleen and the rest of us.  The music lives on today; the clothes get recycled every few years in the latest “retro” moment, and if you look at most Hollywood films (whether it’s The Graduate, Airport, Bullitt, Help, and many others) that were... read more

Flying Southwest to Blogworld

Nov 09 2007
A lot of us on the Blog Team are here in Las Vegas to attend BlogWorld.  We have our own booth, and we have had a steady stream of folks stopping by to chat.  Many of them flew Southwest to the expo, and they experienced our new boarding procedures yesterday.  The  doors are about to open and we will be asking our visitors their thoughts about their trips, and if you have flown with the new... read more

The Easter Bunny?

Mar 20 2008
We’ve had this video for awhile, but I was saving it for Easter time because it concerns a very special bunny. Elden Allen in our Cargo Department shot the video a while back in Phoenix, where he met Harvey and Suzanne Brian–and their 25-year-old stuffed bunny, Harvey Jr. The Brians take Harvey along on all of their trips, and they have been flying with us almost every week for over 12 years.... read more

Holiday Travel Tips - The Video

Dec 19 2007
(If you need a captioned version of this video, please click here.) In addition to Ming’s post below, we have this video starring some Southwest Airlines Employees (with fellow blogger Bob Hurst behind the camera) to help you with your packing. Clayton and Michelle are the Flight Attendants in the video, but my office neighbor, Katie Coldwell, plays the somewhat confused but soon to be... read more

Thoughts on Independence Day by the Blog Team

Jul 03 2008
Once again this year, we want to share the Independence Day plans of our Blog Team.  As you can see, they will be attending a wide variety of events, and my guess is that this pretty well tracks those of you reading the blog. Paula Berg, our Blog Girl tells us:  “I'll be covering our dog's ears to protect him from the sound of fireworks!” Christi Day, our Video Blog Star will be enjoying the... read more

Write Your Own Caption Is Back--Kind of

Jun 13 2008
One of our favorite posts in the past has been our Write Your Own Caption series.  With this post, we want to do something similar but a bit different.  This wonderfully evocative photo was graciously sent to us by Alicia Shaffer.   The photo of her son, Campbell, was taken by his father, Demetrious.  Given the subject, please share with us your favorite travel story from when you were a child... read more

Band-aids come in handy

Jun 10 2008
Robert Mark, who writes the Jetwhine.com blog, has been a longtime reader and supporter of Nuts About Southwest.  Both blogs have links to the other on our blog rolls, and his blog gives a unique perspective of General Aviation. Recently Robert flew Southwest Airlines from Dallas to Chicago, and if you will click here, you will see that the circumstances were far from ordinary.  Still, as... read more

Dilbert Flys Southwest

Jun 04 2008
Well to be completely accurate, it is his creator, Scott Adams, who flys Southwest Airlines--and he even blogs about it.  Not only that, if you click here, you can decide if Scott actually flew with a major motion picture star.   Prior to this flight, Scott encountered another celebrity on an earlier flight.  (Beware, in the first link there is one word--just one--that, while it is far from... read more

Blog Boy, David Letterman, and the Big Apple

May 30 2008
  In the interest of total disclosure, I have been a David Letterman fan since the early 1980s when his show used to be on NBC after Carson.  At the time, I worked the late shift, and on the West Coast, his show came on at 12:30 a.m.  Dave and his off-the-wall humor were a great way to unwind from a “hard night’s day.” My loyalty remained when he moved to CBS in 1993, and even though his... read more