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

On the Road in NYC

Oct 16 2007
That's right; Paula Berg and I are in the Big Apple today for PR News's award lunch. Your blog is nominated for a Platinum Award. We will report the results later. read more

We won!

Oct 16 2007
Actually you won. We're here at the luncheon, and PR News just named us Best Blog. Congratulations to our Blog Team and all of you. Brian and Paula read more

New Gate Areas

Oct 11 2007
Yesterday  (October 10), we unveiled our gate design at Dallas Love Field.  To read about the details, click here.   For our interactive page at southwest.com that shows all of the new gate areas' features click here.  Below are some photos showing the new family areas, the seats with power units, the charging stations, and the new boarding columns.          read more

Walking With Roy

Oct 02 2007
Roy Spence is one of the Founders of our advertising agency, Idea City.  The agency was formerly known as GSD&M, and Roy is the "S."  Anyway, he has started off on a quest to walk across America (Walk Roy, Walk), and he will be doing this over the next several years in blocks of 25 or so days.  He is currently in New England, and he is blogging on the road.  Click here to follow along. read more

DING! Wins an Award

Sep 26 2007
We just found out today that our slogan for DING! was selected as one of the two best advertising slogans for 2007 by Advertising Week.  Click here to see the news, and congratulations to the great folks at GSD&M, our advertising agency. read more

Fun With Translations

Sep 28 2007
 Okay, I will admit that this wasn't my original idea.  While in carpool on the way to work, Gordon Keith on The Ticket, a Dallas sports radio station, was talking about how he ran some pages of the station's web site through an online translation device.  He first translated a page into a foreign language, then took that translation and translated it back to English.  The results were hilarious... read more

September 11th

Sep 11 2007
Susie's post below is especially appropriate for this date because none of us knows what tomorrow will bring.  Last year we did a series of video posts for September 11th and clicking on the name will take you to those posts about how Southwest Airlines faced this horrible day:    "Taking Care of Friends," "The Southwest Touch," "The First Flight," "An Unexpected Diversion," and "A Company of... read more

A Different Perspective

Sep 07 2007
A lot of you are familiar with the Southwest Airlines Customer who was asked to cover up her outfit, and there has been a lot of attention devoted to this subject.  In fact, the Customer was on the Today Show this morning.  You might be interested in the perspective of one of the show's producers, Dan Fleschner. Thanks for your comments. We are closing the comment section. Please see Colleen's... read more

Luke, I Am Your Father

Aug 30 2007
This is kind of a preview of tomorrow's post, but click here to see how Southwest Airlines assisted the transport of Luke Skywalker's lightsaber to NASA in Houston. read more

Hospital blog

Aug 20 2007
This is a first--a blog post written from a hospital bed. Seems that somewhere along the way, I picked up some blood clots in my leg and lungs. So here I sit poked, prodded, and tested morning, afternoon, and night until my blood gets thinned to the proper vampirian consistency. In the meantime, I've been reading e-mails from my friends at work. Thankfully, I can remain connected via crackberry.... read more