Plane & Simple on Southwest

Flight 672, 1112 2/3-2/5

PHX – DAL

For those of you wondering, my laptop hasn’t exploded yet. Woohoo!

On my flight to Dallas, I noticed that another intern was sitting in the gate area. He saw me and we ended up chatting. I got on the plane before him and saved a seat. We ended up chatting the entire flight about geeky aviation stuff. I learned quite a bit since he has his commercial pilot’s license! Also funny to note, was a flight attendant recognized me from my flight the week before.

When our flight landed, some lady in the back of the plane yelled, “Are we there yet!? I need a cigarette!” I didn’t think much of it until it was time to get off the plane. Three officers were waiting in the front by the galley, while four ops agents stood in the jet bridge. Holy moly, they must’ve been there for her. I didn’t stick around to see what ended up happening… all I know is that she probably didn’t get that cigarette.

DAL – PHX

When I got on the plane, I put my stuff down and headed towards the back to get a can of water… on the way back, someone had left their delicious unopened snack pack on the seat, so I snagged it. Then! When I got back there, the flight attendant handed me a bottle of water that she had just grabbed that hadn’t been opened. Double score!

The first leg of the flight, the pilots didn’t give us an update of the score of the game. So when we landed in El Paso, I asked the flight attendant if she could ask the pilots if we could get an update.

After everyone had boarded, she came over the overhead intercom and said, “We know that one third of you don’t care about the Superbowl. We know that one third of you want to know the score. And we know that one third of you are taping it and don’t want to know the score. SO! If you do not want to know the score, please ring your flight attendant call button and we will not announce game updates.”

I popped my head up and glared around at everyone – my thought process was, if you didn’t want to hear the game updates, cover your ears! Luckily, no one rang the button – so the pilots updated us with the score about every 20 or so minutes.

I ended up catching about 5 minutes of the game before the shuttle showed up to take me to my car – and then when I was about to get off the shuttle, I overheard on the radio, “Giants win!” Everyone on the shuttle began clapping - Yay for the underdogs!

Flight 672, 1536, 1568

DAL - ELP 1/20

I was so excited to fly home and see my hubs this weekend - It had been 9 days since I left Phoenix and temporarily moved to Dallas. The flight in was great - although I did learn that I prefer a stop where I have to change planes so that I can get up and walk around. On this flight, there was no plane change and I began to felt claustrophobic/antsy towards the end of the flight. 

I sat next to a super nice guy who also works at HDQ. We chatted back and fourth about aviation and the company. 

ELP - PHX

There were so few people on this flight that we all got our own rows. The guy that was sitting next to me ended up moving to the row across from me and laid down on the seats like it was a bed. I gotta learn to do that… Especially since these flights home every weekend will be 4 hours! I was so happy to have landed in Phoenix that I started crying when I saw my guy’s car pulling up. I hope we never have to go that long again without seeing each other!

PHX - ABQ 1/22

After getting in to Phoenix at 11pm on Friday, I was awake at 5am Sunday morning to catch the first flight out. The guy that was on my flight out on Friday ended up being on my flights home this morning! Needless to say, at 5am, I felt like a zombie… and quite frankly, as soon as I got on the plane to ABQ, I passed out. I woke up when we began our bumpy descent.

ABQ - DAL

We had an hour layover in ABQ, which wasn’t all that bad because I was able to walk around a bit. When we got on the plane, I was pretty surprised to see that the only available aisle was the last row of the aircraft. I do remember it being super bumpy on takeoff and super bumpy on the landing. It’s a good thing I got out of Phoenix early today, because I’ve heard there have been some delays all throughout Texas.

Hope you guys had a great weekend! 

Flight 251, 2391

PHX - LAS 1/10

I did a quick roundtrip flight yesterday. I had a couple doctor’s appointments so I was only in Vegas for a few hours. The flight was nice… although the lading sitting next to me… ugh… I’ll explain…. I was the first to sit down, she came and sat on the aisle seat… no big deal. Then she decided that the middle seat, middle seat back cover and the space under the middle seat was all her space to take. She put her bags under the middle seat, put her drink and book in the middle seat back cover and then put her purse and jacket on the middle seat. Like, seriously? The middle seat, if empty, should be equally shared space between the window and aisle seat passengers. 

Oh well. It was nice to fly! I hadn’t been on a plane in almost a month! 

LAS - PHX

Another good flight home. I was so exhausted from only getting a few hours of sleep, I ended up falling asleep on the plane - which if you know me, is very rare. I woke up right before we landed and was able to catch a great view of the city before the sun set. 

Happy New Year!

I have some very very VERY exciting news to publicly announce. 

As you all know, I’m a huge fan of Southwest Airlines. And I am beyond elated to announce that I was offered (and accepted!) an internship position with them this spring!

Happy New Year to you! And ME!

A recap, flights and more…

I feel like I’m apologizing a lot lately for not posting… but again, here’s another apology. I have had SO much going on in my life as of late that I’m finding my spare time limited. 

I’ll give you a quick recap of the past month: 

• Wedding (11/11)
• Honeymoon (11/12-11/20)
• Interviews (11/10, 12/10)
• Surgery (12/8)

As for flights, I flew roundtrip to Dallas on November 10th. LAS - HOU - DAL - ELP - LAS. Then on December 10th I flew PHX - ELP - DAL - ELP - PHX… both flights were for interviews with you know who… :)  

PHX - LAS 12/6

This flight was pretty monumental for me. It was my first flight without my standard benefits - but of course, went off without a hitch. I got a window seat and shared the row with a very nice lady. 

LAS - PHX 12/13

I had my surgery in Las Vegas and was scheduled to come home on 12/15 - however, I was able to have my “week follow up” appointment two days early and the doctors gave me the approval to come home! Needless to say, as soon as I got the approval, I booked my flight.

There was a grand total of 15 people on my flight… I sat near the back of the plane so I had no one sitting around me. I spent the flight singing along to Drake’s new album, Take Care. Don’t worry… I made sure I wasn’t singing too loud. :) 

The flight itself was nice - I don’t think we climbed any higher than 20,000ft - but then again, I’m not totally sure. We flew below the cloud line and got some good bumps on the way into Phoenix. 

As I’m getting off the plane, I noticed the guy in front of me had a giant bag tag that read, “I <3 Airport Security”. Funny thing is, I noticed the bag tag before I noticed the GIANT rubber chicken hanging from the side of his bag. I wish I would’ve taken a picture of it… totally classy. 

Jamaica!

Hey guys! I apologize for not posting in over two weeks! I was in Jamaica!

It was my first time out of the country and it was beautiful. 

Our vacation was wonderful - not to mention I got to fly on a 737-800/900 for the first time!

Happy Birthday to… ME!

It is with great joy, nostalgia, and some sadness that I write this post…

Today (11/8) is my birthday. (Woop!)

But because it is my birthday, I lose my flight benefits. 

Fear not! Plane & Simple will continue to be a travel/aviation blog - just with less posts about the flights I take and more posts of photos and travel tips. 

In advance, I’d like to thank you all for the birthday wishes and continued support of Plane & Simple!

Flight 2189, 641

PHX - LAS 10/16

I caught a night flight to Vegas this time around. About one minute into flight, a gal a few rows ahead of me rang her flight attendant call button. Two flight attendants came running up to her - as I see them touching the lights above her head. Come to find out, someone had put a full thermos in the overhead compartment and it somehow opened up, leaking all of the water inside… and in turn, raining on the girls beneath it. A part of me had to laugh… and then the other part of me felt a little bad for them. They decided not to move so I’m assuming the raining effect stopped at some point.

LAS - PHX 10/17

My flight home was delayed so I got to spend some extra time with my sister. The flight itself was a little turbulent but nothing too terribly exciting. I was able to work on some homework so I didn’t have to worry about getting that done at home. When we arrived, my favorite customer service agent was working at the gate so I stopped and chatted with her for a bit. 

Next flight will be in two days. Whew. I’m going nonstop this month!