Plane & Simple on Southwest

Flight 391, 1029, 164

PHX - RNO

Let me just start off by saying that I am *so* not a morning person. Waking up before noon was quite the struggle but I did it! My flight was great. There was this adorable baby sitting in front of me. She was less than a year old and was completely enamored when I’d pop my head over the seat to play peek-a-boo with her.

The rest of the flight I spent reading the new Spirit Magazine. There was a very inspirational story about a Deaf doctor. If you find yourself flying on Southwest this month, I highly recommend you check the article out.

RNO - LAS

There was quite the rush to get to the airport… but my mom and I made it just in time. One of our friends had a care package for us at the gate with a couple of drink coupons.

Unfortunately, the flight attendant on the flight cut me off after two alcoholic drinks. Let me just say two things - first is that this had never happened to me before; and second, in no way/shape/form was I drunk/buzzed/belligerent/etc. (I’m no tiny person - and if you’ve ever been drinking with someone who is overweight, you know that two drinks is only the tip of the iceberg.) She told me that (and I quote), “only serves one drink per hour - but because I was with my mom, she let me have two.” Gee, thanks for letting me get overheated and sweaty instead of catching a buzz. If I had known this would be the case, I wouldn’t have even had a drink. :/

LAS - PHX

I ended up getting over the fact that I didn’t catch a little buzz because I knew I would be driving home after my flight. The flight itself was good - couple bumps here and there and an excellent landing if I do say so myself.

With my three check-ins today, I racked up $3 for Southwest Airlines donation to Make-A-Wish. Don’t forget to check-in on Facebook Places every time you’re at the airport!

Flight 2550, 1274 & 1368

PHX - RNO

I got to the airport super early today. I miscalculated when I should’ve left my house but it ended up being just fine. Being early is better than being late! I ended up running into my flight attendant friend and her husband at the airport. My flight to Reno was delayed a half hour. The flight itself was bumpy! Then again, most flights to Reno are bumpy. The landing, however, was perfect.

RNO - LAS

My sister and I flew to Vegas together. I had a couple of drink coupons and took advantage of those. My sister fell asleep on my shoulder during the flight. It was cute.

LAS - PHX

I was super tired when I got on the plane so I decided to rest my head against the window… I was asleep within minutes after the plane left the ground. I woke up right before we started our decent into Phoenix. The flight attendant gave me a Diet Coke as they were packing up the plane. That was super nice of her.

So my day trip is over. I’m happy I had that nap on my last flight… otherwise I’d be too tired to even post this blog!

Randall Walker, the man that runs the Las Vegas Airport (LAS), needs to get his head checked.

I know, it’s a pretty strong statement. But I had to say it. And now I’ll tell you why I (and many others) feel this way.

If you have traveled to the Las Vegas airport recently, you may have noticed that half of the C-Gates (where Southwest Airlines operates out of) are not being used. These gates are out of commission because they are redoing the tarmac in front of them; and because of this, Southwest Airlines is operating their flights out of the remaining C-Gates as well as most of the B-Gates.

The journey between the C and the B-Gates is not a short one. If you look at a map of the airport, you can see the distance between them. It takes me, an average person, around 15-20 minutes to make it from the far side of the C-Gates to the B-Gates. I can only imagine how long it takes for an elderly person to make that trip.

What you may not know is there is not much available in terms of easy transportation between the gates. If you are walking from the C-Gates to the B-Gates, parts of this walk are uphill. There are two short moving sidewalks (maybe 100 feet each?) right before the B-Gates, but that is it. There is no tram, shuttle, cart, etc. available to passengers to travel between these gates. There is a reason for this:

Southwest Airlines offered to purchase and run a shuttle between the C and B-Gates for their passengers. They presented this to the man that runs the airport, Randall Walker, and he denied their request. There would be no cost to the airport, none whatsoever; and yet he still denied it.

According to the Las Vegas McCarran International Website, their mission is, “To provide excellence in customer service and airport facilities.” I don’t see how they are providing excellent customer service and excellent airport facilities by denying transportation to passengers that are traveling a long distance between gates.

What’s it going to take for Randall Walker to change his mind and allow Southwest to run a shuttle between the gates that they operate? Someone passing out? Someone being injured? What about someone dying? It’s only a matter of time before something tragic happens.

So come on Randy, get your head straight and do what’s right for your airport!

Flight 3247

SEA - LAS

Well the flight today was great. It started off not-so lovely because I ended up having to take the aisle seat on the last row (and for those of you that don’t know, the last row has the smallest seats). But it ended up being okay. The lovely lady next to me told me I could put up the arm rest so that I could have more space. Our flight went out completely full - despite there being 30+ empty seats listed online.

During the flight I ended up using an entire book of old school drink coupons - which ended up being three drinks. Rum and diet coke - mmm, mmm, mmm! Now, normally I don’t drink but my old drink coupons will no longer be accepted after the end of the month. Needless to say, my flight went pretty fast!

The flight attendants were great. Two of them have been with SWA for 14+ years! The one guy recognized me by my tattoo. It’s funny when flight attendants recognize me - I usually recognize them, but I figure they see hundreds of people a day so I usually don’t say anything. I guess my tattoo is my trademark!

My mom picked me up from the airport and we went out to dinner. I miss Las Vegas!

Jackpot!

Today, a guy on a layover in the Las Vegas McCarran Intl Airport won $300,000 on a slot machine!

Needless to say, I think I’ll put a quarter in next time I’m there!

Flight 738

LAS – PHX

Before I get into my flight tonight, I’d like to tell you about what happened at lunch today!

My mom, sister and myself went out to eat at my all time favorite salad place (like omg-totally-could-not-live-without), Sweet Tomatoes. If you knew how much salad I can eat there, you’d encourage me to enter a competition. Anyways. I was wearing my new shirt I made. This lady came up to our table to ask if I worked for Southwest Airlines – I told her I didn’t but I blog about them and that my mom did. So this lady tells us that she’s searching for some guy she used to date that works for SWA. Instantly, I’m thinking, “Oh man, can you imagine me posting her name and his name on here… we’d have a worldwide search for some random dude!” I asked her if she’d like me to post something about it on my blog and after thinking about it for a minute, she declined. Bummer dude. I still gave her my blog card in case she changes her mind anytime in the future. :)

So back to my flight!

It was delayed. But the website didn’t post a delay until I got to the airport – which left me to surf the internet and blog at the airport… no complaining about that! There were terrible thunderstorms in Chicago, which caused the delay. I grabbed a diet coke at one of the fast food places and plopped myself down at a table with my laptop and headphones in hand.

The flight itself was interesting – As we were pulling out of the gate three fire trucks and an emergency vehicle pulled up behind another aircraft exiting their gate. I’m going to guess there was some medical emergency onboard.

Our pilot was very descriptive which was pretty cool – it wasn’t just “Hey, we’re landing”, it was “We’re currently headed over such-and-such highway and should be in Phoenix in X minutes.”

The flight attendants were very friendly as well. In fact at the end of the flight I asked one of them, Valerie, to take a picture for me – which she did, and then we took a picture together!

Southwest flight attendants rock! Aw heck, Southwest rocks in general!

Southwest Airlines Spirit Party 5/12/2010

Well, to say the least, the Southwest Airlines Spirit Party was amazing.

I met up with quite a few of my @SouthwestAir Twitter friends - who also introduced me to a bunch of their friends! Needless to say with around 10,000 people, I’m very close to losing my voice from talking so much.

Some of the awesome tweeters I met up with tonight were @curbcrusher, @bridavi, @isaiahfromtexas, @flyaarmy, @wn737_flygirl, @mallorymessina, @flyingphotog, @ellweezie, @josiahbeam, @samdiditagain, @scottas66, @calidreaminp, @binhog737, @737peanutserver and so many more! If I left you out, I apologize! Send me a message on my Twitter and I’ll add ya to the list!

I gave out all 120+ blog cards that I made and cut out by hand… I hope the people I gave them to start reading my blog! :)

If you have any photos you took at the Spirit Party and would like to see them on my blog, email me at: planensimpleswa at gmail dot com or get in contact with me via Twitter @planensimpleSWA :) You can also become a fan of Plane & Simple on Facebook!

Here are the photos I took tonight!

I was so excited to get my wrist band. haha Nerd. :)

My mom & myself with my hand painted tees! :)

All of the Twitter peeps!

Costume contest!

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly!

If you saw this couple dancing you would also be giving a thumbs down. LOL

Thank you, Southwest Airlines, for putting on such a rockin’ party!

Flight 3849

LAS - PHX

Well it just dawned on me that this could’ve been possibly my last flight to Phoenix as a visitor… because I’ll be moving here in less than two weeks. Crazy.

Anyways. I got to the airport early tonight because my sister had a birthday party to attend to. As I was going through security I noticed that one of the bag screeners was down - so I asked the TSA agent what happened. Apparently, someone brought a cooler through security that had a bag of ice that had melted - and that water spilled all over the inside of the bag screener. haha! It made me chuckle just a bit - you can’t bring through bottles of water but no one said coolers full of water!

After security I got my boarding pass and found out that one of my friends was working at the gates so I went to visit her. My flight was delayed 15 minutes so I had some extra time to chill. It was 7:05 and my delayed flight was scheduled to leave at 7:20… so she checked her computer and told me that the plane had already boarded. GREAT.

So I hustled my bum over to my gate and got on the plane!

There was a pretty sunset as we were in air so I enjoyed that. Everything else about the flight was pretty normal. Overall it was a good flight!

Flight 600

LAS – PHX

I’m just going to come out and say it…

I’m awesome.

You might be asking yourself, “Why is she awesome?” Well, I’ll tell you why.

Tonight I attended a banquet hosted by the college I attend. My friend and I decided to carpool to the place because she was going to give me a ride to the airport afterwards. So the banquet happens, it’s nice, good food, etc. We decided to leave the place around 7:45. Now keep in mind, the place where the banquet is being held is about 10-15 minutes further from the airport than my house.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30pm. That’s 45 minutes to get to my house and then to the airport. So we haul butt and get to my house around 8:00pm. I drop off my stuff from the banquet, change clothes in the parking lot (classy, I know) and hop back in the truck. Now it’s 25 minutes till my flight leaves.

My friend asked me if I was going to make the flight and I told her I wasn’t sure… I wasn’t too worried though because there was another flight later tonight going to Phoenix. I told her I just loved the rush of and challenge of seeing if I could get to the plane on time. She told me I was “sick and twisted”. haha

By the time we got to the airport, it was 8:17… thirteen minutes till my flight left. I jumped out of her truck and went to grab my stuff out of the truck bed. As I was leaning over to grab my suitcase, she began to pull away – totally forgetting that I had bags in the back. I pounded on her back window and she screeched to a stop. I was laughing hysterically at the situation and when she rolled down her window I could hear her laughing hysterically too. I love that girl. Anyway. I grabbed my suitcase and backpack and was on my way.

I ran to the nearest kiosk to print out my security document, and then rushed up to security. There were a couple people in line ahead of me but luckily no one took too long to get their stuff through security.

Now usually when I’m leaving Vegas I fly out of the C gates. Not tonight. Tonight, I left out of the B gates – which, to those of you who have never been to the Vegas airport, basically means a lot more walking. So I grab my stuff off the security belt, throw what I can in my pockets and go. Now keep in mind, I didn’t have time to throw my belt buckle on, so in one hand I’m pulling my suitcase and in the other I’m holding my pants up! I hope at least one person in the security checkpoint area was humored. I imagine I looked pretty pathetic. 

When I finally got up to the gate I was out of breath and sweating. Luckily, they hadn’t closed the door so I was able to get on the plane.

Want to know what time it was when I got on the plane? 8:27. Three minutes to spare.

That’s what I call PRO STATUS!

My friend said that I should have a reality show where cameras follow me around on all my traveling adventures – there’s rarely a dull moment! I think that’d be a hilarious show.

Oh, and my flight was relatively average. Although I did find a trashy magazine in my seat back! And the chick sitting behind me kept kicking my chair. That’s about it.

Flight 154 4/26

PHX - LAS

My flight tonight was pretty regular until I opened the SkyMall magazine - some previous passenger decided to decorate some of the pictures!

Needless to say, I was quite entertained for the rest of the flight. haha :)

Flight 829 4/22

LAS - PHX

You know what the first part of this post is going to be about… TSA. Oh yes, the wonderful, TSA. Whoever decides how many security lanes should be open should be fired. As I got in line, there were about 50 people ahead of me going to the C gates… with ONE person checking IDs and ONE lane for bags and ONE metal detector open. Now directly across from the C gates line is the D gates line - where at least 10 lanes for bags were open and at least 5 metal detectors open… and you want to know how many people were in line for the D gates?

NONE.

Anyone that was going through the D gates had their IDs immedietly checked and they flew through security.

How is this right? Who allows this nonsense to happen!? It took me 20 minutes to get through security. Absolutely absurd.

Oh wait, is this sign supposed to make me less frustrated?

WELL IT DOESN’T!!!

Anyways. When I got to the gate, I found out that the earlier flight to Phoenix was delayed so everyone from the earlier flight was trying to get on my flight. Never a fun experience - because there’s always a risk I won’t get on the plane. Luckily, I got on the plane. Unfortunately since it was a full flight, I had to take a middle seat. I ended up striking up a conversation with this nice lady, Beth, that was sitting next to me. She and I ended up chatting the entire flight. She told me the most hilarious TSA story I’ve ever heard:

She was going through security checkpoint in small airport in Washington when TSA said they needed to check her bag. When they went through her bag, they pulled out a banana. Yes, a banana - the fruit. They then proceeded to run the banana (all by itself) through the metal detector.

I hope you’re laughing just as hard as I was - I never thought a banana could be a threat to security! What was she going to do? Put a banana peel in the aisle way for people to slip on?

Flight 154 4/19

PHX - LAS

I got to the airport unusually early tonight. I didn’t know what to do with myself! I ended up just chillin’ in the gate area and listening to my iPod.

My flight was pretty empty - I got boarding pass A 43. The flight had some great flight attendants.

I spent my time at 28,000 ft not on my laptop. I was writing down ideas for what I want to do with Plane & Simple. If you have any recommendations on what you’d like to see, feel free to submit them!