Plane & Simple on Southwest

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!

Flight 1197

PHX - LAS

Oh my goodness! It’s been 3 weeks exactly since I was on a flight! Way too long.

To start, at the airport I over heard this hilarious page:

“Paging so-and-so-with-a-really-complicated-name, please return to gate D5, paging so-and-so-with-a-really-complicated-name, please return to gate D5… don’t make me try to say your name again.”

Classic. haha!

My flight was good - typical flight, not packed, nice flight attendants.

We landed on the runway that goes parallel with the Las Vegas Strip - and lucky me, I was on the side that had a perfect view! So I recorded an awesome video of us landing. I’ll post that later. :)

Farewell ya’ll!

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!

Flight 387 4/15

LAS - PHX

It’s always a nice thing when I show up to the airport with 20 minutes before my flight and end up getting on the flight with time to spare. I’ve been getting lucky with security lately - hardly any lines! Woohoo.

I was able to get a window seat right over the wing. On the flight I actually made the effort to not open my laptop. I just wanted to enjoy the flight and listen to my music - and that’s exactly what I did.

One of my favorite parts about landing in Phoenix is when there’s a plane landing on the parallel runway to where we’re landing. I tried to snap a picture with my cell phone - you can *kinda* see it.

Yeah, barely. It looks like a speck in the distance. haha I swear you can see them clear as day when you’re actually on the plane.

So that was my flight. Nothing terribly exciting or anything.

I will say, there was a cute old lady that was working at the airport that said hello to me and told me that it was going to be 90 degrees here in Phoenix.

Ew, is it summer time already?

Oh no wait, 90 degrees is spring. 120 degrees is summer.

Flight 154 4/12

PHX – LAS

Well my flight adventures (or lack there of) started off around 6 p.m. tonight. As I was hanging around the house, I realized that I had forgotten to watch a movie I rented the day before at Redbox. I was supposed to be leaving my house around 7:20 p.m. to catch my flight – so I figured I’d just have to cut my losses and return the unwatched movie. It was then I decided to check the status of my flight – delayed… and not just delayed a couple minutes, but 50 minutes!

Those 50 minutes gave me ample time to watch my unwatched movie, return it and get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Of course, I was slightly nervous as whenever a flight is delayed, there is no scheduled “departure time”. If the plane shows up 30 minutes early and boards everyone except you, they’re leaving without you. Not that I would’ve minded staying an extra night in Phoenix but it really would’ve been a burden to wake up at 5 a.m. to catch the earliest flight out.

When I got to the airport, the two people ahead of me in line at security apparently had “weird” identification. Makes ya feel REAL safe right? Then TSA agent had to ask some of his colleagues if the identification was allowed. Makes ya feel REAL confident in our TSA agents, right?

So I get to the ticket counter and guess who’s there?! My favorite customer service agent! She joked around that she was worried I wasn’t going to make the flight because I showed up so late. I told her I was checking the website to make sure I wouldn’t miss my flight.

When I boarded the flight, I couldn’t help but recognize one of the flight attendants – she was a flight attendant I had hung out with a couple months ago in Vegas while we were hoping to get out on some full flights.

So my flight… My goodness. Never in my life have I felt a plane drop like that. It was wild. I quickly downed my water in fear of it spilling on my laptop. Luckily it only lasted a couple minutes.

Everything after that was pretty much routine. Landed, unloaded and got picked up by my ride.