Southwest Airlines: Not Just Great Customer Service

If, a year ago, you had asked me what I thought of Southwest Airlines, I would have told you I did my darndest not to fly them. Checking in took forever with the crowds (a testament to their low prices), they herded us onto the plane helter skelter (some of us like order and seat assignments) and all that fluff about their flight attendants being humorous? Didn’t see it.

But my answer has now changed, I am happy to say. I flew Southwest to BlogWorld 08, thanks to Epson, and here are the highlights of my trip.

• Checking in curbside in both Orlando and Las Vegas was effortless. It took all of 5 minutes each time.
• Each flight leg arrived early, by 15-20 minutes (perhaps this is built into their strategy? Plan to take longer so customers will be pleasantly surprised when you’re “early”?)
• While there was no hula hooping, the flight attendants were very friendly, as if they actually liked their jobs. There were a few bits of humor thrown in that made the trip enjoyable. Oh, and check out Wendy Piersall’s flight. Her experience was a leetle bit different from mine…in a good way I think!
• Even though they didn’t offer a meal for my 5.5 hour flight (a bone I pick with all airlines) their snacks were more than just the old standby, peanuts (although why you thought peanuts would be cute to pass out at BlogWorld I will never know).

So now moving on to the fact that Southwest was a sponsor of BlogWorld. I’m always keen on large corporations sponsoring blog events. It shows that they understand that bloggers have a place in spreading the word about a given brand. I spoke to Brian Lusk at the booth, and he told me they have a blog written by people throughout the company. And indeed they do. Here’s a hilarious video from the winner of Southwest’s Ultimate Blog-O-Spondent Contest.

I’m happy to give two thumbs up to Southwest. Not only have you cornered the customer service market, you also are ahead of the flock in recognizing bloggers as a means to spread your message. Just like I did here!