Happy to be here

I recently flew for a quick trip to Louisville and used Southwest to do so. It has been a while since I have flown on Southwest and I had forgotten what a nice experience it is. I do my fair share of travel and often fly Delta or Northwest. They seem to serve the geography I travel to the most. I have had my share of frustrations with all the airlines because of canceled flights or late arrivals and departures. But what makes Southwest different in the experience is their people. They all really seem to enjoy their jobs and that rubs off on the passengers. I had to laugh at a bet made between the guy sitting next to me and the stewardess on whether the flight would be full or not. He won and she paid off with a free adult beverage.

JetBlue is similar to Southwest. I have flown them once and if they were in my market I would use them more often....plus they have a TV w/36 channels on every seat! Their people are happy to be there as well and when you have that experience you think you never want to go back to dealing with a regular airline. These organizations understand that it's all about making the customer experience great. We all pay decent money to get from point A to B so we at least want to feel like we are valuable. I think that's what these airlines provide. People who see value in us as their customers. We are still like cattle moving through a system but at least they make our experience a bit better.

Now for all who will email their Southwest horror stories to me....save it. I know they are not perfect but based on my observations and experience they seem to do pretty well. A little more "happy to be here" would go a long way for all of them.