Flew SWA yesterday----some observations

[i like stitch]

Returned yesterday from WDW. While we had no problems getting boarding passes or major problems with the flights (the flight out was ~30 minutes late), I noticed some things different from the times I've flown SWA during the past year.

The plane interior was dirty, particularly on the flight out of Orlando. Trash (empty food packaging, cookies and crackers) was on the floor, the bathrooms hadn't been cleaned (I was the 2nd passenger to use it), the overhead bin on one side was separating from the wall in the front of the plane (very obvious), and overall the plane seemed quite dingy.

I also missed the humor from the flight attendants. My previous flights had the humor and while these FAs weren't grumpy, they didn't seem particularly happy like I'd experienced before. Maybe it was the dirty plane....

The preboard lines were long and I was surprised they allowed a rather large group to preboard together. This was an extended family going on a family reunion. The children were clearly older than 6 but were allowed to preboard with other adults and a baby. The family then fanned out to save seats for the other relatives who I think had B or C passes. Perhaps the children were preboarding because of some disability not readily visible. As soon as the rest of their party arrived then they shifted seats so the adults could sit together, and the children sat together. It was ok with me but I thought it was odd the older children were allowed to preboard.

 

[disneyldwjr]

They don't have a lot of time to clean the plane between deplaning and boarding.
Let's hope this was something abnormal. Perhaps the person in front of you funked up the bathroom. re: trash, there is no excuse for that, the FA's come around a lot to pick up the trash. Seems like there were some slobs on the arriving flight.
I would, however, write to SWA and express your concerns and comment on the preboarding thing. That and the carry on rule not being enforced are my only two complaints about SWA.

 

[inkkognito]

I've noticed messy planes regularly on SW, but that seems to be an industry-wide thing...we always noticed the same thing when we used to fly ATA a lot. As for the humorous flight attendants, I've never, ever had them even once in all my SW flights. Not that they're grouchy or anything, but they don't crack jokes like I've heard about from others. Maybe they stopped after the ridiculous "Eeny, meenie, minie moe" lawsuit?!
Barb

 

[disneyldwjr]

I've noticed messy planes regularly on SW, but that seems to be an industry-wide thing...we always noticed the same thing when we used to fly ATA a lot. As for the humorous flight attendants, I've never, ever had them even once in all my SW flights. Not that they're grouchy or anything, but they don't crack jokes like I've heard about from others. Maybe they stopped after the ridiculous "Eeny, meenie, minie moe" lawsuit?!
Barb

I have had hysterical flights and boring ones. Just like the rest of the world, there are funny people and not so funny people. I have yet to have a groucy FA. Even the pilots were hysterically funny on one flight.

 

[goofyforlife]

a possible answer to the pre-board question is that maybe the 6 yr old was their only other kid....

We have flown to MCO with my infant nephew...My dh and I were allowed to pre-board with him, but you can't expect my DD then 10 to stand in line by herself...Of course she's going to board with us....

Probably the same thing with the 6 yr olds.

 

[goofy4tink]

a possible answer to the pre-board question is that maybe the 6 yr old was their only other kid....

We have flown to MCO with my infant nephew...My dh and I were allowed to pre-board with him, but you can't expect my DD then 10 to stand in line by herself...Of course she's going to board with us....

Probably the same thing with the 6 yr olds.

I don't think that was the issue. I know that when I flew SW in August there were several families that were preboarding due to having a very young child. I have no problem with that. But, I do have a problem when mom, dad, 3 y/o ds, 8 y/o ds, aunt, uncle, gramma, grandpa, the nanny etc. all get to preboard also!! Yes, it used to be that if there was a child under 5, then that child could preboard with his immediate family....not the whole dang extended family. I had the exact same situation as the OP did....preboarding families spreading out and taking window and aisle seats. Then regrouping when latecomers joined them. My dd and I were about 8th in line for the A group. By the time we could find two seats together, with one of them a window seat, we were 4 rows behind the wing!!! That's pretty incredible.
So, no I don't think that families should be split up, but I think that grandparents, aunts and uncles need to fend for themselves!!!

 

[pdarrah]

Nearly every flight I have been on that was running late (usually due to the aircraft ariving late) has been messy. I mostly fly United, ATA & SWA so I can't say much about the others - but for all 3, cleaning the plane seems to be the lowest priority if they are short on time. I have always assumed that they figure the passengers would rather board and get going quicker rather than wait for the plane to be cleaned.....

pdarrah

 

[i like stitch]

a possible answer to the pre-board question is that maybe the 6 yr old was their only other kid....

We have flown to MCO with my infant nephew...My dh and I were allowed to pre-board with him, but you can't expect my DD then 10 to stand in line by herself...Of course she's going to board with us....

Probably the same thing with the 6 yr olds.

No way would I want your DD to stand in line by herself! She certainly should board with both of you.

I wasn't as clear as I needed in my original post---the older-than-6 children were boarding with what looked like their mother ALONG with another couple who had a baby and an older child. Then this group that preboarded fanned out in the front of the plane to save seats for their extended family.

Before boarding, part of this family arrived later, was accompanied by some of the other relatives to the preboarding line before going back to the regular line, and one of them mentioned something about this being a family reunion at disney. I watched for the gate agent to deny preboarding for the woman with the older children but it didn't happen. It wasn't a huge deal but I thought it was odd SWA allowed it. Maybe they needed preboarding because of other issues (although the kids seemed very independent on the plane, were well-behaved, and were sitting with each other)??

 

[NotUrsula]

You didn't say what time of day it was, or why the flight was delayed. If you were on the first originating flight of the day on that aircraft, those conditions would greatly surprise me. However, by midafternoon things begin to get a bit grubby, especially if there have been weather delays that prevent the FA's from taking time to sweep the cabin for trash between flight segments. (Weather delays are often accompanied by turbulent flight conditions. If there is turbulence, FA's can't make as many trash-bag passes during the flight.)

As for the bulkhead damage, it's entirely possible that it happened on the flight before the one you boarded, presuming that yours was not the first flight for the plane that day. I'd be surprised if they would let a noticeably loose bulkhead liner stay that way if they had time on the overnight maintenance shift to repair it.

Not all of SWA cabin crew like to joke around, and some just know when to cool it (such as 6:30 am flights between business destinations.) On an evening flight out of MCO I recently encountered a joker who didn't know when to stop; EVERY thing he said had to end in a rimshot. I've not encountered that many pointless one-liners from a SWA crewmember before--this guy seemed to be trying out a standup routine.

 

[inkkognito]

Technically, saving seats is not allowed. I have no problem with a person saving maybe one seat, but if something like that happened to me, I'd just plop down in a "saved" seat if I wanted it. What are they going to do about it? They're very obviously breaking the rules and being rude, so it's not likely that the FAs will help them. I've never run into this situation on SW where it affected me (it happened once, but I was heading for an exit row so I didn't covet any of the seats staked out by the "rude gang"), but they do the same thing in the shows on Disney Cruise Line. One person thought he was going to save the whole front row! Not bloody likely...I just plopped my butt down.
Barb

 

[Bashful2]

We flew from MCO to Raleigh last night on SW on an 8:10pm flight. It was our first time on SW and we were very pleased.

DH is a passenger "of size" so had already bought an extra seat. We had no way of getting our boarding passes until we got to the airport so were "B" status. The woman who gave us our boarding passes apparently let someone at the gate know because she discreetly approached DH and told him to go to pre-boarding. Then, right before they started to board, she, again discreetly, had DH board 1st. My 2 DDs and I boarded later.

The plane was about 10 minutes late getting to MCO, but everything went very smoothly. Because of the storms, it was a pretty turbulent ride, but the captain spoke to us several times about the turbulence. We didn't get beverage service because the flight attendants had to stay buckled up. However, we landed 20 minutes earlier than our scheduled time.

Everyone we encountered with SW was very friendly and jovial. This was the first time I have ever flown with an airline when the flight attendants cracked jokes.