Meryl's Notes Blog

For a time there, it was all Wright Amendment all the time. Living in the Dallas area, you saw or heard something about the Wright Amendment every day until Mayor Laura Miller helped get the airlines to reach a compromise. The plan is to phase out the restrictions over the next eight years so that by 2014, Southwest can fly to states not next door to Texas (New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana). A quick explanation about the whole deal is at the end of this post.

Southwest also hit the news with an announcement that the airline is experimenting with assigned seating. While I thought the un-assigned seating worked well, Southwest wanted to test a few different approaches to assigned seating. I have no problems there as the company aims to use whatever works fastest. The CEO blogged on assigned seating and there were almost 400 comments. Great corporate blogging stuff here. The company went to the customers through its blog giving them a forum to share their opinions. The Dallas Morning News reports on the results of the seating test saying that the reviews are mixed.

I was curious to see if SWA’s blog mentioned Wright as it was a political hot potato. SWA indeed blogged about Wright. Besides, the company is behind the Set Love Free site.

Check out the blog user guide and how it addresses customer service concerns. The blog has what few others have… entries from all areas of its workforce: captains, flight attendants, managers, and even a mechanic!

No surprises. SWA has many customer evangelists thanks to its high quality customer service and unconventional approach to have fun while flying.

Not all is lovey dovey as Cam Edwards and Geoff Fox report.

In searching other blogs that mention SWA, I had hoped to find comments from SWA staff, but no such luck.

As far as my own experience with Southwest, I don’t recall any bad experiences. The last three times I flew were on Southwest to Austin. I even managed to get an earlier flight one of those times when I arrived at the airport early.

SWA is driven to provide the best customer experiences possible. The blog supports the company in that effort. Though I didn’t see comments on other blogs left by SWA staff, it wouldn’t surprise me if they have or will in the near future.

Wright Amendment explanation: Way back before DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) International Airport came to be, Love Field in Dallas was the airport serving the DFW metroplex. Airlines didn’t want to move over to DFW since it was a measly little place out in the middle of nowhere (Grapevine). So the Wright Amendment came in to state the airlines could only fly to Texas connecting states. Southwest, of course, would like to expand its flying zone. American Airlines certainly doesn’t want competition from Southwest. Now that DFW International Airport is doing well and Grapevine has grown with the addition of Grapevine Mills Mall (not as good as Washington, DC’s Potomac Mills… unfortunately.), Gaylord Texan Resort, Grapefest — there were no more concerns about getting airlines to go to DFW. So repealing the amendment wouldn’t be as big a problem as in the past — except for the businesses involved. Hence, the eight-year compromise.

See more conversations on Southwest at Technorati.