A Return to the Center

Now that I have found a way to unexpectedly anger my neighbors, Ford Taurus owners, and probably much of greater Boston, I’d like to revisit this blog’s original intent – stories from the road, odd business travel tales, and observations of someone who sometimes lives at bad hotels.

A surprisingly pleasant trip to Nashville this week.

I feared the worst from Southwest, having booked the PVD-BNA route, but the airline caught me off guard with its efficiency and comfortable passage.

It’s funny that the TV show Airline gave me the worst impression of Southwest.

I printed my boarding passes online – wising up from my momentary gaff on Wednesday when I forgot that I did not have an assigned seat, and the boarding groups A, B, and C are determined by check-in time. Combining that with early online check-in, and my realization of thisjust before leaving my home for the airport landed me in group B. No big deal. I queued up relatively early, since that’s the Southwest way. On the return journey, I checked-in the previous night, and snagged a group A boarding pass.

I figured this ensured a window or aisle seat regardless of where I boarded within group A, but that’s not the case. Though I did get a good aisle seat toward the front, I forgot that some Southwest flights originate elsewhere, and that many passengers from that point of origin – here being Houston Hobby – remain on the aircraft and reposition themselves within the plane before the next city’s travelers even board the flight.

I believe this is the first Southwest segment where I did not emanate from a flight’s point of origin. I have done Southwest Manchester NH-Norfolk roundtrip through Baltimore, but I connected from one plane to another each way. Also, Las Vegas to Orange County, Las Vegas to San Diego, and LAX to Las Vegas – all from origin points.

We pushed back 4 minutes early, and were in the air just 6 minutes after our scheduled 3:20 departure time. These guys really hustle – attendants are cleaning the cabin even before everyone deplanes and passengers are boarding while the sodas are still being loaded from LSG SkyChefs

Pre-printing boarding passes, not checking luggage, multiplied by two flights, probably saved me 30 minutes combined between both segments. I’m so used to printing at home but having to add a checked bag upon arrival to the airport.

Leather seats, good legroom, friendly non-jaded employees – a good experience all around!

A couple drawbacks – their coffee is no jetBlue Dunkin Donuts. And they use non-dairy creamer. Yuck!