Why Southwest is Better Than Continental

A few weeks ago I had to fly to Houston for some sales training for work. Whenever I fly, I prefer Southwest airlines. The flight attendants are personable-not robotic- in their duties and the pilots usually have a sense of humor. This time, however, a corporate travel agency took care of all my travel arrangements and I had the displeasure of flying Continental. Yay me.

So the seats were spacious and I wasn't even in First Class. A bonus since it was an almost 4 hour flight. The cushions provided excellent lumbar support. I wished I had remembered headphones for the free in-flight movie and debated purchasing a headset, it was only $2. They were showing Gulliver's Travels with Jack Black, so it wasn't a hard decision to simply read my book for the duration of the flight instead.

Now for the bad...

It took more than 45 minutes to board and this is with assigned seating. (I have never taken more than 30 minutes to board on Southwest and that's with relatively lax seating arrangements). We left the gate 10 minutes late. The check-in clerk, the stewardesses, pilot and another flight attendant were extremely rude and bossy, barking orders at the boarders left and right. I was among the last 15 people to board-done based on assigned seating and was instructed before I even got on the plane I had 5 minutes to find my seat and sit down because we were already behind schedule. Someone (it may have been me) gave the steward a nasty glare and he simply retorted: "well, if you want to be delayed it's your choice, but then don't complain later."

The aisles were a cluster fuck as people were travelling to the back of the plane to put up carry-ons in the overhead bins even though their seat was near the front. This constant back and forth caused numerous pile ups to which the frazzled flight attendant barked louder and repeatedly to "hurry up!" Another stewardess attempted to direct traffic instructing a lady ion her seat to stand and let a gentleman past her to the window seat. She acknowledged this and stood. Then the stewardess yelled at her to move into the aisle to let him pass. The aisle was plum full and as 2 objects of mass cannot occupy the same space at the same time, we were at a stalemate until the line progressed forward. The stewardess literally climbed over the back of one seat to stand on the seat directly behind the lady, leaned in and yelled in her face to do as she said as we were delayed. The patron pointed to the crowd in front of her and simply stated there was nowhere for her to go. The which she received a nasty response: "sometimes you have to sacrifice personal space and comfort on a plane for the convenience of fast travel. Now, ma'am, please push your way in to the crowd so this man can sit down and we can be on our way. We are already delayed and you are not helping the situation." All surrounding jaws dropped wide open.

May I point out once all was said and done and we were in the air, the plane was only at 75% capacity. As soon as the drink cart came around, the offending flight attendants were sweet, helpful, and complimentary.

Oddly enough, the return flight did not have nearly the same headaches. I did note it frustrating that the return flight also did not have the same conveniences. This plane had t.v. screens in the back of each chair (as opposed to 1 hang-down screen every three rows), headphones were free, but you had to pay to watch the programming. I again chose to read for the 4 hour flight.

Congratulations goes to United/Continental for their glorious merger of 2 horrible airline companies into 1 miserable conglomerate.