My time in Dallas wasn’t going to be long but I was here for a good reason. I was here as a guest of Southwest Airlines for their 2014 media day. The whole event was organised to be non stop start to finish. I was here for two nights and it was certainly not going to be over quickly. The airline covered my accomodation, my flights and my transportation (and everything here is my own opinion of course). The driver who was meeting me was waiting at the arrivals area of the car park so I knew eventually where I was headed. As I exited off the aircraft and into the terminal it was a shock as to how nice the new Dallas Love Field terminal would be. I was blown away by just how modern and smart it looked. I didn’t have much time to explore but felt that I should definitely stop by here on the way out for a better look.
As I headed for baggage claim I waited for my bag (which was one of the first few out) then headed over to the arrivals area to meet the driver. After waiting a bit for a couple of other people who were set to join us (and they were not able to unfortunately due to flight delays), we headed off to the hotel. Dropped off at the Warwick Melrose Hotel it was in a very affluent area not to far from the Love Field airport but close enough to the city. It was a historic hotel that had a lot of history and it wasn’t too bad. Probably not somewhere I would have chosen for myself, but hey, its free!
The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to fix my fitbit which had decided to crap out on me, catch up on life, emails, writing etc and get myself prepared for the big day ahead tomorrow. Media guests were invited to a happy hour function at a local bar (and apparently a dallas institution) and it was great to meet some people I had conversed with on twitter for a while. After a quick detour to a local market to pick up some breakfast for the next day I hit the sack after an extremely long day.
Monday 8th September 2014
Waking up and going for a morning run as per my normal routine made this feel kind of like any other monday morning. Apart from the fact that I was no where near my work. I was all the way over in Texas. I scoffed down my breakfast moments before having to be in the lobby for our early morning pick up. It was going to be a busy day as a small part of the morning had already been leaked Saturday night with a new livery for Southwest going to be revealed. Even though they were not saying anything, we all knew it, and the airlines knew that we knew, but it was a big deal.
The morning went off like a giant party. Lots of excitement, buzz and an almost party like atmosphere. The livery was pretty great and I had a fantastic time just getting up close and personal with the aircraft and also seeing some of the staffs and employees reactions to the changes. The livery reveal was not the only thing we were doing that day. We had a full day of meetings with the executives at Southwest so as we moved from meeting to meeting, I learnt a lot not only about the new livery and branding (sorry, not a rebranding, a bold new change to the look of the airline) but also about the airline in General. Unlike some of the people who where at the media day, the history of Southwest was not something I was totally familiar with.
The day went by almost so fast and with a bit of free time to be able to work on my story, we headed off to the weekly Monday “Deck” party. This time though the party was held on the ramp at the Tech Ops building. They had the two aircraft with the new livery nose to nose (although some people think I should say “Heart to Heart” on display. This was a party like I had not seen before. It was a huge event with hundreds of people in attendance, all of them out for a great time. No one was worried at all and they had plenty of wine, beer & other drinks (plus all the airline snacks you could think of) for everyone. With freedom to have a bit of fun and not be on the Media clock for a little bit, I could relax, chat with some of the other media and also get some personal photos (I may have gotten myself a heart selfie).
After the party it was off to dinner with the executives and after breakfast at 730am, lunch at 11 it was time for dinner around 8pm. It was a good night anyway and after that broke up and we could return to the hotel, I still had some story work to do to make sure that the piece went out on time. By the time I made it to sleep around 1115pm, it sure had been a really long day.
Tuesday 9th Septmeber 2014
The fun of the day began after a run in the morning and packing up to check out. We were back to the airport and the Southwest training center (called TOPS). The morning was going to be a bit of a tour around the facilities, some “Heart racing” activities and then a tour of the Network Operations Center. The few things that were interesting me were the NOC and getting a few extra pictures of another area.
The Heart racing activities though were pretty fun. We got taken into the full mock up area where they train employees in check in and gate area activities. These mock ups replicate fully the area in which the employees will do their job. They have full check in kiosks and even boarding podiums, even an old Love Field air bridge! So we boarded our flight to “Aruba” and headed on down the airbridge. Our flight wasn’t going anywhere though, we were boarding the Emergency Operations trainer. It was a full airline cabin mock up that could simulate movements and emergency prodcedures like smoke evacuation, fire drills etc. It was a blast.
We went through the full evac demonstration as though we were going to have an emergency landing. A small tip though. If you are onboard a flight and hear 4 chimes in a row (usually 2 or 3 is the norm) then you know something is going to go down. 4 chimes is emergency time. I got a video of us going through the emergency and it sure was an experience. Hearing the yells of “Heads Down Stay Down” continuously certainly was a start to get the adrenaline pumping. Then as they cleared the front of the plane we heard it out the back. The next thing we heard from the front was the emergency slide being activated. O yes… I got to go down the slide. It was fun! My heart was racing like crazy by the time we got the bottom and had i known we were doing something like that, I would have worn my heart rate monitor.
The tour continued onto the NOC (which I am going to write about for AirlineReporter) and then after that we went back to the main headquarters building for a tour through and then some lunch. The tour through the headquarters building was an experience all on its own as the building was like a living museum. The staff have the most amazing work areas with heaps of shared work stations and environments where you could go to get away from your desk or have a meeting without feeling trapped in a room. The conference rooms were all named and were also themed. So if there was a break area (called a Culture Center) that had an awards theme, all the conference rooms around it were generally of a similar theme.
The whole time in Southwest Country was amazing and as i caught up on life before my shuttle back to the airport, I had to think to myself just how great the experience was. So many people love working for the airline and fight hand over fist to get in there. I can now see why.
