I read that Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher passed away this past week at age 87. Herb completely changed how Americans and indeed the world travel, by turning flying from a privilege of the rich and expense account business travelers to a transportation option that almost everyone could afford.I remember waiting to board the very first Southwest flight I took in January 1990. I had occasionally flown before, maybe once every 2 years or so, but this was completely different. To begin with, Terminal 1 in Phoenix airport (now long gone) had no air conditioning, and it must have been over 105 degrees farenheit in there. The people looked like nobody I had ever seen in an airport before, with lots of crying babies. The boarding pass was a reusable plastic card with no seat number. I loved it and it changed my life.
Southwest's main competition wasn't other airlines, it was driving a car or riding Greyhound. For the first time, I could fly wearing shorts and a t-shirt without my mother telling me I had to dress nicely to get on a flight .... between Phoenix and Ontario for 19 dollars. With the "sub-club" sticker frequent flyer system and all of the easily accessible promos tacked onto it, approximately every 4th or 5th trip was free. It quickly became apparent that credits I accumulated on short flights back and forth to school within California could be used to fly to more exotic places like Arizona and Nevada, and eventually to Chicago! once those routes were established. And all those drink coupons! which I couldn't use until I was 21 and even then received more than I could ever spend, but they were useful currency for trading seats.
Over time, word caught on, planes filled up, rival airlines shed costs through bankruptcies, and Southwest was the only practical nonstop carrier on a lot of short routes in the west. The freebies became more scarce (deja vu?), and their prices increased with inflation, the cost of fuel, and that monopoly power, especially after Herb retired and they clearly focused more on returning shareholder value. But there were always finagles for those of us willing and able to exploit them, namely the Chase credit card finagles that enable a companion pass, and frequent sales, especially when we could shift our weekends to Saturday-Tuesday.
It's easy to forget how many upstart low-fare airlines there were in the early days of deregulation because almost all of them quickly failed. Southwest figured it out and thrived due to great management and probably a fair share of good luck.
Thanks Herb. I'll pour out a little wild turkey on the steps for you.