After a decade of loyalty to United Airlines, the wife and I decided it was time, given their seeming inability to take-off or land a plane on time, to give another airline a go. Because of this we found ourselves on a Southwest flight to Las Vegas last weekend.
Some thoughts:
1. I am still not a huge fan of Southwest's boarding procedure, but they've made some improvements over the years. IF you're willing to pay for early check-in, and an all-important A boarding group, then you will get your preferred seat.
This is a problem for the airline however, which is currently running a "Transfarency" ad campaign promoting their lack of fees. In fact, if you want a good seat, and not something in the middle, you have to pay a fee (around $30 per person round trip) in order to secure a seat not in the middle and room for your carry on.
2. That said the in-flight experience on Southwest was MUCH better than United. The flight crew actually made us feel welcome, instead of making us feel like we were an inconvenience to them, the planes were clean, in good working order, and service was efficient.
3. One advantage for Southwest over United? Their wi-fi worked on every leg of the trip where available. (Our last leg was on a "Classic" plane (the FA's joking word for old) and the service was not available.
The bigger issue, on our trip, was trying to get in and out of Hobby Airport. When I booked the ticket I did not realize that Thursday was opening day for International travel there. Fortunately, we didn't have a problem getting through security (thank you Pre Check) nor did there appear to be any operational delays. Where we did have problems was on the return trip Monday night getting from the plane to our car, an ordeal which took almost two hours.
1. Baggage claim: The system at HOU is antiquated and not ready for prime time. There are still only 5 claim areas, and the space around them was packed with travelers, making moving around the small area a chore. Add to this an overflow of bags that arrived for people on prior flights, and you had the makings of a mess.
Southwest and HOU do a better job of getting your luggage to the turnstiles than does UA and IAH, but actually getting to your bag took us about 45 minutes.
2. Ground Transportation: There's not near enough of it, or an area that's sufficient to handle all of the waiting passengers.
We use the Parking Spot service, in part because it's convenient and because my company has a corporate account with them. It took us over an hour to get on board a bus, and get back to our car. By the time we grabbed our bags and made it out to the poorly marked pick-up area, there were over 100 people waiting to get on buses that can only hold 13 people each. Add to that the fact that there only appeared to be 4 buses in active circulation, we were in for a long wait.
The lady who was administering the mess wasn't helping either, as she was screaming and hollering at people to "get on the curb" and spending more time threatening to "make the bus not stop and pass you by" than she was working to try and fix an already out of control situation. Clearly having supposed power over people was more important to her than resolving an escalating problem.
At this point, people were getting angry. I saw an elderly woman get pushed out of the way by a younger man trying to get on the bus, a lady with a baby physically wedge her way in front of a middle-aged couple, all while the airport personnel (and one especially unhelpful driver from another Parking Spot, sat around and either mocked them or did nothing).
Now, granted, not all of the fault lies at the feet of the Houston Airport System here, as part of the problem lies at the feet of Parking Spot and their lack of buses and rude drivers from other locations. The rude driver was especially grating. Instead of getting on the radio and calling for more buses, he stood by as people loaded continually saying "If you would have parked at Parking Spot 2 instead of Parking Spot 1 I would have had you to the car by now!" He also mocked people in line, constantly chiding people that "only 13 are going to fit on that bus so most of y'all ain't going to make it."
He got so bad that I finally told him that his time would be better served finding a solution to the problem rather than making fun of people. Once he was confronted he walked away, got in his bus and we didn't see him again. So for that Parking Spot, you failed miserably. I'll be filing a letter of complaint but, as is usually the case with this, I'll receive a form letter in return and nothing much will happen.
3. Layout of ground transportation area: In short, at HOU it's a mess. They have poorly marked lanes, areas where buses are loaded from active lanes of traffic, no set pick-up areas and very dodgy crowd control. This, and the shortage of buses, leads to a very hectic process of getting from the airport to your car. It was one of the more unpleasant airport experiences that I can remember.
At this point I'm not sure if there's a quick solution to the problem. The infrastructure outside of HOU is old, and there are geographical issues with expanding. Yes, the Houston Airport System could do a better job of communicating with 3rd party parking services regarding flight arrival times etc. but absent of that, the only thing that can be done is better training of personnel to handle large volumes of people. The staff that was working that Monday evening was about as poorly equipped to handle a logistical problem as any I've ever seen. The one lady with a hi-vi vest did little but scream at people and allow passengers to be berated by a driver.
That's hardly the take-away one wants from an otherwise fun vacation. Unfortunately many HOU customers had exactly that.
