Southwest Hearts

[Way2Broke]

I noticed that SW planes have hearts on them. I'm guessing that that is for LUV field? My question is, what do the numbers inside the heart stand for?

 

[firstthird]

Back in the 90's someone at the company came up with the idea to give ourselves an 'award' when we were number one in fewest complaints, on time percentage, and baggage handling. We were number one in all 3 for a while there, 5 or 6 years, and gave ourselves the 'triple crown' and finally decided to retire the whole deal but still have some planes with a bunch of hearts and numbers on them.

I'm sure someone who lived through it (all before my time) will have the real name and maybe some better info. We still do okay in most catagories, except maybe baggage handling has been closer to 10 than one for a while, but Philly and the like hasn't improved our on time percentage much. And we lost the fewest customer complaints this month to Aloha who had none. nice.

 

[rayford steele]

I always thought it was for "number one in your heart."

 

[Superbird]

"Back in the 90's someone at the company came up with the idea to give ourselves an 'award' "


Nice

 

[Kharma Police]

Back in the 90's someone at the company came up with the idea to give ourselves an 'award' when we were number one in fewest complaints, on time percentage, and baggage handling. We were number one in all 3 for a while there, 5 or 6 years, and gave ourselves the 'triple crown' and finally decided to retire the whole deal but still have some planes with a bunch of hearts and numbers on them.

I'm sure someone who lived through it (all before my time) will have the real name and maybe some better info. We still do okay in most catagories, except maybe baggage handling has been closer to 10 than one for a while, but Philly and the like hasn't improved our on time percentage much. And we lost the fewest customer complaints this month to Aloha who had none. nice.

Maybe you guys can instead put a famous gay British rock star like we did at AirTran!

 

[RP 04]

I think it has something to do with how many times they have managed to run off runways....

 

[ralphcramden1]

I think it has something to do with how many times they have managed to run off runways....

Ouch!

 

[TexaSWA]

I think it has something to do with how many times they have managed to run off runways....

Your carrier must have a better safety record than ours. Where is it you work again?

 

[canyonblue]

I think it has something to do with how many times they have managed to run off runways....

Nice avatar, I think that says it all.

 

[firstthird]

Superbird
"Back in the 90's someone at the company came up with the idea to give ourselves an 'award' "

Nice

It is part and parcel of our attitude. You know, the ability to have fun and laugh at ourselves. We weren't going to win the best international first class or those "Conde Nest" type awards so one of our marketing guys or maybe Colleen or Herb came up with the idea. I mean, the FAA measures the ontime, baggage, and complaints every month and we were usually number one in all 3, why not pat ourselves on the back a little.

My first reply was a little tongue in cheek, I implied but didn't state directly, that we stopped 'giving ourselves' the award as soon as we were no longer #1 in all 3 catagories due to places like Philly and a route map that has grown more complex. We still do well though and would like to do better. And, I suspect if we do get the point where we win all 3 catagories for a year, we'll give ourselves another 'triple crown' with with some hearts and numbers to boot.

Obviously, the real goal is to be successful at letting people move around the country and making some money in the process. Those metrics fit our goals for a while, thus some motivation was gained. Our metrics are a little more complex now (stuff like CASM ex fuel, NIM, ROIC) but we're still doing our best, and the real rewards are the quality of life we get/give by doing what we do well. We hope to continue doing it in the future.