November 11, 2008. Chevy Chase, Md. Southwest.

They treat you as if they are pleased to see you when you walk onto the plane. They speak to every passenger welcoming you on the plane. Even tho the job is very boring and repetitive they act as if they love their job. During the course of a three hour flight they come to ask if we wanted another glass of water, in addition to the full beverage service. They make jokes and have fun with each other and with the passengers, which makes the trip seem to go faster. Now I am speaking of the attendants on the Southwest flight from San Antonio to Baltimore. The real question to ask is why all air-lines attendants treat the customers like that? I have been on many airplanes and have met up with pleasant and polite air hostesses and I have met with the surly types, but it is only on Southwest that you are treated as if you were special to them. In truth, the passenger is important, because we pay the salary of the staff, but often they get it all backwards.

I know the Southwest system would not work for every air-line, but the attitude of the attendants shown on Southwest flights should be normal for every air-hostess, not be so unusual that you notice when they do it right. I often wonder if the attitude and service are never taught, or that no one notices at the top levels to impress on the staff the importance of kindly enthusiastic attitudes on the staff. We have all experienced watching when a passenger is treated in an ungracious manner, where the hostess is down right surly. I should be grateful for the blessings of the day, when the three attendants on one flight had a fine job of making every customer feel special. We all left the plane with a smile on our faces, determined to fly on Southwest again.

I am told that service on airplanes will get worse not better over the next few years, but I think that if we try harder, we can get all airlines to teach their staff to adopt the mentality of the Southwest staff. We can do it if we try.