Why I Love Southwest

Last year this time I earned a $400 travel voucher for taking a flight that got me to my destination 1.5 hours later. It was a great use of my time. Yesterday I tried to use the voucher to make reservations for my mom and me to fly to San Antonio in June (aka 2013 vacation #2). I was so mad by the time I was done. To get the tickets at the times we needed was still going to cost us $400 additional A PIECE.

I then looked at Southwest. The tickets were cheaper and we had tons of flight options. I then got a bright idea. I called and asked my mom if she would mind if we paid straight up for the San Antonio tickets (still not cheap) and then used the $400 travel voucher on the other airline to go to Florida later in the year (aka 2012 vacation #4. I know, it's hard to be me sometimes). With Southwest, if the fare falls you can get a credit for that amount for a future flight, something most airlines don't do. She agreed. I booked the San Antonio tickets on Southwest with no problem.

Using the voucher for the other airline was a nightmare. I was unable to redeem the voucher online, so I had to call. It took 3 different people and approximately 30 minutes on the phone to get the transaction to work. Finally, they got it done, and we are flying to Tampa for next to nothing in October.

Tuesday is fare sale day at Southwest. I checked the ticket prices today, and they had dropped $34 since yesterday! I called Southwest, and the person was able to tell me in 30 sounds how to rebook and get the credit issued. It was super easy, and now my mom and I are thinking about what will probably be 2014 vacation #1. As I told the person from Southwest, this is one of the reasons I love Southwest. Their customer service and refund policies are just so much better. Keep up the good work Southwest. You are my first choice when I fly.

Life lessons learned from little people

My niece has appeared in my blog previously. Today her brother, my nephew, makes his debut after I spent some time with the two of them yesterday.

My nephew is now 8.5 months old and is in the processing of getting even more teeth. Teething apparently can be not so fun, and chewing on his pacifier seems to really help him out when the teething makes him fussy. Thus, the process goes like this: Nephew gets fussy, someones finds his pacifier (aka "the plug"), puts it in his mouth, he's happier. However, what often happened next would perplex me. After a bit of using the plug, he'd either spit or pull it out. He would of course then get cranky soon thereafter. Not only would he remove the plug, he wouldn't put it back in himself, something he is well capable of doing. Instead, another person would have to do it. This cycle repeated itself many times. At one point I even asked him "Why do you take it out if you like it?" He of course didn't answer me. (Verbalizing isn't among his many skills at this time. I think he's scheduled that for next week.)

As I was thinking about this later, the answer came to me- he does it because he's human. After all, we adults do similar things all the time. An example: we all know we should get plenty of rest. When we get plenty of rest, we feel better. A no-brainer right? Yet how often do we do really well at this, then we fall off the wagon by staying up late to do something really important like watch a rerun of a movie we've already seen 5 times? And it seems like once we fall off the wagon, it's that much harder to get back on, even though we done it before and obviously have the power to do it again.

Humans are not always the most rational of creatures are we?

Now THAT'S a leak

The following e-mail was sent to everyone who works at my location (80+ people). It appears verbatim except that I've substituted people's titles for their names.

From: (Senior Management Person)
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 3:59 PM
To: JFV-All
Subject: FW: Oil leak

Everyone

Please take a look at the 2 pictures attached. This is not going to be an acceptable situation going forward. I have to think that anyone with a car that’s leaking this badly has to be aware that there’s a problem with it. If it’s your car, or your car is one of the ones making this mess, you’re going to have to get it repaired or make different arrangements to get here. I understand that this could be a costly repair, and short term (like a few days) if something can be done to contain the drippage, then maybe we can work something out…but it can’t go on. Please take immediate actions before someone else has to do it and feelings end up hurt.

Thanks

(Senior Management Person)

From: (Environmental Person)
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 2:49 PM
To: (Senior Management Person; Environmental Person's Boss)
Subject: FW: Oil leak

(Senior Management Person & Environmental Person's Boss),

(Maintenance Manager) sent photos from the new parking lot. It appears there are some vehicles that are leaking oil in the new employee parking lot. I’m not sure how you have addressed this type of problem in the past, especially since I don’t know which car is leaking.

Do I need to address this in the morning meeting and follow up with an email to managers asking them to remind their employees that we cannot have oil leaks in parking areas per our SWPPP/SPCC. Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

(Environmental Person)

From: (Maintenance Manager)
Sent: Monday, March 04, 2013 2:31 PM
To: (Environmental Person)
Subject: Oil leak

Someone needs to get an oil leak repaired.
Messing up new pavement.
This is going into new detention basin.

(Maintenance Person)

 

 

 

Want to see what all the fuss is about?

 

 

 

Yep, that's A LOT of oil. I'm pretty sure it's all from the same vehicle based on the patterns of the deposits. Obviously no business wants this in their brand new (or really old) parking lot, but since we're an oil producing facility, it's super strict. The city gets really funny about oil in the storm water system.

 

No one's come forward yet, but this e-mail has been quite the talk of the building.

 

I have the solution

As you as exasperated as I am about Congress's seeming inability to do anything EXCEPT argue with one another? I doubt they could even pass a unanimous proclamation that today is Monday. After watching last week as neither side made any real move of substance of the budget, I've come up with a solution that will make them iron out their differences in no time.

All members of Congress will be put on a cruise ship in the Caribbean at the point farthest from land (some of you already see where this is going don't you?). They will endure conditions identical to those suffered by the recent passengers of the Carnival Triumph. There will also be media blackout while onboard. As soon as they reach a binding (i.e. recorded vote) agreement, they get off the ship. I bet it would take less time than it did to tow the Triumph back to port.

This idea is inspired by JP Morgan's famous "locking the bankers in his library". I think he'd love my suggestion.