Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

GRR

860 days ago I wrote about the possibility of Southwest Airlines coming to Grand Rapids (DW). Southwest is, of course, the biggest of the discount airlines, and the hope is having Southwest here will cause ticket prices out of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport to drop.

Yesterday the airport people scheduled a big announcement for 11am and indeed, as part of the Southwest takeover of Air Tran, Southwest will officially be an airline in Grand Rapids. Also, they're going to bring in bigger aircraft than Air Tran was operating.

Years ago I flew Southwest and was amused by their positive attitude corporate culture. I'm sure today I'd be less satisfied, especially with the probability that they'd make me buy two tickets, but overall flying in and out of GRR can be rather expensive, so having Southwest here should make others happy.

One funny aspect of the announcement was that while the airport people were being coy about what the announcement actually was going to be, one of the staffers at WOOD Radio went to the Southwest website before 9am and found the newly revised map showing routes coming out of Grand Rapids. (grin) Ah, research. What a wonderful thing.

Dr. Phil

Out Of South Africa

Dr. Phil's Sister sent an email that's been going around and I decided to do a little research. Turns out that Kulula Air is a budget airline, but cheap doesn't you can't have fun. After all, in the U.S., Southwest has earned a lot of loyalty from its customers by maintaining a sense of humor and poking fun at their own stinginess with peanuts, as well as their competitors. Be sure to check out Kulula's special aircraft, including their camo plane (no one saw us coming) and their Flying 101 plane:


Their FAQ page is full of helpful chatter, too:

How do I book my ticket?

Easy, simply give us a tinkle and chat to one of our friendly helpers at our Contact Centre, or give your mouse a tour of our website and book online. Don't forget that booking with our Contact Centre is a bit more expensive than booking online. Lastly, you can just take a stroll over to your local travel agent or one of our airport offices.

And definitely check out the humor of Kulula's staff, pilots and advertising here, including this gem actually recorded from a flight:

"Now Ladies & Gentlemen, you know me and my wonderful team, so could you please introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you. Come on, don't be shy, they're not going to bite. Ladies & Gentlemen we are going to be taking you through our safety procedure on board this aircraft. We ask that you please pay attention. Before the touch down your tray tables need to be folded away, your armrest down, blinds must be opened with your lazyboys in their most uncomfortable upright position. And those seatbelts fastened low and tight around those gorgeous hips. Now unfortuanately due to load-shedding there is no aircon on board this aircraft so we have provided you with your own fanning device which shows pretty pictures on escape routes, oxygen masks and flotation devices as well as the all-important brace-position which you must use in the event of an emergency - that's just basically when we all bend over and kiss our arses goodbye. Jammer om te hoor. There are 8 emergency exits on the aircraft and the crew will do the macarena and point them out to you now - there are 2 at the front 4 overwing exits and 2 at the back. Please take a moment to locate the nearest exit to you bearing in mind that it might be behind or on top of you at the time. To guide you to the exit we've placed floor-lighting in the aisle - disco style. Now in the unlikely event of Julius Malema ever speaking sense or we do have a loss of cabin pressure, free oxygen will be provided - masks will drop from the right and left service panel above you. Scream softly and pull the mask down with a sharp downward jerk to activate the flow of oxygen, cover your nose and mouth and breath normally or just simply dial 911. Now on our way to Slaapstad we should be flying over a few swimming pools, 4 rivers and a large sewerage pond, so in the case of a water-landing you have your own life-jacket under the seat. On instruction from the crew, fasten the life jacket tightly around your waist and pull down the red tags to give you that wonder-bra look. There's a red whistle for survivors and a light to shine in the shark's eyes. We are a smoke-free flight and the toilets are monitored by smoke detectors & video-camera'd for the captain's entertainment. But if we do catch you smoking the Civil Aviation Authority can fine you up to R6000; and Kulula fans, for those prices you could have flown SAA today and got yourself a free bankie. All those fancy phones - those blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, iphones, uphones, mephones all interfere with the aircraft's system. We ask you now to relax and enjoy the ride."

I'm not saying that flying commercial in South Africa is any better or worse than flying commercial in the States. But gosh, whenever I've had a "live" fun flight crew, it doesn't hurt to fly with a smile on your face.

Now if we could just get the airlines to give us actual information about delays and gate changes in a timely fashion...

Dr. Phil