Bye, Herb

Herb Kelleher has died. He was 87.

You can read the obits at the links to get a lot of details about his life. If you fly any, you'll know the differences between Southwest and its competitors (especially that they don't charge for checking two bags).

I have been on a few of their competitors. Some of their employees have all of the cheerfulness and politeness of convicts out on work-release. In contrast, on my many trips on SWA, I have only come across one employee (a gate agent at BWI) who seemed to be having a bad day. I now only fly their competition for transcontinental flights and for flight to places where either SWA doesn't go or they don't go there when I need to fly.

All of that can be traced back to Herb Kelleher. I hope they don't lose hi spirit.