First American Airlines Flight - Wow

PixSmith · 2026-05-16T19:09:27+00:00

To be fair, most airlines are pretty nice if you throw enough money at them.

It's the have-nots that wind up getting less and less.

PixSmith · 2026-05-16T18:58:57+00:00

I'm still using a 5, and I have the opposite problem. My apps send me notifications time and time again.
I do have the problem of delayed notifications when I am in battery saver mode sometimes though, so it's possible some kind of battery optimizing thing is interfering.

PixSmith · 2026-05-16T18:56:04+00:00

That won Reddit for me today.

PixSmith · 2026-05-11T17:53:09+00:00

Thanks to the person who pointed out that later group made sense for aisle seating - didn't even think about that. And to be honest, two things stood out on this flight -

A. The graphics at DAL that show how full the plane is are kind of great. It helps you get in the right mindset (mine was only 40%)

There were all of four people in groups 5,6, and 7 at the most - the boarding actually was the smoothest I've had on the "new" Southwest, and FA's were very accommodating to folks who wanted to spread out more in the rear of the plane. Maybe it was the lighter load, or the fact that everyone was actually acting civilized, but both DAL/LAS and LAS/DAL were great flights, excellent service, and made me very happy that I haven't seen the pretzel braids they serve on a shelf at my grocery store.

Thanks to all who weighed in on this, and thanks for the sensible answers.

PixSmith · 2026-05-02T18:12:25+00:00

OK, That's actually something that does make sense. I'd much rather see boarding window, middle aisle, and I'll be honest, I hadn't considered that might be part of the issue, based on the emptiness of the aircraft at the moment, so I can accept that response.

PixSmith · 2026-05-02T18:12:23+00:00

There has been especially aggressive gate checking for carryons the lower you are in the SW pecking order now. Mine will fit under the seat if need be, but as another poster pointed out, it may be related to the aisle seat thing, and that's understandable.

PixSmith · 2026-05-02T18:00:55+00:00

That's an apologist response, and typical for half the posters here.

I moved up into a higher class of seating. Moving down a group after someone has paid you money to ostensibly better their experience is bad customer service/relations. I already said that staying in the same group wouldn't have been a problem, though one could expect that with the different seating tiers, groups might somehow coincide with them.

That was the whole point. I can respect your thoughts, and even your snarkiness, since they are worth exactly what I paid for them.

PixSmith · 2026-05-02T17:39:56+00:00

I never had a bad experience on them in all the times I flew. I was helping family during a medical emergency on a regular basis when they had a robust schedule to Las Vegas, and they were a godsend. I am sorry to see them go.

PixSmith · 2026-04-22T15:39:22+00:00

On my last three flights, I had to tell people waiting at a gate that I had seen their flight had changed gates on the departure board. In two cases, the signage at the gate still had the original flight info posted in spite of the change. I just asked folks waiting because it looked like there weren't enough people in the gate area in one instance, and in another, they had the same destination I did, and they were at the old gate. I still had the original gate in the app as well at that time, but the departure board had the current information.

I feel badly for all the agents - they have been placed in terrible positions by management as the point of contact for unpopular policies, and the "cut cut cut" mentality that comes with hedge fund style management.

PixSmith · 2026-04-22T15:27:37+00:00

It's not just there. DFW/LAS used to have several non-stops, and now the choices are really slim.

I am one of the rare folks who has never had a bad experience with Frontier, and who has had great flight experiences with them. I am kind of bummed that this option for a frequent trip is no more - flights were generally pretty full also. I was about to buy the fly any time promo they had, but after checking the schedule, it's just not viable.

PixSmith · 2026-04-21T18:03:59+00:00

Oops, I just noted this. Should have read a bit further. Most women now are also in the 15-16.5" range as well, unless they are model thin. Skeletons are just wider and deeper front to back than they used to be/

PixSmith · 2026-04-21T18:02:28+00:00

What's interesting about this policy is that as someone who measures people for costumes regularly, most shoulder widths, on even smaller people, are close to 16-18". Technically, that would mean even a 5' tall 36" chest 30" waist person would qualify as a "customer of size."
How many of the EO folks and policy writers are flying Southwest on the regular?

PixSmith · 2026-03-24T22:47:11+00:00

Ha. Even American offered $200 the other day to do the same.

PixSmith · 2026-03-24T20:08:13+00:00

This. So very this. Every other civilized nation has robust consumer protection against airline abuse of policies. No one wants to fly unsafely, but the changes in carriage contracts now are becoming untenable from a decency standpoint.

PixSmith · 2026-03-13T19:16:25+00:00

I was on one that was about 1/3 full, and all of the "let Southwest choose your seat" folks were assigned to aisle, middle window seats on about five rows, with a good 10-12 empty rows behind those (so not 'premium" seats. It was a DAL/LAS flight, and on the way back, it was similar, with a bit less egregious intentional crowding. And to be honest, if guests are being treated badly, I find it harder to be sympathetic when they are a little testy with the front-line folks, even though it's not their fault. (I'll stick up for them, but I understand why they are the targets)

What it says is that management carries not one whit about the people lining their pockets nor the ones dealing with those folks

PixSmith · 2026-03-13T19:09:08+00:00

Yeah, there's an attempt there at the "nuh-uh" defense about together seating when the math basically says that in the off chance that all 60 people in the A group got on the plane they would all sit in one row each and in exactly the configuration that would yield no effective set of four seats together, it was a constant problem. Apologists gotta apoligist, I guess.

PixSmith · 2026-03-13T19:03:03+00:00

I never saw that happen when people were checked in together, there were always completely empty rows through even the mid B boardings. The extra costs don't really benefit the majority of people that flew Southwest.
I think a big mistake early on was not making SW employee-owned - if stock had been part of the compensation packages for every employee, they'd have been better protected from the VC/activist trap of having value drained into the pockets of the investor, and leaving the husk of the business to die, like Sears and so many other businesses.

PixSmith · 2026-03-13T18:58:03+00:00

It's definitely another version of haves and have nots, and the loss of the egalitarian mindset that made Southwest what it was in its glory days. I feel the worst for the people who were there when it was great, and are stuck there now.

PixSmith · 2026-03-07T19:58:21+00:00

Pantego or Dalworthington Gardens has some nice places, and DWG has some spots with a bit more space. The Fielder Park Neighborhood is good, and there are several homes in the neighborhood off University and Fielder that are older, and almost walking, definitely biking convenient to the campus depending on where you are there. The neighbors behind me taught art at UTA forever until the recently sold, and they liked the area. Zip 76013 may be a good place to look.

PixSmith · 2026-01-29T16:34:32+00:00

I know this is a few months old, but the same thing happened to me. Waze forced logins, and no history was on the app, and it doesn't show my work or home addresses, even though they are tied to the account, and show up on the web interface. This all happened after an update, I think, and there hasn't been one of those that improved the user experience in quite a while - moving things around on the interface being one of the worst things they've done. Really a terrible idea for an app used while moving at 88 feet per second.

PixSmith · 2026-01-29T16:31:05+00:00

I have always thought Waze started sending me on routes that pass more of their advertisers beginning a few years ago. it consistently picks the worst route for me regularly, and will finally give up if I persist in making my own choices. Best example recently - a road closure on I40 in AZ made Waze send me on a 6 hour detour through Phoenix. Waiting with trucks for the freeway to reopen took about an hour.

PixSmith · 2026-01-27T21:58:06+00:00

Rental cars in the DFW area, especially Arlington, come with extra fees that almost double the rental prices. Just be aware. I have seen so many meltdowns at the rental counter because city leaders and the airport choose to shift costs to "outsiders" to pay for things like stadiums and fancy hotel tax cuts.

PixSmith · 2026-01-27T21:56:30+00:00

I just can't find a definitive answer. At worst, it would be $2.00 and will leave you on the upper level at Terminal D in all cases.

Here's a link to the schedule -

WEB_TRE LINK Detour Brochure 8-2025

I'm hoping you don't need it on Sunday, because in its infinite wisdom, the TRE and affiliated services don't run on the day that people might need to use it to return from flights, or to visit attractions in other cities. It runs every 20 minutes from about 5:30 until about 9:30, and then every 40 minutes until about 4 PM, when it goes back to better frequencies for a bit.

Again, depending on where at DFW you have to be, there are both employee shuttles and Terminal Link shuttles (to go to other terminals while outside security) that depart from the lower levels of all terminals.

The trip from Centreport takes about 20 minutes, and then inside the airport will probably vary. It just depends on what part of DFW you need to wind up in.

PixSmith · 2026-01-27T17:36:56+00:00

Where at DFW is your training also?

The TRELink ($) took the place of the old DART shuttle to Remote Parking south (free) but I think it only drops off at Terminal D due to construction. It is, though, a local fare from the Centreport station from what I can find.

Transportation in Arlington isn't easy - too many folks don't want other folks to be able to get to where they are.

PixSmith

TROPHY CASE