Review of Southwest Airlines flight San Francisco Los Angeles in Economy

Airline Southwest Airlines
Flight WN2002
Class Economy
Seat 6F
Aircraft Boeing 737-700
Flight time 01:25
Take-off 12 Aug 15, 18:35
Arrival at 12 Aug 15, 20:00
WN   #7 out of 22 Low-cost airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings. 56 reviews
jish.b
By 917
Published on 23rd June 2016
Hello all!
Welcome to my fourth installment of my USA Summer 2015 series
This FR features a new airline for me - Southwest Airlines!
We decided to go to Los Angeles for a couple of days.
And so, I selected flights those were both a convenient time for us..
…and of course a more interesting aircraft :D
Of course, the Boeing 737s being the only kind in their fleet, I selected two 737-300 flights.

WARNING! Many aviation pictures are involved!

I only have had just the one flight on the B737-300, back in 2006 when I flew onboard Air Sahara from Kolkata to Bengaluru via Hyderabad (VT-SAY).

A quick recap of the flights so far, and what will be:
Compass Airlines (Delta Connection) DL5736 SFO-SEA 02AUG15 dep: 0917 hours arr: 1129 hours (E175)

Alaska Airlines AS422 SEA-PDX 10AUG15 dep: 1715 hours arr: 1803 hours (B734 -> B739)
Alaska Airlines AS384 PDX-SFO 10AUG15 dep: 2135 hours arr: 2320 hours (B73H)

Southwest Airlines WN2002 SFO-LAX 12AUG15 dep: 1835 hours, arr: 2000 hours (B733) (this report!!)
Southwest Airlines WN2592 LAX-SFO 14AUG15 dep: 1535 hours, arr: 1650 hours (B733)

Delta Air Lines/Delta Shuttle DL2764 SFO-LAX 14AUG15 dep: 2100 hours, arr: 2237 hours (B712)
Delta Air Lines DL1435 LAX-MSP 15AUG15 dep: 0025 hours, arr: 0555 hours (B73J)
Skywest Airlines (Delta Connection) DL4473 MSP-GFK 15AUG15 dep: 0912 hours, arr: 1029 hours (CRJ200)

And the video flight report is right here:


BUT before that. Some tourist-y bonus from San Francisco…and some hotel spotting images!!!


Onwards and forwards…with the flight report itself!

The day started off with, well, nothing basically. I just sat on the chair spotting a couple of planes because there was a pretty good view of all heavies taking off. Always a joy to see! Since we had so long to wait anyway, we thought, why not go on an earlier flight? That didn't go down very well with me internally because not only did it mean a chance at a Boeing 737-300 flight is gone, my boarding position of A32 goes down the drain and a late boarding position for the earlier flight (boarding group C basically means that all window seats are more or less gone, and only a few aisles here and there remain). With this scary proposition going about in my head, we headed to the San Francisco International Airport. Once there, we used the kiosks to see how much of a penalty we'd take in order to change to an earlier flight. Quite a bit, as it turned out!

We arrived at the airport way too early and so we had to wait half an hour before we could check our luggage in. Free luggage, would you believe it! And that too - two pieces! Southwest remains the only airline in the USA to offer free luggage check in.



Hung around for a bit before checking in again, that was nice and quick with no fuss. No luck with the TSA this time as Southwest didn't give us the PreCheck clearence (or maybe we weren't randomly selected? :( ) Security took a while, as a result of this.

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The concourse itself wasn't as crowded, since the quick turnarounds at Southwest ensure that passenger movement is quick and efficient. Unless, of course, there's passengers like us who have a lot of time on their hands and spend it at the airport. Being one of the busier airports in the United States, you’re treated to a lot of airplane activity, big or small. We found a nice spot to sit around looking at the tarmac in the vicinity of gates 28-30 (WN2002 was from Gate 30 anyway). The next couple of hours had some pretty epic spotting, let the pictures do the talking!


Many flights were departing in the hours we killed at San Francisco’s terminal 1. Some really quick turnaround times for all the Boeing 737 that came, and sent back. Most of the planes were -300s and -700s, with the odd -800 making its presence, too. I couldn’t see a -500 though. To ensure on time departures for all flights, the ground staff would make a few quips here and there: Mr. John Doe on flight twenty six eighty four to Orange County, you are requested to board the aircraft from gate 29. We love you, but we will leave you!

6pm, we decided to head for the gate just across, Gate 30. N968WN occupied the gate, and some passengers were getting off. For the second time this trip, a Boeing 737 Classic got swapped for a Boeing 737NG. Except that this time it was a Boeing 737-700W. This kinda bummed me off a little bit to be honest. N968WN was a 3.5 year old Boeing 737-700W.


Boarding started on time at 1805 hours, some priority members first, and then group wise (A, B, C). These groups are further divided into numbers 1-30 and 31-60, so essentially there are 6 groups of passengers boarding. I waited in my spot, A32, being in the second group.
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There was this tiny girl who was visibly annoying the ground staff (who’d also be on my flight to LA), but this kept them unfazed. After scanning the boarding pass…or the shopping mall receipt they call ‘boarding document, they take it away. I was surprised! There went one boarding pass…..shopping mall receipt. Once again, it wasn’t a very warm welcome onboard. Third airline in the USA, not a very good first impression again. Many seats were empty, of course. I had all these choices…I settled for seat 6F, right by the CFM56 engine. The parents joined me on 6D and 6E. Passengers quickly filled up the cabin, it was going to be a fully packed interstate flight. Captain gave us his briefing, we’d be flying at an altitude of 36000 feet for the quick 55 minute encounter.

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Always nice to see your luggage being loaded….never nice to how they're loaded!


Pushback was at 1834 hours, a minute before STD. Engines fired up, we made a quick taxi to the runway as we waited for two planes to land (at the same time, of course!).


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Blasted down the runway and into the sunny skies of California! The engines didn’t sound particularly impressive for some reason, but my God was the B737-700’s climb a mighty impressive one!




We soon leveled off as I checked out some of the wifi stuff - the flight information is provided in the free wifi, there was quite a bit to keep you entertained! Flight attendants took orders for beverages, I ordered a hot chocolate. Southwest attendants use trays that are custom built to hold many cups instead of trays. Saves space, weight (hence money) and makes it easier if passengers have to walk down the aisles to the washroom, which they would. The setting sun made it just a wee bit tricky to get images, but we did fly over some pretty interesting red deserts and some circles on it (probably agricultural stuff, but conspiracy theorists will go mad!).


We soon began a rapid decent into Los Angeles.

We flew in from over the Pacific Ocean, flying downwind to the airport. Its always so interesting not only to see the airport, but the planes those are taking off and landing, especially in an airport like LAX! It wasn’t too long of a hold for us, as we were soon on final approach.




A smooth landing followed by hard braking was executed at 1946 hours, we started an interesting taxi towards the Southwest concourse. Along the way were some Australian birds, including two Qantas A380s, I think there was a Boeing 747-400ER in there as well, and two Virgin Australia Boeing 777-300ERs. Then followed the Canadian end of things, including WestJet, Air Canada, Air Canada Rogue, and an Icelandair plane.


We docked in gate at 1954 hours, engines cut out. I thanked the crew for the flight on the way to a very busy and congested Southwest terminal at Los Angeles. It was a long walk to pick up luggage, and then into the traffic jams of LAX airport. This was quite a nightmare. On the highway towards Hollywood, I saw all those planes coming in to land line astern. It was a great sight. Checked in to the hotel, it was going to be a big day next day….

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And that's the end of my first Southwest Airlines experience!

See more

Verdict

Southwest Airlines

8.1/10
Cabin9.0
Cabin crew7.0
Entertainment/wifi8.0
Buy-on-board menu8.5

San Francisco - SFO

8.6/10
Efficiency7.5
Access9.0
Services8.0
Cleanliness10.0

Los Angeles - LAX

6.8/10
Efficiency5.0
Access6.0
Services6.0
Cleanliness10.0

Conclusion

Southwest would be one of my top airlines to choose in the future, simply because it has a way more generous baggage allowance. The flight otherwise was nothing special, crew went about doing their job, seat was alright, entertainment was decent and the flight arrived on time (before time, rather).

San Francisco Airport spotting was fun! LAX felt very congested to be honest. Right from disembarkation to leaving the airport on the super shuttle.

Information on the route San Francisco (SFO) Los Angeles (LAX)

5 Comments

If you liked this review or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post a comment below !
  • Comment 354701 by
    Rl 777 802 Comments
    Thank you for sharing this FR with us!

    Wow! Absolutely phenomenal spotting shots at SFO, loved that part.

    Was the Wi-Fi free?

    Beautiful aerial shots.

    Thanks for sharing, have a good one! See you.

    • Comment 354762 by
      jish.b AUTHOR 283 Comments
      Thanks so much, once again!

      WiFi on Southwest Airlines is free for browsing through the in-flight entertainment selection.. wIFE as its called some times :P

      I liked the information there, it kept me entertained (if there was not enough outside already!)

      Once again, thanks so much!
  • Comment 357264 by
    jetsetpanda 2283 Comments
    Thanks for sharing this FR with nice spotting.

    SFO is great for plane spotting if you are patient. Since I live 5-10 min. away I used to come to the airport whenever I was bored and just check out the planes.

    Don't expect too much on U.S. domestic flights. Service can be indifferent at best and friendly crews are the exception rather than the norm.

    Nowadays all major airlines give out snacks with drinks. It didn't used to be that way and WN was one of the few carriers along with DL and B6 that were generous with a choice of snacks.

    Hope that you had fun in SFO.
    • Comment 359953 by
      jish.b AUTHOR 283 Comments
      Thank you for your reply, Jetsetpanda!

      SFO is a lovely airport...especially the park by the bay where most international departures and all arrivals occur at! I loved my time there. You can find some photographs here: http://flight-report.com/en/report/15887/Emirates-EK225-Dubai-DXB-San-Francisco-SFO

      I knew what to expect on USA domestic flights, and now that I have experienced it first hand, I know that they've pretty much matched my standards. Its not too bad, but nothing too spectacular either.

      It is really unfortunate that they do not give out a proper snacks altogether...I guess somethings had to happen!

      SFO was lovely. I absolutely love the west coast!

      Thanks so much for your reply!
  • Comment 359954 by
    jish.b AUTHOR 283 Comments
    Thank you for your reply, Jetsetpanda!

    SFO is a lovely airport...especially the park by the bay where most international departures and all arrivals occur at! I loved my time there. You can find some photographs here: http://flight-report.com/en/report/15887/Emirates-EK225-Dubai-DXB-San-Francisco-SFO

    I knew what to expect on USA domestic flights, and now that I have experienced it first hand, I know that they've pretty much matched my standards. Its not too bad, but nothing too spectacular either.

    It is really unfortunate that they do not give out a proper snacks altogether...I guess somethings had to happen!

    SFO was lovely. I absolutely love the west coast!

    Thanks so much for your reply!

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