Greetings and welcome to another flight report! Today I will be flying on Southwest Airlines from BWI to Providence (PVD). I was originally supposed to be flying on a 737-800 but the day before they switched it to a 737MAX8. This will be my first time flying on that aircraft type so it’ll be an exciting moment for me. Southwest has only recently reintroduced the MAX into their schedule after a year of it being grounded due to safety concerns. About and hour and a half before the flight (which proved to be way too early) I was dropped off at the southwest section of BWI I quickly made my way through security which took maybe five to ten minutes and was a seamless process.
After that I headed straight to McDonald’s, located in the A concourse to grab some food. After that headed to the B concourse which would be where my flight would depart from.
I walked past my gate as it was before boarding had started and went to Dunkin to get an iced coffee as the service on southwest is limited at the moment due to COVID-19 (not that they’d serve iced coffee before the pandemic). After getting my mandatory iced coffee boarding had already begun. Despite checking in the moment it opened I was stuck with a C boarding position. Boarding went by sluggishly but eventually I was at the front of the line and heading down the jet bridge to board the plane.
The first impressions of Southwest’s 737MAX were favorable. The cabin had calming blue and red mood lighting and deep blue seats, both of which were aesthetically pleasing.
As is standard on new 737s, the plane was outfitted with the modern Boeing Sky Interior. Southwest, surprisingly, decided to opt out of installing the larger Space Bins on their 737MAX. Since I was near the back of the boarding process, boarding completed soon I took my seat.
The flight attendants then did the safety demo as we pushed back. As we pushed back the engines started up and before long we were taxiing to the runway.
A flight time of a quick 48 minutes was announced. We had a quick takeoff out of BWI which was thrilling as always thanks to the miracle of flight which never gets old.
After takeoff it was announced that there would be no beverage service due to the anticipated weather which turned out to be nothing. I spent the rest of the flight doing work and staring out the window at the gorgeous sunset. We had views of New York City on the way over which was pretty cool as well.
Before long were were close to providence. We had a descent into pleasant surroundings around PVD.
The weather, however got cloudy on the way down, which made the views worse. We had a rough landing into Providence followed by a short taxi to the gate. .
We arrived on time and soon wed were on stand. We had to wait a bit for the jet bridge to be attached and for everyone in front of us to get off but that took only 15 minutes or so. I bid farewell to the crew and headed straight to the exit
Hey Jonathan, thanks for sharing this latest review. Interesting to see a SWA MAX report as there aren't that many out there. Although the cabin looks nice with the new seats and mood lighting, the lack of power outlets, as you mention, is a missed opportunity with a brand new aircraft. SWA not only fly transcons, but they also do Hawaii from the West Coast now, so it's not the same SWA from just a few years ago that did mostly short hops--power is increasingly becoming an expected amenity. Other than that the seat pitch is decent as can be expected on WN.
p.s. did you mean to set all 5 across the board for grades?
Thanks for sharing!