Flew the Old Southwest
Flew out of RDU yesterday. Arrived at the airport 2.5 hours early, barely a line at ticketing - less than a 3 minute wait to get my boarding pass. Going through TSA took about 10 minutes. This was about 2:30pm on Saturday so minimal traffic. Got to my gate two hours early so got to people watch and observe.
From where I was positioned, I saw 5 flights board and take off. One was a mess, lots of confusion over boarding groups... but the other four zipped right along. Did not hear a single announcement about carryon luggage, though they did keep repeating that everyone was allowed only one electronic power bank (that seemed to be The Big Deal!)
I was in boarding group 4 of my own flight. Again, no announcements about carryons having to be checked or not enough room. Everyone got on quickly. The (I think 4.. I remember at least three) flight attendants were relaxed and jovial and even joking around on the intercom the way they always have. We were flying to STL and had to give a shout out to the baseball Cardinals, one of the FAs was from STL (Bree, I think her name was).
It was very Twilight Zone after everything I've read on here. I had been absolutely dreading the flight, but it was like flying the old Southwest.
If this gets back to any of the flight crew of WN 4002 on 5/16, THANK YOU for a pleasant and relaxing trip ... well, except maybe for the Captain testing out those brakes on the landing, but hey .. they worked! I hope you found the owner of the hearing aid!
I know this is unpopular opinion around here these days, but Southwest is still my favorite airline. After YEARS of rotten treatment on American, I'll accept the new changes on Southwest. So far. I paid the $45 to check my luggage, and I paid for two seats as a POS (-cough- Person of Size, not Piece of Shitake). I said please and thank you to all of those in a customer service role because they are not personally responsible for the changes forced on us by the corporate world.
TL; dr - I had a good experience. It felt like olden times, just more expensive ... but what's not these days?