Southwest Customer Daniel Schiff sent us his trip report on a very special flight.

My name is Daniel Schiff and I flew on Southwest Airlines Inaugural flights from New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Baltimore/Washington (BWI) and then right back from BWI to LGA on June, 28, 2009.

When I couldn't sleep on that Sunday morning, I woke up at 5am and remembered that Southwest Airlines was starting service to LGA today, which is approximately less than an hour and a half from my home which is located in Brewster, NY. That is the airport I usually fly out of, when I need to travel somewhere.  I used Hartford for Southwest Airlines a couple years back because of a family reunion in Albuquerque, NM. My experience from that trip still makes me think of Southwest Airlines in a positive way.

I saw two hours prior to departure at my home, that there was a $49 fare each way, and the first inaugural flights #1305 (LGA-BWI) and then flight #275 (BWI-LGA).  I wanted to go on this flight! I went to the airport, with less than nine minutes before pushback I was greeted by Southwest Airlines employees, saying "You can make it, you can do it, run, run, run!!!" with a positive attitude! I sprinted to security, which in the mornings in LGA is not bad at all. Once through, I ran to the gate holding my shoes to put them on later so I would make the flight, and then was greeted with "Yayy you made it" also with bagels and Southwest Airlines bags, vanity kits, laptop cases, and even flash drives! Within minutes of boarding, we pushed back! I had just made the flight.

I love flying on planes, as well as taking pictures of planes! Shortly after we took off from runway 4 headed north, we made a sharp turn to the south where I found a magnificent picture of Central Park with Manhattan and the winglet of the Boeing 737-700 aircraft with the "southwest.com" on it.  During flight, I was greeted with smiles the whole way by all of the crew members on board. After landing, the flight attendant in the back asked “where are you guys headed?” We replied “oh, straight back to NY!”  He seemed impressed, and with a smile said, “Well, I will be your crew for the flight back!”  We instantly connected.

As I was walking from gate A10 to gate B4, I was impressed with the new airport in BWI. When I was last there it was very old. After walking down the ramp, I saw big balloons that spelled out New York along with a singer and a character artist (who did draw a picture of me ten minutes prior to departure time).  Games were played giving out Southwest Airlines T-shirts along with $50 Southwest Airlines vouchers (which unfortunately, I did not win).  But the whole experience was entertaining, along with the addition of black and white cookies and luggage tags we were greeted with in the jetbridge.

Once onboard, I made my way to my seat on the Boeing 737-300 aircraft in row 21A out of 23 rows.   Southwest Airlines employees were onboard en route to service later flights and sat behind me, also taking pictures.  I showed them my photo of Central park from the trip going down and each and every crew member including the pilot who flew the plane down admired the picture so much they suggested I submit it to Southwest.  In fact, the pilot admired it so much that he couldn’t stop looking at it!  So here it is:

Please enjoy!  The second picture I thought I would throw in from the return trip and the shadow is our flight, B737-300!