Southwest Rapid Rewards - Milwaukee kick-off

SWA and SWAV will celebrate the inauguration of WN MKE service 11/01/2009:

http://www.biztimes.com/daily/2009/10/29/southwest-airlines-will-make-milwaukee-debut-on-sunday

That is just Plane Smart Marketing. If I lived in MKE, I would want to go on vacation too.

I am there next week with the $39 introductory fares to MCI next week. MKE is farther ( depending on traffic ) than MDW, but I will definitely be looking at it.

Confirmed sighting - flew DL into MKE this morning and observed WN baggage handling equipment outside the D terminal! Woo-hoo!

I can finally fly WN without driving to MDW, and have booked a couple of itins SFO - LAS - MKE.

Confirmed sighting - flew DL into MKE this morning and observed WN baggage handling equipment outside the D terminal! Woo-hoo!

I can finally fly WN without driving to MDW, and have booked a couple of itins SFO - LAS - MKE.

I agree with you. WN will be very successful service into MKE for first-time ever. If WN will able to expanding more specific new routes out of MKE-FLL/BNA/PHL/BOS/HOU/MSY/LAX/SFO and few others potential new routes.

and for those who caught on those 35 dollar fares back when they announced it in June(?)... it will be a welcome treat to MKE. I wasn't able to get the first day flights, but I'll be flying out on the 2nd to BWI for a couple of nights.

and for those who caught on those 35 dollar fares back when they announced it in June(?)... it will be a welcome treat to MKE. I wasn't able to get the first day flights, but I'll be flying out on the 2nd to BWI for a couple of nights.

Good for you and please don't forget to setting 1 hours back the time by tomorrow night.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA8500

There's one WN aircraft coming in! ETA 12:46PM

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA8500

There's one WN aircraft coming in! ETA 12:46PM

The flight brought in 90 crew members/employees. Some volunteered today at the Ronald McDonald House.

http://img692.yfrog.com/i/uvi.jpg/

Festivities start at MKE 6:45 AM Sunday, with the first departure and major media coverage.

Argh. I didn't know about the tailgate event until now.. no tickets left :(

I see the rapper flight attendant will be there, he's on youtube.

I'm looking forward to my first WN flight in two weeks to PHX (Took advantage of the $35 fares).

First flight just #990 just left the gate here in MKE

That is just Plane Smart Marketing. If I lived in MKE, I would want to go on vacation too.

Why do you think I left for Seattle four years ago:D

Thanks SWA, Milwaukee County Parks, and WKLH.

You really know how to throw a party!

For those who were not lucky enough to be at the Tailgate Party in Milwaukee, there were two pair of roundtrip tix or a vacation package given out after each Packers' score, as well as after each quarter. Since the first half did not produce many Packer points, they just starting giving out the tix at the commercial breaks, at which time the two WKLH hosts also talked up SWA.

The Packers/Vikings game was shown both inside a huge, heated tent,as well as outdoors on a huge outdoor screen. The tent was set up with long tables and benches for the majority of the 1000 guests, and a raised seating area with large comfortable chairs for VIPs. Behind the VIP area, there were sections of bleachers.

Food and beverage were available, with one food "ticket" and two drink coupons per guest. By the way, the drink coupons were actual SWA drink coupons, which can be used on board flights.

The big hit of the day, however, was the rapping F/A, who had a special rap about MKE. Of course, he could not leave the stage, until he did his YouTube pre-flight safety instruction rap (which has been viewed more than 2.5 million times). David had the while crowd really going. A call was put out to anyone who taped the MKE rap to post it on YouTube.

For those who were not fortunate enough to win a trip, small SWA souvenirs were handed out (luggage tags, soda can insulators, large foam #1 fingers, etc).

Whenever a SWA spot played during the game's commercial breaks, a loud cheer went up from the crowd (probably from the large number of SWA employees present for the event). The strangest moment came when there was a break during halftime, during which Fox 6 had a mini newscast, and a commercial played for AirTran.

Thanks again, Southwest!

Did the first flight in this morning receive a water cannon salute?

Did the first flight in this morning receive a water cannon salute?

No, no salute. There is a big PR type thing going on this morning at the airport with a press conference with airport and county officals speaking, along with the WN CEO.

Did the first flight in this morning receive a water cannon salute?

Why they didn't want to get water salute for this time? It will have more celebration for WN is inauguration service into MKE today. I'm sure the loads will be extremely performance very well. Maybe in the future if WN will have more opportunity to growth more potential new routes.

I'll be flying r/t MKE-LAS in a few weeks - much cheaper than using MDW!

Flt 214, MKE-BWI had 45 pax on it. Nice ride, I'm impressed! The Fiance was also impressed, she rode Airtran in Sept and she loved WN.

To the poster who wrote about the tailgate party, I couldn't agree more.
I felt very welcome by each WN employee, and some fine FTers who are becoming familiar faces at the openings. Thankfully some strings were pulled by WN/Curbcrusher/BNA_WNFan and I got a last minute invite to the event. (I have a knack for skimming over and missing out on valuable promos like this and the LGA ferry flight/hotel freebie).

WN was very generous to have such a gathering. How cool it was to see that Southwest brought thousands of bags of their pretzels, peanuts, straight from provisioning to the event, and the same drink coupons used as they use in flight. The parks dept thanked Southest for hiring the local union to do all the setup/tear down when they could have brought or shopped for labor.

To think that only a small portion of the audience raised their hands to say they've flown WN in the past. The feedback from the local attendees was a unanimous "It's about time!!" WN sure has their attention now!

Only 14pax on the last outbound to BWI at 740pm. The gate agent laughed when I asked to volunteer for the bump compensation list.

Why they didn't want to get water salute for this time?

So there wouldn't be a required de-icing after. ;)

Glad to see MKE added just in time for my flight there next weekend - on UA, for a nice low price. Gotta love the WN effect. :)

Anyone know how the loads are on the other routes? I could see BWI being small.. AirTran goes there and to DCA, Midwest to DCA, and since there are direct flights to east coast cities that would connect through BWI on WN, that doesn't offer anything, either.

So there wouldn't be a required de-icing after. ;)

Glad to see MKE added just in time for my flight there next weekend - on UA, for a nice low price. Gotta love the WN effect. :)

If enough people do what you do, WN will pull out and your low fares will go away. Enough people have to use the WN service to keep it around.

Argh. I didn't know about the tailgate event until now.. no tickets left :(

I see the rapper flight attendant will be there, he's on youtube..

MKE rap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGBU-3fxnFs

If enough people do what you do, WN will pull out and your low fares will go away. Enough people have to use the WN service to keep it around.

I don't have any worries of such a thing, and neither does WN. MKE is a regional jet outpost for UA. They're not suddenly going to take over a bunch of gates.

the reality is all the airlines pretty much match each other.

I'm a regular weekly UA flyer between DC (usually) and ORD but decided to buy 2 Southwest roundtrips to MKE this month back when they had the crazy fare sale. So, took my first ever Southwest flight yesterday (and will head back to BWI tomorrow) and I was pleasantly surprised by the service. The BWI gates were very nice and new (with lots of nice seating and outlets for passengers to charge their stuff before boarding). Having read up previously on the boarding routine, and deciding not to go the $10 paid route, I did the 24-hr prior checkin and got A26, which snagged a 2nd row window seat which pleased me. (I checked in 23 hours prior for my return flight and was still able to get A47, which hopefully will mean a window seat, albeit much further back).

One advantage for me flying into MKE was that the rental cars are literally across the street from the terminal, so we landed at 7:22pm and I was literally out of the rental garage at 7:35pm. This is in contrast with the nightmare on Friday nights at ORD where you wait 20 minutes for a National bus and then the bus ride is another 15 minutes through a lot of airport traffic. (One downside, however, is that the rental car rates at MKE are significantly higher than at ORD.)

All in all, a positive experience, that is another alternative to look into when needed. Not sure it'd take me away from my regular UA flights, esp. since they fly into DCA (which is super quick into work in DC on Monday mornings), and since I can always get Economy Plus assigned seating. But, not a bad choice all things considered.

Register for double Rapid Rewards credit on inbound and outbound MKE flights, valid 11/12/2009 - 05/07/2010.

http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/rr_promotions.html#mke

So there wouldn't be a required de-icing after. ;)

Glad to see MKE added just in time for my flight there next weekend - on UA, for a nice low price. Gotta love the WN effect. :)

Yes, I believe that so. It will get real problems due to aircraft is freeze during snowstorm. So it's won't have any chance to have water salute for this time. I think MKE will have to be de-icing the aircraft before the entire plane is takeoff from MKE. I know it will be very extremely colder weather and it will very low temperature is below 10 or 20 degrees.

Maybe in the Spring time if the weatherized will be warm again and it won't have anymore snowstorm during winter time or any problem the aircraft won't have to be freeze. If the weather condition will get hot again during in the summer time. So do they have any liquid to washable the aircraft before the plane is leave from MKE.