Easy - on a lark, only couple of days before it started up, a friend and I decided to celebrate the start of service Buffalo by taking the first revenue flight of the first day of service into BUF and return to BWI that night - for about $80 r/t! (Turns out that doing the cheap Southwest Niagara Falls day trip became quite trend for DC people shortly thereafter - so I guess we were ahead of the curve).

After arriving, we found out that the celebration with dignitaries, etc., was closer to noontime. We really didn't want to blow the day in the airport, so we explained our situation, and asked them to be sure to save some cake and, maybe, wings for when we returned. We were assured that they would. However, when we got back, the party was over, everything was cleaned up, and the agents on duty didn't know anything about us.

What do to? Why write a complaint letter to Herb, of course. It was all tongue-in-cheek, but we wrote that we were horrified at the lapse in customer service, and demanded the cake we were promised. We were flexible - we'd be happy to, for example, (1) accept tickets to fly to the next new station opening and celebrate; (2) join Herb for cake over lunch the next time he was in DC; or even (3) come to HQ in Dallas and crash a random birthday party.

Got back, in return, one of those legendary letters from Herb himself. He was gracious, he was apologetic, and he picked up on our tone (which in itself set Southwest apart in my book - I know other airlines and businesses that would have sent a cookie-cutter form letter stating that they were sorry for the service lapse and would work to effect better customer service training).

What was Herb's solution? He coudn't get us cake (or meet us), but offered some 'icing' instead (his words) - two tickets to an upcoming Washington-Colorado hockey game (pretty good lower-section seats from a Southwest corporate account). The game was great, but the letter was a perfect end to an already memorable experience. It also was a concrete example of the corporate culture that makes me loyal to Southwest.

(can't remember whether I've shared the story before - forgive me if I already posted it)