If there’s one thing that differentiates Southwest Airlines from other carriers, besides bundling checked bags into the fare and not assigning seats prior to boarding, it’s that their employees don’t seem to hate their jobs. This comes out most clearly on board with flight attendant hijinks, whether it’s hiding inside of overhead bins, making crowns for passengers out of snacks, or offering a creative twist on safety announcements.
Here’s a flight attendant truly loving her job and offering her announcements in a rap. Her colleague gives a bit of side eye but eventually gets into it too, stomping a foot and clapping at the end:
Rapping @SouthwestAir flight attendant 🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍 pic.twitter.com/737srEEDV8
— Mike Ellis (@TheMikeEllis) August 5, 2023
There’s a long history of Southwest Airlines flight attendants rapping their announcements. None is more famous than David Holmes.
Holmes actually presented at the Southwest Airlines 2009 shareholders meeting, explaining financial disclosures and the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP results.
Some Southwest flight attendants who can’t sing just tell jokes, of course.
In my experience this year, cabin crew have been just as jovial as in the past. That’s an important barometer. It suggests that the airline’s culture, which really does set them apart from competitors, looks to have sustained the end of 2022 holiday operational meltdown that didn’t just strand passengers but also stranded crew for several days as well. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion – because nearly 20% of the airline’s employees were new since the start of the pandemic, so they didn’t have a years-long reservoir of good will built up to sustain them.
Not many Southwest Airlines employees were around when the airline – including its then-CEO Herb Kelleher – parodied the Chicago Bears December 1985 “Super Bowl Shuffle.”
My beef with Southwest is not the staff. It’s the throwback to kindergarten. Line up next to poles by a letter and number! Sit anywhere, like on a yellow school bus. I’m glad to be past those days, and I prefer to fly airlines that let me board at my leisure, and let me reserve the seat I want. I also like to buy food on board, which Southwest doesn’t sell.
Flight attendant comedy/entertainment: reason #2 to stay the heck away from Southwest Airlines.
Reason #1 of course being the asinine seating policy & boarding process.
Worst airline in the country, hands down.
Safety announcements that are sung or rapidly spoken like in rap are dangerous. Just say it clearly and slowly.
Yet another reason I refuse to fly Southworst.
Well I happen to find SWA refreshing!
I like the bundling of bags and I haven’t known anyone who refuses to go Southwest because they can’t get an airline meal! (Really?? LOL).
Traveling can be a tense time for some and I have known people in my company who prefer SWA when given a choice because the workers realize that and try to make the experience better and put a smile on faces. I appreciate that effort!
I have flown Southwest but only once or twice. Everything was fine and if they are competitively priced where I am going, I will consider flying them again.
Cringe
I do not know if that is entertaining or embarrassing. The other FA did not look enthused.
Appreciate the example here, yet another, as to why I will never fly Southwest Airlines. Poorly run airline and a “down home” feel I could absolutely do without.
Yawn.. Southwest clearly doesn’t take the safety of its customers clearly… remember when the oxygen masks dropped and no one put the mask over their actual nose to breathe? Or the story when a female customer showed a SWA flight attendant a text that her husband was going to kill himself and the flight attendants ignored her pleas? ( and didn’t even notify the pilots)… or had a FAA inspector in their back pocket and knowingly mis-documented maintenance records? Yeah, they’re too focused on jumping out of overhead bins and rapping the safety announcements to focus on safety of their customers. No thanks… and really? Another rap safety announcement blog? You can literally read the other flight attendants mind of —FML— after hearing this seven times in one day.