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Howdy! This week I’m writing about two recent destinations. We’re going to start off with my El Al flight to Tel Aviv and then I’ll tell you about last week’s daytrip to Dallas, for a tour of Southwest Airlines’ headquarters for some exciting news about low-cost flying. This week, Marcela Swenson continues her journey through Thailand and Ben Brown (our USC intern), takes us on a real adventure in Interlaken, Switzerland. BTW: For real-time action, you can always follow me on Twitter (@JohnnyJet) or friend me on Facebook.

SOUTHWEST MEDIA DAY
This past week, I was invited to attend Southwest Airlines’ annual media day at their Dallas headquarters. Media Day is a great chance for airlines to open up their operations and invite journalists (and their readers) in for a peek around. Unfortunately, not many airlines do it – in fact, the only other airline I know that does it is US Airways and I’ve attended theirs for the past couple of years.





LAX-DALLAS VIA EL PASO
Full FTC disclosure: Southwest bought my ticket from Los Angeles (LAX) to Dallas’ Love Field (DAL). Love Field only has 20 gates and is much smaller than DFW (American Airlines’ hub), which is 16 miles west. FYI: Love Field is only seven miles from downtown Dallas.

WRONG AMENDMENT
Because of the Wright Amendment (read about it here), I had to stop going to and leaving DAL. On the way there, I stopped in El Paso (ELP); flight time was one hour and 30 minutes. FYI: The Wright Amendment ends in 2014.

DIRECT FLIGHTS
I didn’t have to get off the plane because it was a direct flight. NOTE: A direct flight is completely different than a nonstop flight. Direct means you stop but don’t change planes. Nonstop means you don’t stop.

SOUTHWEST TIP
The flight to El Paso was half empty but to Dallas, it was packed -- the same was true on the way home but I flew via San Antonio (SAT). TIP: If you’re flying Southwest on a direct flight, try and make your first flight of the day the short one (like my 280-mile hop from DAL to SAT) so you can switch seats after everyone deplanes and score the coveted exit row; Southwest doesn’t assign seats. FYI: On both my stops, about half the passengers got off so chances are, you’ll get a better seat.

FLIGHT TIMES
ELP to DAL was one hour and 10 minutes. DAL to SAT was 45 minutes and SAT-LAX was three hours even.

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