Review of Southwest Airlines flight Washington → Kansas City in Economy

Pre-flight/at the airport

For the first time since 2019, I was all set to go to the Airliners International convention, which should be on every avgeek's bucket list. It has special tours, seminars and a collectibles show, and being in a space with other people who are as enthusiastic about something as you are is a great feeling. The World Airline Historical Society puts it on, and they have several shows throughout the country (as well as Amsterdam and Frankfurt) each year, with the crown jewel being Airliners International, in Kansas City this year. With their cheap fares and nonstop flight from DCA to Kansas City, Southwest was the logical choice for this quick trip. 

The Metro in DC doesn't start running until 5:00 AM on weekdays, so I only really had one option for getting to the airport, which was taking an Uber. In the past, I'd had some bad luck with Ubers early in the morning (including having to wait over 20 minutes for one, causing me to miss a Northeast Regional train to NY and pay almost $200 to get on the next one), so I reserved one the night before and he was outside my house well before the scheduled time. Traffic was minimal at that time of the morning, and he dropped me off just before 4:40 at Terminal 1. Southwest has several departures early in the morning, and the terminal was bustling. The line for bag drop stretched almost all the way to the front door, but it moved quickly and I was on to security. The TSA line was jammed and the line moved slowly–they only had three officers at the four ID checkpoints, and only two lines after the ID check. In all, the process took about 25 minutes and I was past security at around 5:15. Could have been worse but if I was rushing to make a flight, it would not have been pretty. The TSA checkpoint in Terminal 1 (and the facilities in general) is becoming too small for the amount of flights that use it. 

Our plane, a 17-year-old Boeing 737-700 was already there, having arrived from MCI the night before and all signs were pointing to an on-time departure. I had checked in at 6:10 right on the dot the morning before, and ended up with A42 as my boarding position. Not too shabby, but the vibes were somewhat off before boarding as a younger kid threw up in the boarding area. There were several families flying this morning so the pre-boarding queue was somewhat long, but I was on board soon enough and settled for seat 8A in a row that was empty at the time. The flight attendant came on the PA system soon after I was seated and said that it would not be a full flight as only 90 of 140 seats were booked. That would bode well as I did get a seatmate on the aisle, but the middle seat was empty when the magic words, "Boarding completed" came. However, we would be delayed as the ground staff and captain debated whether to let the kid who threw up and his mom fly, and soon enough, they were asked to deboard. I was worried that it would become a major incident as the kid's mother discussed it with the staffer, but ultimately they left, and we could get going to MCI.

Despite being an early-morning flight, the lead flight attendant brought his sense of humor for the standard pre-takeoff announcements and safety briefing. One thing I appreciate about WN is that they don't take themselves too seriously in that regard–serious enough, but 

Despite the shortcomings of its landside area, the Terminal 1 airside area's architecture is still iconic

All of WN's desks were decorated for Pride

Our plane at the gate, N279WN, a 17-year-old 737-700

As usual on WN's open seating flights, #BoardingNotBoarding

WN has added several international destinations in the last few years–from BWI, one can fly to AUA, CUN, MBJ, PUJ and SJO, in addition to seasonal service to BZE, GCM, LIR, NAS, PLS and SJD

Next to us was this F9 A320 ready to push back for DEN

Cabin shot just after boarding

Legroom shot

Good look at the Potomac right before takeoff

The flight

We ended up leaving 32 minutes behind schedule with the sick passenger and his mom being asked to leave the flight, but the empty middle seat in my row remained empty. On almost all of my WN flights I've taken, we've been on the 737-700 and those planes are definitely showing their age. The cabin was quite tired and the age of the seats was definitely showing–I was going to be on the 737-800 for my return flight, and having experienced both now, the tiredness of the 73G is even more apparent. The captain held the crew in their jumpseats for longer than usual because of turbulence on our climb out of DCA, but we had nice weather for the first half of the flight before cloud cover over Ohio and Indiana. 

About an hour into the flight, the flight attendants could begin their snack and drink service, coming down the aisle and taking orders of their dedicated section of the cabin per usual. I like this as it feels more personalized than the usual cart service, and I opted for an apple juice and a much-needed cup of coffee, as I hadn't had any yet. We also got some little mini graham crackers as a sweet snack. Nothing out of the ordinary for WN. I just listened to podcasts throughout the flight and before I knew it, we were beginning our approach into MCI. 

Manassas, VA

Looking south over Terre Haute, IN, home of Eugene V. Debs

Snack/drink service

The airport down below is the Midwest National Air Center

First look at downtown Kansas City, and the downtown airport (MKC), which I would be visiting the next day (more to come in a bonus at the end!)

Looking east over Missouri

On the south bank of the Missouri River you can see CPKC Stadium, the home of the National Women's Soccer League's Kansas City Current and the only stadium built exclusively for a women's sports team in the US currently

Kansas Speedway NASCAR track, and Children's Mercy Park, home of Major League Soccer side Sporting Kansas City

post-flight

We ended up touching down 7 minutes behind schedule at 7:57, and our flight attendant welcomed us with another very funny announcement. Soon, MCI's brand new terminal came into view and my excitement for getting to experience it grew. De-boarding was fairly quick, and I was into the brand new terminal at MCI in no time. I'll have more on it in my trip report of the return flight, but it easily is the most modern one I've experienced in the US. Our bags came right away, and I was soon on the hotel shuttle to go lie down for a bit before heading in to explore the city. Keep in mind, however, that if you're staying in the city, the free bus downtown runs hourly, so you may have to wait a bit if your flight arrives near the top of the hour or just after if you don't want to pay a ton of money for an Uber.

Not super busy at this time of the morning

I'm a sucker for clear jetways so this is the airport for me

There's Current merch all over the airport in its numerous shops

KC Current players Lo'eau LaBonta and Hailie Mace on the cover of the Visit KC magazine–I'm hoping to see Washington Spirit's star players on the Washington Flyer magazine that's available at DCA/IAD soon!

Connector between concourses A/B

MCI has one of those more modern vestibules for leaving the sterile area–the only bad thing about it is that it could hinder evacuation efforts if there was an emergency

The old terminal–I'll talk more about this in the return report but it very quickly became obsolete almost immediately after it opened

Bonus : Click here display hide

For those who haven't been to one before, Airliners International is one of the biggest conventions for airline enthusiasts in the world. The crown jewel of it is the collectibles show, which is open to the public, but the convention overall has special tours, seminars and get-together opportunities for aviation enthusiasts. In 2018 it was near my home airport of DCA at one of the big hotels in Pentagon City and I went to the collectibles show, but in 2019 I registered for the convention proper in Atlanta and it was a great time (with a highlight being a tour of the Delta training center). I didn't attend in 2021, '22 or '23, but Kansas City was always somewhere I wanted to check out, and given its history as a TWA hub, I knew that would be a central part of it. There's something great about being somewhere where you're surrounded by people as passionate about a topic as you are, and I already look forward to being in Atlanta next year. 

Started out with a lecture from Tom Livesey, a former UPS 747 pilot on the 747

Highlights from the TWA Museum at MKC–it's open Wednesday through Saturday and for adults it's usually $12 to get in. Our tour guide was a former purser for TWA on their transatlantic routes so he had plenty of stories to tell. For a small space, it has a lot of cool stuff and I definitely recommend it for any aviation enthusiasts passing through KC. 

The highlight of Airliners International is the collectibles show–even though many of the models are quite expensive they're still fun to look at.

Youtuber Noel Philips was at the convention to give a talk (which unfortunately I would not be there for) but it was nice to meet him.

It's stuff like this that's fascinating for me–I bought this booklet for United inflight announcements in Spanish at one of the tables at this show. This is the type of niche stuff I look for at these things. 

Did not end up buying this but I saw something similar in one of the exhibits at the TWA museum–a geography training guide for customer service representatives back in the day when people bought tickets over the phone

On my last day of the conference we heard from Joe Crawford, who racked up a million miles by his early 20s, partly doing that by taking very elaborate routings (such as IND-ORD-DSM-OMA-DFW-STL or MCO-MIA-RDU-ORD-DSM-DFW-MOB) and getting the most out of partner businesses such as Chart House restaurants.