Today at Southwest Airlines was a day just like any other, with the infamous intern Amazing Race! Not to boast … but I am a proud member of the winning team, the “Herbies”.
Every semester the intern coordinators put together an Amazing Race at Southwest Airlines. We all wore our college colors/jerseys and ran around the headquarters on a mission. Some of the fun things included…
- Running through an obstacle course (outside, brr) wearing Spirit Jr.
- Chubby bunny, which Darac Favre had never played so of course we let him be the bunny, that was fun.
- Water pong, which sadly took us longer than we expected to score three cups.
- Running through the halls looking for a dates of city openings.
Many of the games included trivia …
What is the most celebrated holiday at SWA? Halloween. Which two people on the Executive Board have the same birthday? Herb Kelleher and Gary Kelly. What are two functions you can do on the SWA app? Check-in and check flight status. What are two SWA slogans? GO. SEE. DO. and Bags Fly Free.
We had a great time meeting new interns, learning more about the culture of SWA, while running around headquarters during operating hours.
So what do I do at work when I’m not flying paper airplanes and skipping down the hall in costumes?
TLC
If you didn’t know, SWA is having a reality T.V. show on TLC which will be premiering in a few months. The show is designed to follow customers and employees around on their travels of life as they create milestones with SWA, stay tuned for more!
No, I’m not going to be on it, but I have gotten to do some fun behind-the-scenes work. My direct supervisor heads up branded-entertainment, crazy cool. I was assigned to go through groups who are flying in the near future to find an interesting group for our camera crew to follow for an episode. I called a few cheer teams, family reunion groups, ski trippers, educational travelers, etc. I told them they had the opportunity to be on a reality show and asked who they were traveling with and what their travel plans were. What people will do for reality T.V.
LUVLines
LUVLines is an internal magazine for the 40,000+ employees at SWA. I have the opportunity to write an article covering the Properties department as they go through rebranding. It has been great to meet and interview the VP of Properties as well as many directors and managers in the department. I have learned the functions of the department and now I’m relaying it in a “behind the scenes” article.
Nuts About Southwest
I organized a bet for station managers in the opposing team’s areas for the Super Bowl. The station managers were so excited so I decided to share it in a blog post. Check it out here.
Media Relations
Another cool guy in my department, Chris, is a speech writer for CEO Gary Kelly. Last week we had a visitor from a well-known financial publication that is featuring Gary in a CEO article. Along with the interview, Gary had a photo shoot. Chris invited me to come to the photo shoot to meet Gary, Ah! Measly little communications intern meets CEO, it was great. After chatting and watching him throw paper airlines in the photo shoot, I then escorted the reporter to the gift shop to get his kids souvenirs and send him on his way.
In other news I have had a great time taking advantage of my non-reving privileges. I have been to Lubbock and Nashville. Both were great adventures with great friends. I’m looking forward to Atlanta this weekend for the inaugural weekend of SWA!
catherinefaye 