We pushed back a couple minutes early and were probably between 60-70% full. It's a standard seat and cabin for the older Southwest 737s. This is Southwest's Boeing 737-700 with the older seats and cabin. Other than announcement from one of the flight attendants about this flight, nothing fancy or celebration onboard. As it was not a full flight, we departed a couple minutes early. Boarding is done outside by stairs and by now, the rain and wind were making it feel very Northwest. I ended up in the A Boarding group, number 28. It also should give me a better seating position. I purchased Early Bird Check-in which allowed me to be automatically checked in 36 hours ahead of time. Southwest was the center of attention as there was no other flights coming in. There was also lots of photos and videos being taken to capture the moment. The goodie bag contained a welcome letter, some Southwest and Bellingham stickers, a coffee sample from a local coffee roaster and Southwest shades. There was a table with a goodie bag and some water, sparkling cider and little lollipop cakes. Speaking on behalf of Southwest was Andrew Watterson, Chief Commercial Officer. It seemed every airport official and city official who could be there was there. The first passengers disembarked and were greeted with cheers as they entered the terminal. In front of me were several Southwest officials here to commemorate the occasion.īecause of that and the really early arrival of the inbound flight, the flight arrived 12 minutes early, I just missed the water cannon salute. As Precheck, I was given a pink slip to show to the agents checking our bags and simply tossed the slip once I passed. It took about 15-20 minutes to get through all the regular security checks. Though the lines were relatively short, the airport certainly didn't seem as prepared for the extra fanfare today. However there was only one person checking boarding passes and identification for Pre Check and Non-Pre Check. You could tell people were excited with balloons and posters all around.Īfter collecting my boarding passes, I was off to the gate. I wished everyone at BLI and Southwest would do well here for years to come. The two people checking people in were very friendly and excited about the new service into their airport. There was no one in line ahead of me when I got to the desk. Even though I checked in online and had my boarding pass on my phone, I was A28 thanks to Early Bird Check in, I still wanted to get a paper boarding pass to keep as a memento and to chat with the people at the counter. Southwest took center stage at the ticketing area. Be warned about these things if you're used to easy and convenient travel to or from the airport to the city. And the city bus does not go to the airport on Sunday. Uber is not allowed to pickup or drop off from the airport. It took more than 45 minutes to get one to pick me up from my hotel, which also didn't have shuttle service. Not being a major tourist city, Bellingham has very few taxis. Unfortunately Bellingham has none of those things, especially on a Sunday. So I'm used to flying out of major airports with either good public transportation links or good taxi/uber or know people who can take me to the airport. To watch the video, check out my YouTube video. This is the first time I've ever been on an inaugural flight and I was curious how Southwest would celebrate a new route on a Sunday from a small airport to one of its major airports, Las Vegas. It's been a while since I posted a trip report, but I had the pleasure of being on the very first Southwest Airlines flight from Bellingham, WA on November 7, 2021. Southwest's inaugural flight from bellingham, wa to las vegas!
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