I ran across an interesting statistic the other day that I want to share with you. I have mentioned in past posts that I have spent as many as 211 nights in hotel rooms in a single year. Since I am now based in the city where I live, I average about 13 nights a month in someone else's bed (probably should have rephrased that). Anyway, in a recent month, Southwest Airlines purchased an astounding 97,648 hotel rooms for our Flight Crews (Pilots and Flight Attendants).
In some cities we have too many Crew Members for any one hotel to handle. We use hotels close to the airport for Crews on a very short overnight and hotels near shopping or entertainment for those with a longer overnight. In the 64 cities that Southwest serves, we utilize 94 different hotels.
And, in true Southwest fashion (save money whenever you can), the majority of the procurement and coordination for this massive undertaking is handled by volunteers, 17 Southwest Pilots and Flight Attendants to be exact, with assistance from Staff at our corporate office. Just think: one million, one hundred seventy-one thousand, seven hundred and seventy-six (1,171,776) hotel rooms a year...that's a lot of bed pillow chocolates!!!
