Southwest Airlines Wants You to Keep Your Cash

DALLAS, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines wants you to keep your cash ... and hand over your plastic! No, Southwest is not adding new service fees, but beginning Sept. 9, all Southwest Airlines aircraft will be equipped with handheld credit card devices that will enable Flight Attendants to take drink orders in a flash, and accept credit and debit cards for payment of cocktails, beer, wine, and Lo-Carb Monster energy drinks. The airline will no longer accept cash onboard.

"For years, Customers have been asking Southwest to accept credit cards onboard for payment, and now we can give our Customers one more feature they want," said Scott Halfmann, Southwest Airlines Vice President of Provisioning. "No more remembering to hit the cash machine before boarding your flight!"

Southwest Airlines will accept all major credit and debit cards for payment as well as Southwest Airlines Drink Coupons. Additionally, Customers paying with their Rapid Rewards credit card from Chase will receive double reward dollars by using their card onboard.

"Southwest will continue to offer peanuts, snacks, juices, and sodas at no cost -- that's one thing we haven't changed," Halfmann said. "The only difference our Customers will see is a convenient way to pay for alcoholic beverages and Monster energy drinks, and no more inflight announcements asking who has change for a $20 bill!"

Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants and Provisioning Employees gave their input on what device would be the easiest to handle. The result was a hand-held device and software service from GuestLogix Inc. (TSX-V:GXI) that makes paying for drinks as fast as a swipe of a credit card.

Southwest is the only U.S. airline to remain consistently profitable this decade, and enjoys an unprecedented string of 35 consecutive years of profitability. Southwest has one of the industry's lowest cost structures, a strong balance sheet, and the most comprehensive fuel hedge of any major U.S. airline. At Southwest Airlines, what you see is what you pay with no hidden fees. You can check your first two bags for free, there are no change fees, no fees for a window or aisle seat, and, as always, snacks, sodas, and smiles are all complimentary!

After 37 years of service, Southwest Airlines, the nation's leading low-fare carrier, continues to differentiate itself from other airlines -- offering a reliable product with exemplary Customer Service. Southwest Airlines is the most productive airline in the sky and offers Customers a comfortable traveling experience. Southwest offers a very comfortable ride with all premium leather seats and plenty of legroom with a young all Boeing 737 fleet. Southwest recently updated its gate areas and improved its boarding procedure to make flying Southwest even more convenient and simple. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), the nation's largest carrier in terms of domestic passengers enplaned, currently serves 64 cities in 32 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,400 flights a day and has more than 34,000 Employees systemwide.

                           http://www.southwest.com