If you’re an airline dork, 
you love timetables. It’s just the way it’s always been. And with Southwest finally issuing its last timetable this year, the era of printed timetables in the US has come to a close. I asked Southwest for a copy of the last timetable, and Southwest spokesperson Paula Berg did better than that. She sent me one signed by none other than Southwest legends Herb Kelleher and Colleen Barrett. Even better, she sent me two signed copies, and now one could be yours.
So how do you get this magical book of joy? Send me your best tribute to timetables. Video? Sounds good to me. Music? Excellent. Pictures? That’ll work. How about a poem? Delightful. Just get creative and submit your best. Got pictures of you as a pudgy pre-teen? That’ll work as well . . .
Just put your masterpiece together and send it to me at cf@crankyflier.com by 1159p Pacific Time on November 15. That’ll give you two weekends to work on this. I’ll go through the entries and pick the winner within a week of the end of the contest. I’m the only judge, so this is rather informal.
Oh, and if you have a file that’s too big to send, feel free to upload to your favorite file sharing site and send me a link. Or, I can pull it down from your site (if you have one) using FTP if that’s better.
I realize this seems like a big task, so I’m curious to see how many, if any, entries I get. We’ll see how much you guys really do love timetables.
7 comments on “Win a Southwest Flight Schedule Signed by Herb Kelleher and Colleen Barrett with a Tribute to Timetables”
The one thing about WN timetables was they always had the ‘reverse’ schedules next to each other. It made their timetable twice as big and gave the idea they were bigger then they were. Amazing how they kept that design all these years now that they are really bigger then they were.
Your handwriting was far better than mine is currently.
CF, You made it to hard for the working student that loves aviation with a huge collection.;(
CF – I’ve seen that picture of you before, but yikes, how much heat did you catch for that one??
Nicholas Barnard wrote:
Might as well embrace it instead of trying to run from it!
A little too painful to think about all the ’50s system timetables I threw out.
But, memories of my efforts to get these wonderful documents will live on forever. Once a year, a June trek to Philly International, roughly a 140-mile round trip, in Dad’s old Chevy pickup, ticket counter to ticket counter, for those marvelous documents. Then outside, on the observation deck, seeing a real live airliner departing on the hour and minute, just as the timetable said it was supposed to. Ecstacy!
Later, visits to K Street and Connecticut Avenue in downtown DC to pick up a Qantas, a Swissair, a Singapore timetable on some obscure floor of some office building. Who knew they had ticket offices there, and then for the ticketing people to learn I was there for nothing more than the latest system timetable. OK!
Yes, a liittle sad, but thank goodness I never quite outgrew all this!
CF –
Your contest is about 25 years too late for me. I tossed out all my timetables a long time ago. Every time I was at an airport I would hit all the check in counters begging for a timetable. I was in Paris for a few days as a 14 year old. What was my big thing? The Eiffel Tower? The Louvre? Hell no. It was getting out to Charles De Gaulle for a day and roaming around the terminals and seeing what I could wrangle away from the check in desks. Everyone was very nice except for the dorks at KLM who had somehow convinced themselves that I was after a boarding pass even though I kept using the words “time table” and “baggage stickers”.
Oh yeah, baggage stickers. I stuck my bedroom door with those and any other airline related sticker I could find. National, Air California, PSA, Western, Pan Am, TWA, Eastern, Ozark, Hughes Air West, Braniff (which had different color stickers since they had different color planes), all long gone but preserved on that door. Until I sanded it down and repainted it.
I might even have a picture of that door around somewhere though I have no idea where.
I was a dork in my day but no more…
…well not that obviously anyways…