Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, since VX use the international terminal at SFO & it seems to be one of the less busy ones (but I guess it might depend what time you get there). Checkin is easy - swipe your credit card at one of the consoles in the checkin area, select the correct flight, tell it how many bags you have, press OK & it prints your bording pass - proceed to bag drop. Took me about 5 mins all in, theres a 'old stylee' checkin desk too & I think you can do the checkin / printout boarding pass online 24 hours beforehand .
Bording the plane is interesting - they have all the windows closed & purple 'mood lighting' - it looks quite swish & Ill try to remember to take a photo on the return leg. Bording appears to be by row number starting at the front, in various groups A, B, C etc as printed on the bording card. Flight appeared to be full which surprised me for a Sunday, I was in 8A (bording group A) so there may have been 1 or 2 free seats towards the back. Left more or less on time & arrived about 10 mins late after a long approach that looped over the entire Las Vegas valley (possibly something to do with the changes to the flight paths at LAS ? http://www.lvrj.com/news/17335144.html ) - great views from the window seats; arrived into Terminal 1 D at LAS so you get to take the train to the main building, baggage claim was 14, which is a bit of a hike.
Seats on the plane are good - not quite as comfy as the new PE on VA but no complaints, enough room for me even with the seat infront reclined 20 seconds after takeoff. The Red inflight entertainment system was working, you can choose to watch live TV, or a movie (for which you pay with your credit card at your seat) + other functions such as order drinkies (pay for alcohol), chat to other seats & a comprehensive map that you can zoom in & out using google maps; very impressive, I had a quick look around me & everyone seemed to be using the Live TV on different channels. On the way out I checked the first class seats, the white leather appears to be holding up well so perhaps it wasn't such a bad choice of colour. We were offered one round of free soft drinks shortly after takeoff, there may have been a food offering but Im afraid I dozed off for most of the flight. Crew seemed to be in good spirits, and the captain waved us all off at the door on the way out.
All in all, very impressed - I paid a total of $154 after all the taxes for the return trip SFO - LAS, Ive had cheaper flights with Southwest but its an excellent service at that price & one I will use again if I get a chance.
