It’s been a while since I’ve been on an Southwest 737-700 even with it being the most common plane in the Southwest fleet. The 737-700 is the smallest and oldest plane in the Southwest fleet. I’ve ridden on and reviewed all of the planes in Southwest’s fleet if you’re interested in checking them out.
While they are a low cost carrier, Southwest has more free features than every full service airline in the US. Free checked bags, drinks, and snacks. There are a few features that Southwest needs to add to stay competitive. The biggest being Southwest should add power into each seat to charge devices.
Bottom Line: While these 737-700s are starting to show their age, Southwest continues to be a such a solid airline. I’ll gladly ride with Southwest.
Southwest 737-700 Boarding
Boarding started right on time, the gate agent told us the flight was not full and we’d have plenty of room to spread out once on board. I’ve talked about the Southwest boarding process before, it’s a little different than most other airlines.
We boarded with our group and headed towards the back of the plane where there were lots of empty seats. We got our own row on the right hand side of the plane.
Southwest 737-700 Seating
I wanted to sit on the right because we’re heading west, that way the sun will be on the other side and we’ll get a nice view from the windows.
The seats on the southwest 737-700 are comfortable and have more legroom than most other economy seats.
The biggest downside is that there is no in seat power provided. Southwest is working of fixing that, but it’s taking them a while to roll it out to the fleet.
Sure enough the doors were shut and there were lots of empty seats. We got a row to ourselves and hand an empty middle seat between Val and Myself.
Southwest 737-700 Push Back and Takeoff
The sun is rising here in Atlanta as we pushed back. An easy way to tell the Southwest 737-700 from all of the other variants of 737 is the winglets. The WN 737-700 only has a single upturned wiglet while the 737-800s and 737Max have split winglets.
We pushed back from the gate right on time and the flight attendants gave their safety briefing as we taxied to the runway.
We took off towards the west. In typical southwest fashion, the pilots held the brakes, spooled up the engines, then released to let her fly. Not sure why Southwest does that, but it’s pretty common.
Southwest In-flight Drinks and Snacks
About 15 minutes after takeoff the seat belt sign was turned off and the flight attendants began their drink and snack service. I’ve talked about this before, but southwest doesn’t roll out drink carts. They come around to your seat and ask for your selection.
Then about 5-10 minutes later they come back with a tray of drinks. Honestly the system works really well, make the drinks in the galley and bring out only what you need.
They then came through with a basket full of snacks. Today we had cinnamon gram crackers. I really liked them. I’m very boring so I had water with my snack.
Southwest 737 In Flight
Outside it’s a beautiful clear day. Nice and smooth here in flight for us on the Southwest 737-700.
Southwest 737-700 Lavatory
The Southwest 737-700 has 2 lavatories. There’s one in the front and this one in the rear. Most airlines would have 3 lavatories on a plane this size, Southwest only has 2. They aren’t huge, but big enough I guess.
Southwest 737-700 In Flight Entertainment
Southwest doesn’t have individual entertainment screens in their seats, they do have a stream to your own device option. It works pretty well and even includes live TV. The only downside is that Southwest doesn’t have power on their 737-700s. So bring a battery pack if you’re on a longer flight and want to have a full battery when you land.
Southwest 737 Descent and Landing
With about 25 minutes left in the flight, the pilot gave us an announcement that we’d be landing soon and have started our decent into Austin.
There’s more clouds blanketing Texas, but it’s still very smooth up here. The seatbelt sign was turned back on and the flight attendants made another pass through the cabin to collect our garbage.
We made our final approach to a somewhat cloudy Austin.
And on the ground here in Texas.
Southwest 737-700 Final Thoughts
Southwest is a very solid airline. There’s nothing fancy about their service, but the flights are perfectly pleasant. The seats are all economy, and there’s no seating assignments(yet), but I do find the seats comfortable on the 737-700. I do wish they would add power for devices on all of their planes, not just on some of their 737Maxs. I like that even though they are a low cost carrier, Southwest still offers a free drink and snack service. I also like that their alcoholic drink prices are somewhat reasonable.
The bottom line is I don’t mind riding with Southwest.