Southwest Celebrates Its One Millionth Online Checkin Customer; Houston Resident Showered With Balloons, Confetti, and a lot of Southwest LUV! HOUSTON, May 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Larry Rollins, an industrial and marine sales manager for Sherwin Williams in Houston, Texas, probably never imagined himself as one day standing in the middle of William P. Hobby Airport covered in confetti and surrounded by balloons and cheering Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) Employees and Customers -- but today, he is doing just that. Rollins was recently selected as Southwest's One Millionth Online Checkin Customer, and the carrier couldn't let that milestone pass without a little celebration to honor Rollins and his historic online boarding card. Southwest did its research and discovered that, not only is Larry a Rapid Rewards Member, he's also a Companion Pass holder (50 or more roundtrips flown in 12 months), and he's used southwest.com's newest enhancement -- Online Checkin -- eight times since it became available on February 5, 2004! "Online Checkin is a no-brainer for me," Rollins said. "Not only can I check-in for my flight before I go to the airport, I can almost guarantee myself an 'A' boarding card." To thank Larry Rollins for his loyalty and "southwest.com savvy-ness," Southwest awarded him two free roundtrip tickets to any of the 59 destinations Southwest serves. He also received a framed duplicate of his boarding pass to commemorate the occasion -- he used the real one to board a flight to San Antonio. "It's Customers like Larry that make southwest.com so successful," said Kevin Krone, Southwest's vice president of interactive marketing. "We spend a lot of time and effort creating tools to make southwest.com the best website in the travel industry and it's very gratifying to be celebrating the one millionth online check-in less than four months after launching the capability." Southwest Airlines Customers with an electronic ticket can log on to southwest.com and print an online Boarding Pass for the first leg of travel, as of 12:01 a.m. on the day of departure. Likewise, an online Boarding Pass may be printed for the first leg of a return trip as of 12:01 a.m. on the day of travel. The online Boarding Pass allows a Customer entry through the Airport Security Checkpoint and onboard his/her scheduled flight without making an additional stop at the airport. (For Customers who are checking bags, a stop at the Southwest Airlines Ticket Counter or Skycap is still necessary.) Southwest was the first airline to establish a home page on the Internet. Today, southwest.com is the number one airline website for online revenue. About 57 percent of Southwest's total passenger revenue -- more than $3 billion annually -- is booked via southwest.com. Approximately 85 percent of Southwest's Customers book Ticketless Travel -- through the airline's Reservations Centers, ticket counters, web site, or through a travel agent. Southwest Airlines is the nation's second largest domestic carrier in terms of scheduled domestic departures. The airline currently serves 60 airports in 59 cities in 31 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates nearly 2,800 flights a day with a fleet of 395 Boeing 737s with an average age of nine years -- one of the youngest pure jet fleets in the domestic airline industry. www.southwest.com SOURCE Southwest Airlines