Review of Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to Chicago in Economy

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to my new Flight Report series, In which I'll cover my flights from Israel to the US and back.
For years I'm dreaming of traveling to the US and experience what America is like and finally I got the chance to go on a 50 days solo adventure, mostly in the southwest with several days in Chicago and two short hops to Mexico.
The flight routing doesn't make much such sense as many things have changed since I booked this trip from Lufthansa (except for the domestic flights) in December 2023.
This time I finally got the chance to fly long-haul for the first time in my life, and to fly on wide-body aircraft for the first time since 2011.

On this report I'll cover my fourth flight out of the seven which is a Southwest Airlines flight from Denver to Chicago-Midway onboard their Boeing 737-800 (it was supposed to be a MAX but swapped the day before)  which is the first flight out of four on the way home, theoretically I could complete the journey in 2 flights easily, but that's how it turned out.

Now let's get started!

routing

denver AIRPORT

After 41 days in exploring the Southwest the trip it came to it's end as I returned my car to the rental company at 2:00pm, 4 hours before scheduled departure and I took the shuttle to the terminal, hoping to pass the time easily there.

First I went to Southwest check in zone which can take a while to find as the check in zones, security check areas and baggage claim are all mixed one in the other and the signage can be confusing but finally I found it:

Check in is done automatically in the kiosk where you can print your boarding pass and baggage tag and then you send your luggage at the staffed counter.
Despite being considered as a low cost carrier all Southwest passengers get 2 pieces of checked baggage for free, however seats are not assigned.

The process was super quick and efficient and after maybe 5 minutes I was ready to proceed towards the security check.

The line and structure seem quite scary from above:

Trying to find the way to the security:

After a while I found it (not the one I've seen form above though) and I went through it, I don't remember the exact time it took but I believe it was around 15-20 minutes.
After security you have to take the train that leads you the concourses with Concourse A handling all international flights as well as some domestic flights while Concourse B and Concourse C are for domestic flights, as I'm flying on Southwest I'm headed to Concourse C. 

As you can travel freely between the concourses and I had a few hours to kill I first went to A for some plane spotting:
Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 NEO to Bloomington (IL)
Lufthansa Airbus A350-900 to Munich
Delta Air Lines Airbus A321-200 to Detroit
Lufthansa Boeing 787-9 from Frankfurt (which eventually departed back in a delay of over 24 hours)
Air France Boeing 787-9 from Paris-CDG
United Airlines Boeing 787-9 to Frankfurt

The concourse also has a large bus gates area but it seemed almost empty:

Some airport machinery from up close:

That's what the concourse itself looks like+ FIDS:

Then I went to Concourse B which is only used for United's domestic flights so there was not much to catch except this:
United Airlines (Star Alliance livery) Boeing 737-800 to Grand Junction:

Then I wen to Concourse C to realize my flight is delayed by 40 minutes:

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 to Kansas City:

American Airlines Airbus A319 to Dallas-Fort Worth and United Airlines Airbus A320 to Jacksonville:

My flight is at gate C65 which is located towards the end of the concourse and since the flight delayed I looked for something to eat and I have to admit that food prices here are even more expensive than on the Las Vegas strip but after some search I found a decent pre-packed burrito for a relatively reasonable price and went back to the gate area.

At that time, since both my flight and the neighboring flight were constantly delayed the gate agents entertained us the passengers with a Mother's day quiz, which was a fun and creative initiative and something I didn't see before.

depature

Our aircraft for today is Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 registered N8625A.
It was delivered new to Southwest Airlines in 2014.

Boarding was made in the typical Southwest way which means 3 boarding groups, each one with up to 60 passengers, I was the first passenger in the last group.

Luckily, I found a window seat in the front of the aircraft at 4F.
The seat itself is very basic but comfortable enough for this kind of flights:

Legroom:

Seat pocket included safety cards and WIFI information:

And also the drinks selection, with the alcoholic drinks available for purchase, and the rest are given for free:

Next to us there was this Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 to San Antonio:

After all the announcements and the safety demonstration we finally taxied and took off.

Takeoff was made at 7:07pm (1:02 hours late) through runway 34L (4877m, the 5th longest runway in the world and the longest in the US).

INFLIGHT

Our flight took us over the open fields of Colorado and Nebraska before it got cloudy and then dark: 

Southwest meal service include a small snack and a drink. 
Surprisingly, the flight attendants take your drink order and write it on their notebook, just like in business class or in a restaurant.
First they served the snack which is a mix of crackers and pretzels: 

For drink I went with the Bloody Mary mix which despite being non alcoholic was really good and was better and more unique compared to the regular tomato juice most airlines serve.

Southwest offers a streaming service which includes free texting, movies, TV shows, music, inflight map and information, recommendations for all of their destinations and probably more:  

arrival

After a quiet evening flight with not much going on the highlight of the flight started as we made our way through the southwestern suburbs of Chicago, about 15-20 minutes before landing: 

Then as we got closer to the city it got more impressive, as we made a turn above lake Michigan and we could see the whole downtown of Chicago with the hundreds of skyscrapers lightened, what an amazing way to arrive in such a city!

After several amazing minutes ( unfortunately the photos doesn't do justice to those views as I had to take them out of a video I took) landing was made at 10:14pm (44 minutes behind schedule) through runway 22L (1964m, quite a contrast from Denver's).

Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-800 to Louisville:

CHICAGO-MIDWAY AIRPORT

Our parking spot was Gate B21, at the end of Concourse B.
Exiting:

Despite the late hour the terminal was still packed with travelers going all across the US:

Midway Airport looks a bit outdated compared to other airports but still it was a comfortable and efficient way to reach Chicago as after less than 30 minutes from landing I was already on the train to the city for my last night in America, until next time.