may serve you your next drink on Southwest
The flight attendant serving you drinks on your next Southwest flight could be a millionaire. Eight flight attendants are among the 17 employees who have worked at Southwest since the discount carrier’s first days of service. All are millionaires, beneficiaries of Southwest's profit-sharing program. “Ask them why they stick around and they mention frugality and pride in earning their keep. And they say they simply like to work,” writes
The New York Times (free registration), which ran a feature on the long-time Southwest employees. Joining the founding flight attendants are five operations workers and four executives. One of the airline’s “millionaire attendants” is Sandra Force, described by the
Times as a former “elementary school teacher and one-time beauty pageant winner from Memphis.” She was hired “on the spot” after her summer 1971 interview. "My mother was devastated,” Force tells the
Times.
She recalls her mother saying, “Sandra, if you were going to quit your teaching job, why didn't you go with a well-known airline like Braniff?" At the time, Southwest was considered to be the long-shot upstart while Braniff was the well-established heavyweight. The airlines competed head-to-head on many Texas routes -– though Braniff never made it out of the 80s while Southwest has gone on to become one of the airline industry's top success stories. As for Force, the single 61-year-old just completed chemotherapy for breast cancer and returned to work this month after a six-month absence. But, the
Times writes, “she does not need the paycheck.” Force has more than 100,000 shares of Southwest stock, a stash valued at about $1.6 million. "I love to work," she says. "Southwest is kind of my family and my husband."
