At least they're tops at something.....

"Continental" and Southwest airlines share Internet site awards:

Southwest and Continental Websites Take Top Honors in Latest Study by Keynote of Air Travel Booking Websites -- Latest Trends and Success Factors Revealed in Advance of Summer Travel Season, WSJ Market Watch (Press Release)

Of course, I link to this because Continental is gone, now United, but the technical expertise of the site lives on (and it is a good website FWIW). More important are the words associated with Southwest Airlines:

More than any other site, panelists associate the positive brand attributes "Friendly," "Fun," "Good Value," "Innovative," "Reliable," and "Trustworthy" with Southwest

Words that go a long way toward explaining why the general public is more behind Southwest in the Hobby expansion debate than United.

The knee-jerk "Continental abandoned Houston" meme is another driver. Except that it didn't. Houston-based Continental was purchased by Chicago-based United. Sure it would have been nice if they kept the HQ in Houston, but United stood to lose Millions if they reneged on their deal with Chicago. Ot was a no-brainer of a business decision, one that not even Smisek the Smiling could mess up.

Not that any of this was relevant to the Hobby expansion story, I just found it interesting that the two airlines were linked in another way.