I saw this terrific story about Southwest Airlines' Louis Begin on San Francisco Chronicle writer Peter Hartlaub's blog, The Poop. Here's an excerpt:

"I hesitate to write nice things about big corporations on this blog. Readers will assume I'm in bed with an advertiser, and I'm guaranteed at least 12 comments from people who insist that Southwest's airplanes are all made by small children in sweatshops in China. I've factored all of that in when I say, without hesitation, that Southwest Airlines rules. They will get my business for a long time, if for no other reason that they hired a guy named Louis Begin -- the Sherlock Holmes of the airline industry lost and found....

During a recent trip to Utah with my wife and kids, my 4-year-old son lost his little blue backpack.... It was a bit of a shock last week when out of the blue, two weeks after our trip, Louis Begin called my wife at our home. This employee managed to track us down [to return the backpack] -- even though there wasn't a scrap of identification in the bag."

Read the full story at The Poop.

+ + + + + +

Posted by Ginger Conlon; Excerpt of "My son's lost backpack, or why I'll be flying Southwest from now on" by Peter Hartlaub