What Does Southwest Airlines Give Me The Freedom to Do? David Evans, Jr.

[Anonymous]

As I have written in numerous posts, one of my passions is traveling. I think I have the perfect job. While pursuing my passion, I get to fly a really cool aircraft, work for an awesome Company, and support my family. And while I am enjoying myself, I am part of an organization which provides the Freedom of Fly to millions of our Customers. So, I enjoy many Freedoms while working at Southwest: The Freedom to indulge my passion, the Freedom to support my family at a fun and financially stable Company with incredibly talented Coworkers, and have the satisfaction that I am making a difference in the lives of our Customers by giving them the Freedom "to move about the Country" each and every day. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, EVERYONE.

[Stephen_Badger1]

Southwest, If only you lived up to your mission that talks about having the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. I have flown southwest and been a customer several times. However, this morning I did not fly southwest. I happened to be flying on an airline whose check in counter was right next to southwest's. The airline that I was flying on did not provide bags for the carseat that I was traveling with so I asked one of your "friendly" check in employees at the Ontario Airport in California if he had a bag that I could use. He replied in a very rude manner, "Are you flying with us? If not, then I can't give you a bag." A fifteen cent bag. I didn't realize that southwest was in such financial difficulty that they couldn't spare a fifteen cent bag. I used to fly southwest airlines. I used to think that they were a fun and friendly airline. Based on my experience this morning, I don't think that I'll ever fly southwest again. Who wants to be the patron of an airline who treats others so rudely? Not me.

[Stephen_Badger]

Why don't you have a complaint section on your website?

[blusk]

Hi Stephen, I am sorry to hear of your experience in Ontario, and if our folks were rude, that would certainly be out of character. I am curious as to why you aren't upset with the airline upon which you flew since they apparently provide fewer ammenities to their Customers than we do. Have you considered this? Our stations get a limited supply of those bags, and we want to make sure that we have them available when our Customers need them--it would be a disservice to our Customers if we ran out. How would you have felt when you flew with us if we had run out of the bags by giving them to another airline's passengers? It's not a question of cost, but availabity. As to a complaint section on our web site, I'm not sure if you mean southwest.com or this blog. If you will read the blog's User Guide (the link is under the airplane on the upper right), the blogs purpose is to have a dialogue with our Customers, and it isn't set up to handle individual Customer Service concerns. We are working toward being able to handle these electronically, but we don't have a firm timeline. In the meantime, our Customer Relations Department wants to hear all of our Customer concerns, and their contact information is in the User Guide. Your patronage is important to us, and I hope this one incident won't keep you from flying with us. Brian

[jim]

You know, some fascinating insight can be gained from Stephen's query. Even though he was flying on another airline, he still expected the over the top Customer service experience that he is used to as a Southwest Customer. Think about it. If his airline's counter happened to be next to an airline that wasn't Southwest, would he have expected a free car seat bag from an airline he wasn't flying? Of course not. But Stephan had a need, and he asked a favor. If it was some other airline next to his check in counter, he most certainly would have asked for said plastic bag. They might or might not have given him one, but if they did not have one for him, he would not have been disappointed. He certainly wouldn't have taken the time to contact the airline he wasn't flying to complain about poor service. What an honor to Southwest to be held to a higher standard. Stephan doesn't seem to be upset that his airline of choice didn't even offer car seat bags, yet he was still expecting something above and beyond from Southwest based on previous experiences. If you think about it, Stephan's post and its subtle undertones are a case study in how to run an airline. Way to go Southwest, you have broken the mold once again!

[Cygnus]

Sorry to continue the threadjack, but . . . Brian: tell your bosses NOT to have a "complaint section" of southwest.com or handle issues by e-mail. If it's not worth reporting via snail-mail, it's not worth reporting. In fact, I'd have no problem with you bloggers instituting a "no unrelated gripe zone" here on the blogs. If there's a post about when schedules will be available and folks want to comment/grouse about that, go for it. But this shouldn't be a place for moaning and groaning about unrelated incidents that couldn't better be served as you have done so until now. (I know I complained about the lack of West Coast flights from BWI, but it was in a thread so related.) Just my security fee's worth, Paul (Working on a nickname for here)

[cadams]

As a flight attendant for SWA I am very sorry Mr. Badger no longer likes us. I want every employee to please every passenger (whether they are ours or not) every day. Is there an airline or person anywhere that can do this? I have done many wonderful things for my family, but when I fail I hope I will be judged by the good things. I want the same for SWA. I'm glad Mr. Badger wrote and I hope we can some day provide a positive expericence for him and his family.

[FriendofBlogBoy]

Captain Evans -- What a great post with a lot of positive energy! I'm sorry that it got derailed by someone with a lot of negative energy, but maybe considering that it is Independence Day, it is okay that Mr. Badger has the freedom of speech to express his opinion. Thanks for the largely unsung job that y'all in the "front office" of all of the Southwest 737s do, day in and day out, consistently, professionally and conscientiously. Each one of you are a true asset to the Company and make it a pleasure for us to fly with you! Kim External Blog Boy :) Mr. Badger, I will echo my fellow bloggers' comments in regretting that you had an experience that did not live up to your expectations of the outstanding Employees of Southwest Airlines. After more than 34 years' worth of experiences of my own, though, I will gladly state that NO other airline or set of people can come close to being what Southwest is. I would hope that the reluctance of one person to give you something does not convince you to avoid Southwest Airlines from now on. Whether he should or shouldn't have given you the bag, it just doesn't seem right to judge 33,000 people and their AWESOME service every day on the actions of one of them. Please give Southwest another chance to show you that they really do LUV you! Kim External Blog Boy 🙂

[Mike19]

What a great forum to allow outsiders to post comments. That really takes guts and shows Southwest willingness to try someting different. Cool!

[julie_gibbens]

Dave, great comments about freedom and everything but what I was really wondering about was whether it's harder for planes to take off in really hot weather, like 112 degrees, which is what it's supposed to be on Monday when I fly to Las Vegas. Thanks jg

[Tim5]

David, I understand your satisfaction with working for such a great company. How do others get on board to do something they love? It seems almost impossible to get a job with Southwest Airlines, especially in Texas. Airplanes are my passion. I'm not a pilot, but would love to put that passion to work with an awesome company like SWA. I appreciate the fact that they take care of their employees; something you don't see in many companies. Thanks for any feedback. Have a great week!