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Amazing Customer Service

Sweety-D
Explorer A

This is why I love Southwest.

 

I fly a lot, I'm on at least 2 flights a week. My wife uses my companion status at least monthly. She's Russian but has an American drivers license and a Green Card. Her passport however still has her maiden name. This doesn't matter much because when we fly international we always fly on United, as SW doesn't fly to Russia and Europe which is where most of our international travel takes us. 

 

So given all this, I registered my wife as my "companion" with her married last name (my name) with SW. Today we are flying to Cancun. We are on the flight now. The problem arose when we got to the ticket counter to get our boarding pass (you can't get a mobile barding pass for international travel). The ticket I booked and her passport didn't match due to the name problem I just explained. This was actually my fault as it was an oversight. I set her as my companion many years ago and didn't even think about her last name being different for international travel.

 

This meant we had to cancel the ticket, change the name of my "companion", rebook the ticket and check her in. This cannot be done by the ticket agent. So I called the A+ Preferred number and got someone on the phone in 2 minutes. It took a while (25 minutes), but they did it. The next problem was my wife's ticket wasn't going to have TSA Pre check anymore because her background check was done with her married name and not her maiden name. 

 

Of course the line was long for non-TSA Pre (I hate you TSA!), so she was going to be late for boarding. I had boarding pass A1, she had A19 previously but due to the new ticket she now had B something. We had 5 minutes to take the train and pass security, which was never going to happen for her, but I had a chance. So I left her and ran. I got at the gate right when check in was suppose to start and I was greeted by an agent asking me, "are you the man with a wife that is late due to a name change on a ticket?" I said "yes and how do you know that?" She explained they called her and that we will wait for her, don't worry. 

 

All this immediately put my mind at ease. I texted my wife (who was 15 minutes behind me) the good news to put her at ease. As it happens, the plane boarded 15 minutes late and she actually made it to the gate right when I was getting on the flight at the agent told her to just board with me as they understood the situation. 

 

Thank you SW agents. You are the reason I fly SW. 

1 REPLY 1

Re: Amazing Customer Service

bec102896
Aviator A
Solution

Glad to hear that the agent on the phone was able to get the name changed and useable so quickly since usually it can take up to 10 days before the new companion is usable. 

 

Also glad to hear the agents at the airport were helpful and that the ops agent at the gate was going to hold the flight for your wife because of these mix ups. If you get a chance i would send your compliment to Southwest directly though one of these contact methods: Submitting a Customer Service Compliment this way Southwest can pass on your kudos to the appropriate agents and supervisors for celebration. I recommend Facebook or twitter for quickest way to send the compliment. 

 

-Blake