How is it o.k.?

[jenifermattioli]

My partner and I were 4 hours early for our flight heading from Nashville back to Phoenix. We sat at our gate waiting - it was a busy time of day but there was no change at the gate t.v. letting us know that the gate was changed. We ran over to the new gate only for the agent to say that we were two mins late and right in front of us, printed two tickets for 2 people on standby. 

Our gate was never changed on the app, we received no notification, no announcement was made, no one came to the gate the flight originally was at and made an announcement. We were absolutely shocked and extremely disappointed in the customer service and lack of any help. We were just left. No flight out, no-one was willing to take a moment to help us get back to our children and our jobs the next day.

We ended up getting on a flight the next day, had to book a hotel for the night and missed work.

It's not ok to go the extra measures to make sure that two PAYING customers are found by actually going to the gate the flight originally was at and page them.

Extremely disappointed in Southwest for overlooking, overbooking and for giving away our seats because the lack of Southwest Communication.

[dfwskier]

I had something like that happen to me a few months back in St. Louis.

I was waiting at my gate and heard my name on the  airport pa, asking me to see a gate agent.. The person I talked with said I need to get to a different gate, and the plane was waiting on me, . I did and got the last aisle seat on the plane.

There no gate announcement, but if I had looked at the departure board I would have seen there was a gate change,

Maybe you missed the airport announcement. That is what the airline normally uses as a last resort.

Were you not suspicious that there had been no boarding announcement that close to departure time?

[SWFlyer007]

To answer your question, it's not ok.  I've had gate changes and always seemed to get informed early.  But from reading other posts and hearing stories like yours, my wife and I have gone to the, "expect it to happen mode."  So as soon as we get to the gate, we check what the sign says at the ticket counter, does it show our city of destination.  And although annoying, I still ask the clerk, "Is this the gate for FLT XXX to XXX?  It just gives me peace of mind.  And as always, if it's a connecting flight, we always go right to the board as soon as we get off to see if there is any change.   I hope this helps with any future flights on SWA.  

[DancingDavidE]

I recommend to use “app in the air” or TripIt as backups who will text you with any known gate changes.

I’m sorry that OP missed a flight but the fact is they did make some announcement, the plane departed with most of its passengers, and they page you by name….airport PA systems do vary though and my own pet peeve is when two adjacent gates are boarding around the same time it’s hard to tell what announcement is which. One time I did get all the way in line and scan my ticket with a “WHOMP” sound I was in the wrong boarding line. 

[CupCrusher40]

what group were you in?

[bec102896]

Did you not notice a bunch of people stand up and leave or a bunch of people show up all at once that’s usually a sign that a gate change occurred and then I would look at the app or the departure board because sometimes things change so fast the gate agent could miss the change because they could be busy working other flights when a change was made. 

your welcome to share your feedback with Southwest directly by clicking on the contact us link at the bottom of the page 

-Blake