Oversold Flight Incident at MCO

[SoCalFlyer97]

@bec102896 wrote:

floridaguy I have a story for you and would love your input 

So today I flew out of MCO thanks to a delay yesterday that would cause me to miss my connection so they rebook me for today. TSA was a breeze with my clear/pre check at 10am but after that it went downhill fast. I met the rudest SW agent I have ever felt with and will probably cost the airline a lot of my business for the time being after my trip next weekend. Yep I submitted my compliant to customer relations and depending on how that goes it may be on the news as well. Thanks to the gate agent intentionally causing me to not board my flight they rebook me on a 10pm flight then I had to call reservations to use my A List perk to be moved to the 4:15 flight which ended up delayed because of weather (which had no affect on my noon flight) the ops agent refused to put me on that flight even though it had seats. I had a confirmed seat on the noon flight but clearly this woman had it out for me when I hadn’t had any contact with her other than her paging me and immediately saying I won’t be on this flight and calling the supervisor to remove me because it was oversold but didn’t say that just picked me 

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This topic was split off from the discussion about TSA at MCO.

Oh my, @bec102896! Looks like you were double-bumped. I would like to weigh in as I've had prior similar experiences in other industries. To clarify what happened, a few questions... 

1. After you missed your original connecting flight from the weather delay and were rebooked to the 12p flight, I'm assuming you checked in and got to the gate on time. Correct? Was it at that point that you were initially paged while waiting at the gate and informed that the flight was oversold and that you would be involuntary denied boarding and were rebooked to the 10p flight?

2. After the CSA rebooked you to the 10pm flight, assumed you called Customer Service, they confirmed they had room on the earlier 4:15p flight, and they did a free Same-Day Flight Change as part of A-List benefit with a confirmed reservation. Assuming you checked in after your reservation was confirmed and you came back to the gate on time. Did you get involuntary denied boarding a second time due to another oversale when you returned to the gate to board the 4:15p flight?

3. Do you recall whether there was a late equipment change of the aircraft for both the 12p and 4:15p flights? I understand that a last-minute aircraft change from a 737-800 or MAX8 that would be full to a 737-700 plane could result in an oversale as the 700 has fewer seats. If no downsizing of the aircraft was made for both of the earlier flights, looks to me that you may be owed compensation for involuntary denial of boarding on top of a possible owed LUV Voucher from the gate CSA incident.

Let me know and I'll provide input on what you can provide to Customer Relations to further resolve. I've written a number of fact-based letters in the past that led to resolutions for prior incidents I've encountered in other industries that I've been loyal to.

[bec102896]

@SoCalFlyer97 

I tried to not put a ton of details on that other thread as I didn’t want to derail the topic but anyways here’s the long story and understand I’m not trying to come here to whine about SW because usually they are good but this experience has me shaken up and truly considering other airlines (already put in a status match request with one). Heck first class might actually be fun

So the flight on Saturday it was just a Florida summer afternoon where the wonderful weather wrecks havoc on all flights which I completely understand the airline can’t control so rather than fight with I might miss my connection and be stuck PS any flight I would have taken that night I would have been stuck somewhere so I figured MCO had an option for me next day at noon to get out before the next day’s thunderstorms. I check in at the counter and check my bag they hand me boarding passes I go on my way. 

20min prior to boarding the CSA (at the counter not the ops agent) pages me and starts talking about my size when I get up there. Clearly judging me never had any issues flying before she didn’t say the word oversell but instead calls the supervisor and tells them to remove me without any supervisor coming over to deal with this. I ask can you call a supervisor to come over here (in a nice tone) she tells me to chill out. I told this agent I was rebooked yesterday and had a confirmed seat so what’s the issue she ignores me and tells me to chill out again. At this point I walk away from her to avoid any verbal argument I don’t want to pick a fight. I walk to gate 101 (from 106) I ask the agent is there a supervisor available that I can speak to well one of the supervisors who agent at 106 talked to supervisor says I’m already aware of what’s going on I’m rebooking you on another flight. I ask why she says because I said so and that agent didn’t want to deal with an oversell because she thinks your big umm ok so she’s judging me and your denying me boarding for no valid reason. She said well I had a seat for you on the 2:55pm flight it is gone so I’ll put you on the 10pm flight I ask about the 4pm flight since I see it available online she says online isn’t accurate it’s sold out so I just deal with the 10pm flight to avoid arguments again. At this point as they are looking at rebooking options it’s close to noon never once did I hear final boarding with a page for me to report to gate 106 (that’s right that CSA wanted nothing to do with me even though I didn’t do anything other than ask for a supervisor) on the app it still has my noon flight so maybe they are playing the let’s make you a no show then rebook you so they don’t have to compensate for an overbooked flight. It was a 700 series aircraft and was that no aircraft swap. Was I the last booked on the flight I don’t know it was a rebook from 8pm the night before lots of unknowns. Neither the supervisor who took over when I walked to 101 or the rude CSA said the word oversell 

I think the CSA clearly just wanted to pick on me once she saw me (yes I am a tall guy with a few extra pounds but that’s not a reason to Harass me) the ticket counter didn’t say a thing to me everything was smooth until I got to 106 

so after my flight left and they rebooked me I figure I’d reach out on Twitter unfortunately they couldn’t help other than opening a case for someone to call me in the next 48 hours (which usually those calls take longer but maybe they put priority on it) 

about an hour later I approached another CSA at 106 I asked if she could help me with my same day confirmed or even standby she had issues with my reservation because it had my MSY connection still on there it was a cluster she called SOS (which is out of the MCO supervisor world thank goodness) she was on hold for a while and told me to try calling reservations while she held finally got someone to help change to the 4pm without issue 

4pm flight is delayed because of weather that started at 1:30pm just an hour at that point I didn’t care well it got later because of a gate backup from the storm finally plane arrives we start to board and that drama ends of course we push and sit on the tarmac for an hour 10min because of weather to the west but I get that’s out of the airlines control so instead of a 10pm arrival on Saturday or the 4pm arrival on Sunday it became a 8:15pm arrival 

the FAs were fine and the agents who boarded my flight the drama all started because one CSA wanted to pick a fight (I’ll chalk it up to they didn’t have their cup of coffee or got called in on their day off) 

since I was clearly targeted because of an oversell without them calling it that I’ll seek denied boarding compensation. And maybe some kind of were sorry for the rude CSA’s behavior I wasn’t denied for being one of those unruly passengers (no cursing, or temper tantrum) just frustration in my voice because a simple hey we are over sold can you help us and take a different flight or ask for volunteers duh

so for my own checks when I arrived in AUS one of the ops agents who knows me and sees me almost weekly is at the gate next to me so I walk over to him to say hi and he’s joking with me about always flying during IROPS I ask him for his thoughts on the situation he says come with me to the desk pulls up my confirmation number and his eyes got big and his jaw dropped he tells me that agent violated company policy and DOT rules and told me I should write an email to SW and to the DOT (I’ll wait on that part because I’ll try to once again be the better person) if SW blows this off like Twitter was trying to do then I might consider that route 

most people in my situation would have probably been irate I try to keep my cool which I think I did for the BS that occurred. 

Delays/cancellations/missed connections I’m used to them I think I’ve only had 5 on time segments this year of the 70+ I’ve flown. So that’s not my complaint it’s more directed at the CSA and the supervisors at MCO 

if I was the supervisor here’s how I would have handled it: 

CSA: hey I have a passenger who I think needs/doesn’t need COS and we are full/oversold

supervisor: I’ll come over and see if I can help 

supervisor arrives and nicely explains the situation (I had no explanation) 

as a supervisor walk to the plane and check it out for myself if I think a customer is boarder line on a policy (wether that be COS, too much to drink, oxygen tank not at a good level, or other situations) the supervisor should be called to help and the supervisor should show up when asked nicely customers shouldn’t have to go find a supervisor at another gate then the supervisor should not be so rude when all you did was ask for her help. 

now the positives 

1. I made it to my destination only 22 hours late instead of days late

2. the 2nd CSA I dealt with trying to get me on the 4pm flight even though it wasn’t working for her she went the extra mile to help even though she was actually working a different flight 

3. the agent in AUS who reviewed my reservation and hold me I didn’t do anything wrong and he apologized 

if you want to discuss more you can always DM me I don’t want to fill this board with a hate because usually I LUV Southwest I just think I need to see how they plan to respond before bashing anymore but still wanted to share my story and unfortunately make the longest post I’ve made on this community in 7 years (it’s not a story I wanted to have to share or we’ll a situation I wanted to deal with but unfortunately the actions of a couple employees has made it come to that) and hopefully Southwest will take the situation seriously and take appropriate action because no one should be harassed (because of race, weight, disability, gender, or any other reason) also most who would have gone though what I did would probably sue and most would probably end up in jail or banned because they would go irate or on here they would curse up a storm but I try to stay calm at all times 

oh and I did some digging in to the COS policy If she thinks I’m too big it says they will oversell a flight for that now if it’s the other way and someone has the extra seat added by the ticket counter clearly they think they qualify and the CSA shouldn’t question that even if the CSA doesn’t think they qualify you just respect the decision of the other employee and deal with it even if they might or might not qualify for the extra seat OR you ask if they could take a different flight maybe a here’s a voucher for saving us from the oversell 

oh and unrelated to my situation as I was just sitting at the gate I heard the flight next to me was oversold by 7 seats 

that’s all for now 

[DancingDavidE]

That's sad to hear. Oversells happen and there are some rules in place for them. All that has to be done is to follow them.

Must be one snack too many at Disney this time - you have 50 flights in a year without being COS and now they want to use that as a reason all of a sudden? Ugh.