I had an unpleasant experience with a SWA gate agent last week so I spent some time reviewing all the complaints for Rude/ Racist Gate Agents on this Forum and elsewhere online. To my surprise, there are thousands of complaints against all airline gate agents, especially SWA. From what I've read, this is a serious pitfall of the entire airline industry because gate agents have no recourse for their actions- it is the word of the passenger vs the word of the gate agent and the airline will always listen to its employees over its customers... After all of the horrible things I read online and my own personal experience with a rude gate agent, I hope that this post is able to reach someone who can make change.
I am not asking for a solution here, I am writing to offer a solution.
The fair solution for everyone is to install video/ audio recording at the gate agents stations. This solution would allow for the SWA supervisor to review footage/ audio on the spot and make decisions based on facts rather than the word of an employee. SWA has the opportunity to do right by all the people who have had rude/ racist experiences with gate agents and their change will hopefully lead the way for other airlines to enforce video/ audio for their own gate agents.
