Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Rude gate agent

ZZ
Explorer C

While boarding with my family of 5 today we met an unreasonable and rude employee of SWA. SWA airline is our choice for flying, but the gate agent I believe her name was Christine for flight 4226 for San Antonio to Tampa on july 14th was completely rude and did not want to allow us to board when we were all A16, A20, A21, A22 except the 11 month old lap child which we purchased a ticket last minute for and his boarding pass was C10.  After calling the 1800 number to try and file a formal complaint and got passed around I was eventually told it’s best to use Twitter. I hopped on twitter with customer service and get canned lip service responses and have to literally go back and fourth at least 5 times to get anywhere to actually file a complaint. I have flown Southwest ALOT for years and haven’t run into a gate agent like this which says a lot for the airline but nonetheless it’s still very frustrating. I guess the lesson to be learned is do not pay hard earned money for a lap child just to be treated poorly by a representative of the airline. 

11 REPLIES 11

Re: Rude gate agent

rtbarron
Frequent Flyer A
Solution

I'm sorry to hear that the Operations Agent treated you poorly, but why did you purchase a ticket for a lap child? By definition, a lap child sits in another passenger's lap and does not need a ticket.

I wouldn't say that the Operations Agent was unreasonable as she was just enforcing Southwest policy. However, she should have explained the policy in a polite and professional manner which apparently she did not. Given that all the passengers had A boarding passes except for the lap child (?) with a C boarding pass, the policy itself appears unreasonable in this specific case.

Re: Rude gate agent

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

My observation is that Southwest has been enforcing their boarding position policy much more than they did previously. While it sounds cruel to hold up a group because of one person,  especially a child, and it's unfortunate it may have been explained to you in a rude manner, that is the correct policy. One adult would need to wait with the child until family boarding takes place between the A and B boarding groups. If it were an adult with the C boarding position they would need to wait until the C group boards. You can board later than your assigned position, but not earlier.

 

If the child had truly been a lap child without a ticket they could have boarded with you in the A group.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Rude gate agent

Passenger1C
Aviator C

@ZZ I think most parents who have traveled with young children can definitely sympathize with you regarding this situation. I know that when I feel like I was given poor service, It’s up to me to decide if one bad experience will out weigh all of the other positive interactions I have received. 

 

Some things to consider:

 

*You made the right decision to purchase a seat for the safety of your child regardless of how you felt at the time of boarding. Just know that you made the right decision. 

 

*Being passed around on the phone is always frustrating. Keeping that in mind, I suggest expressing your concerns after you have calmed down. In my experience, when I contact which ever company I am upset with hours/days after the incident, I give more detailed facts and leave out my emotions. After I voice my concerns, I usually end my call feeling satisfied with the service I just received. 

 

*Look at the bigger picture of the situation and realize that policies are in place for a reason. I might not agree with the policy, but I am going to make the best of it. 

 

Best wishes on your future travel

 

 

 


SWA Passenger, Community Champion

Re: Rude gate agent

Sclocal95
Explorer C

My boyfriend went to go ask a question and When asking the gate agent a question she Rudely responded. I was sitting a distance away so she didn’t know I saw but then when he turned around to walk back to me and the agent turned to the lady next to her and laughed at him and stared at him. Very very unprofessional and rude. We love southwest and will obviously continue our travels with it. But very unhappy with the service that we got at the gate.. 

Re: Rude gate agent

LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

Hi @Sclocal95,

 

Your patronage is important to us, and we appreciate that you want to continue traveling with us. On behalf of Southwest Airlines, I'm sorry about the experience you and your boyfriend had at the gate. There's never a good excuse for a bad attitude or poor Customer Service, and I know we can do better. We look forward to welcoming you onboard again soon and treating you to a better experience. 

 

Re: Rude gate agent

DfDrPepper_23
Frequent Flyer C

I am sorry to hear about that. They should not be working on job if they tends to be rude. They were rude to me and my daughter when I applied for the job. The truth in reality: Lack of pay, limited hours and stress on the jobs are the main reason why they are being rude towards to peoples (passengers).

 

iIhave no intention on flying with southwest airlines. My suggestion is: Talk to someone about your boyfriend's bad experience. It will makes southwest think twice before saying something bad behind someone's back.

Re: Rude gate agent

DfDrPepper_23
Frequent Flyer C

I would never put my infant back in the "C" section whilist we sits on the front "A" section. I firmly believe that you mentioned that you have the infant traveling with you.

Re: Rude gate agent

spacecoastbill
Frequent Flyer B

@DfDrPepper_23 wrote:

I would never put my infant back in the "C" section whilist we sits on the front "A" section. I firmly believe that you mentioned that you have the infant traveling with you.


I really think that lost something in the translation.....

Re: Rude gate agent

chgoflyer
Aviator A

 

@DfDrPepper_23 wrote:

I would never put my infant back in the "C" section whilist we sits on the front "A" section. I firmly believe that you mentioned that you have the infant traveling with you.

It sounds like, based on many of the things you have posted here, that perhaps you are not very aware of how things work at Southwest.

 

To be clear, Southwest does not have sections on its planes. A, B and C refer to boarding groups. Onboard, passengers may take any available seat.

 

When a group of passengers have boarding positions across multiple boarding groups, official Southwest policy is that they should board at the later boarding positions, if they wish to board together. (Alternately, they may board individually at their own positions, and early borders may save seats for later ones. This may not be feasible when children are involved.)

 

In the OPs situation, in my opinion, the agent should have used their discretion to allow the group to board together at the A positions, instead of denying them boarding at that time. And of course rudeness is never acceptable. However, technically, the agent was following policy.