Southwest Gate agents at HOU caution

[vonjet]

I frequently fly in and out of Houston (HOU).  Some of the Southwest gate agents at this terminal are the worst I have experienced.  Not all of them, most are great but there are some bad apples here.  The worst case I have I will not get into here but I wanted to post this most recent experience. 
Last week I am departing out of HOU and I checked in 2hrs prior and went straight to a gate to see if I could purchase an upgraded boarding position.  I handed the agent my boarding pass and asked if any upgrades were available.  Within 2 seconds she says "no it doesn't look like any are available on this flight."  Then she does some fake tapping on keys and says "yeah there is nothing available but you can always check back later if you want"   I said ok Thank You.   I took my boarding pass and immediately walked to another gate to speak with a different agent.  I requested the same thing, any upgrades available?...she takes my pass and this time actually looks at it and then proceeds to check her computer.."yes I have position A4 for you for $40."  I said great I will take it.  Now I am pissed because the treatment from that previous agent is completely unacceptable to a frequent flyer of SW and to SW.   What made it worse is when boarding started I was A4.  There was 5 of us in A1-5 section and nobody else behind us until A16.  I made sure to document all of this.   If you ever find yourself trying to upgrade and agent says not available you may want to go elsewhere.    

[TheMiddleSeat]

While perhaps not extremely likely, it is possible those boarding positions were not available when you first inquired. Yes, doubtful that many people canceled in that short amount of time, but possible. 

--TheMiddleSeat

[vonjet]

Lol yeah im sure. She was already telling me No there isnt any available before she even had time to read my boarding pass and what flight I was even inquiring about. And no they didnt just happen to get upgrade openings in the 2 minutes it took me to have the other gate agent check and sell me one. 

[dfwskier]

Hello. I'm not sure what happened, and I never will. That doesn't sound like typical Southwest employee behavior.

I would suggest that you fuly document the sitution by including date,  flight number, and departure gate and sending via e-mail to the airline. I presume you did not keep the name of the agent that denied there were and A1-A15 positions avilable for purchase. Ask for an explanation of what happened.

You can send an e-mail via the link at the top left of Southwest's contact us web page.

https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-CONTACT-US

[DancingDavidE]

---

@dfwskier wrote:

Hello. I'm not sure what happened, and I never will. That doesn't sound like typical Southwest employee behavior.

---

Besides the poor customer service, why not try to get the extra $40 - that money is straight to the bottom line!