Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

Jpomp
Explorer C

My DIL who is an ICU Nurse and my young Granddaughter we're going to NY for 4 days from  Ca.  
This was my dIL ‘s first vacation since Covid.  They left Ca. And arrived in Denver( 2.5 hours ) for their connection only to be told that their fight was cancelled. No explanations,( no bad weather ) crazy chaos, and not another flight offered fur more than 24 hours. NO compensation!  MY DIL had to find another flight, pay for a hotel in another City and then take a Bus to NY.    They lost more than a day if their limited time and incurred unexpected cost.  Hatd to believe that SW dud nit know they would not have a connection and even harder to understand their handling of the situation??  I have flown SW FOR 30 + years and I fly about once a month. I am disappointed that they have subjected their custonetsxabd their poor employees. To these situations. 

9 REPLIES 9

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

jksobonya
Aviator A

If you have truly flown Southwest for 30+ years and fly once a month, I assume that means you flew all of last year and this year as well, and that means you know first hand about all about the struggles the entire airline industry has faced over the past 16 months and Southwest is not to blame for the problems at large -- weather most certainly has been a problem over the past month alone, as is staff shortages in almost every sector across the country. Southwest has been making major modifications to their flight schedules (including flight changes and cancellations) since *before* the pandemic - it actually started with the MAX 8 shortage in the spring of 2019 - remember those days? You fly once a month, you should. 

 

If you have never had a problem until now, consider yourself lucky.

 

--Jessica

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

Jpomp
Explorer C

Jessica, 

  • WOW,  are you personally offended in some way?  I am a talky taken back by your tone. 
    I have been flying SW for  30!+ years , moved from East Coast to West 4 years ago. the past few years I have flown about once a month . During Covid , I only flew for emergencies . 
    I always book  Direct flights , unless there is no other option. 
    I clearly understand what the Airlines experienced the past 16 months .I also known that they were given a LOT of $$ to maintain service and staffing.  I personally know 4 Pilots ( 2 are neighbors, the other are Family members ) .   I resumed flying regularly in March and had experienced several delays, flight changes, etc.    My point is that any Business should Not be offering services that they are not staffed for.  It only frustrates Loyal customers and tarnishes their reputation. 
  • I was REALLY disappointed that SW did not do anything For my DIL.  After 16 months of  working in ICU WITH Covid patients, many hours missed with her children and NO Holiday or vacation time,  Rhey only caused her frustration and a lot if expense.   Maybe SW should have Mgrs. On staff, near by to talk to Customers as a group when these things happen. instead of the poor SW STAFF facing the customers with no information or alternatives.  I don't blame SW STAFF, I blame management.  
  •  

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@Jpomp Since this is a customer to customer forum you may want to contact Southwest directly.

Contact Customer Relations

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

jksobonya
Aviator A

@Jpomp wrote:
  • WOW,  are you personally offended in some way?  
  • My point is that any Business should Not be offering services that they are not staffed for.  It only frustrates Loyal customers and tarnishes their reputation. 
  • I was REALLY disappointed that SW did not do anything For my DIL.  After 16 months of  working in ICU WITH Covid patients, many hours missed with her children and NO Holiday or vacation time,  Rhey only caused her frustration and a lot if expense.   Maybe SW should have Mgrs. On staff, near by to talk to Customers as a group when these things happen. instead of the poor SW STAFF facing the customers with no information or alternatives.  I don't blame SW STAFF, I blame management. 

  • Nope, just stating the facts as I see them. In these COVID times there are a lot of people these days who do nothing but complain about various situations when, most of the time, their situations are entirely resolvable by doing XYZ and/or they aren't the crises that they claim they are. As we say, people rarely write about positive experiences, but boy do they like to write about a negative one ... 
  • Are you saying that your DIL's flight was cancelled due to lack of staff? It's possible, but things also happen that are out of Southwest's control that causes cancellations (weather, technological problems, etc.). Especially over the last month, cancellations have been much higher than normal due to the above reasons. 
  • Assuming your DIL's flight was cancelled by Southwest, she is entitled to a refund. She will have to contact Southwest to request one. IMO, that's more than enough for Southwest to "do". In some cases when flights are delayed or cancelled, Southwest also gives out vouchers, but that's on a case by case basis. You can't compare and contrast what happened - a cancellation - with personal life experiences (a difficult job, a divorce, a death, whatever it is) and expect compensation above the standard procedures. Sometimes, you may get more than you expect, but complaining about it isn't (or rather, shouldn't be) the way to get them. 

--Jessica

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

parpitt1
Frequent Flyer A

Sorry for your frustrations, flying from the west coast to the east coast is often challenging on SWA since there are no red eyes. For future reference you may want to book transcon flights, 1.) with as early a departure time as possible and 2.) through Midway Airport so if there is an issue you are at an airport with many SWA flights going to East Coast Airports.

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

keasbey
Adventurer C

Have had similar situations left and right I commonly tell people southwest is a last resort. Id rather pay a la carte for Frontier or Spirit than deal with the all included bull**bleep** of southwest. 

 

Southwest is for people who don't fly to have mediocre experiences with peanuts. Its not actually a good flight experience. Cant convince me otherwise at this point. Frontier has them beat any day of the week for 1/5 of the price

 

Last time I flew with SW, they canceled my nonstop flight due to weather. Put me on a connecting flight orlando-pittsvurgh-denver. Delayed hours at Orlando. Delayed hours at Pittsburgh because their communications went down. Was about to just rent a car because I have an actual schedule to keep. 

 

0/10 would not recommend SW. They should've auto-issued a refund for the last flight I took. But they actually felt secure taking my money. I feel insecure spending it with them ever since

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

@keasbey Clearly you haven't flown Southwest in a long time if you still think they serve peanuts. It's fine if you don't like Southwest. Why are you here?

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

keasbey
Adventurer C

Sorry, whatever crackers they serve you now

 

Im on this site because I'm stuck in denver for the third time this month. Taking this opportunity to discuss southwests amazing customer service and reliable schedule. 

 

Go with a different airline , save money and actually get there on time. 

Re: Disappointed: Why frustrate your Loyal customers?

jksobonya
Aviator A

@keasbey wrote:

Last time I flew with SW, they canceled my nonstop flight due to weather. Put me on a connecting flight orlando-pittsvurgh-denver. Delayed hours at Orlando. Delayed hours at Pittsburgh because their communications went down. Was about to just rent a car because I have an actual schedule to keep. 

 

0/10 would not recommend SW. They should've auto-issued a refund for the last flight I took. But they actually felt secure taking my money. I feel insecure spending it with them ever since


It is as I suspected. You flew when SWA had all the issues a month ago and were caught in the middle of it. Many were. It sucks. Southwest has been trying to make it right, even with giving refunds (which, FWIW, you are entitled to anyway when Southwest cancels your flight - but you are not entitled to a refund if they reroute you and you actually take the flights you are assigned). 

 

--Jessica