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Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

FrequentFlyerMa
Explorer B

(Note: this was written as a review and the worst part is near the end.) Pre-pandemic I was always flying Southwest with my family. I loved the free bags and no extra fees. I always had great customer service too. I used to recommend Southwest to everyone. Well let me tell you, no more! Their service, quality, and customer care has gone down the drain! I finally got to visit my family this summer after a year and a half of not seeing most of them due to the pandemic. Myself and my three boys traveled to our destination via American Airlines. Had no issues there - great service and a nice plane! On the way back, however, I traveled via Southwest. Unbeknownst to me they had changed my nonstop flight to a flight with one stop in Orlando. I found this out when checking on my flight a few days before. Now in their defense, I searched my email and they had notified me of this change back in the beginning of May via an email that I am fairly certain ended up in my promotions folder instead of my inbox or else I would have seen it. The thing that urked me is that they made this change the day after I bought my 3 nonstop tickets. The day after their sale ended, they decided to get rid of a bunch of nonstop flights. How convenient for them... Not so much all of us who booked with them because we wanted a nonstop flight. I was hoping they had one this week that I could change it to, but nope. Checked their website - none. Now mind you, I was traveling alone with three boys. My oldest is 6 and the other two are both under the age of 2 (a 21 month old and a 6 month old). If you are a parent, you understand how difficult this could be. I waited on hold for almost 2 hours just for them to tell me they could refund my tickets, but if I used flight credit it would stay as flight credit (not helpful as they have no nonstop flights on this route anymore). They said they "temporarily" got rid of nonstop flights from their schedule. I looked at my options for the week and either the layovers were way too short to make it to the other plane for us or they were long and required even more flight time. Needless to say, I had to keep my flight. By then other airlines were too expensive and Southwest said they could not book us on another airline. I was told this before I even asked so you know a bunch of people must have asked this. I haven't gotten to the worst part yet.. We had a fine first flight to Orlando. A little over two hours. They kept changing the time but ended up boarding on time after all. We made it to Orlando and our stroller was already waiting for us when we got off the plane. Kudos to Orlando people. Flying to Dallas was a different story. We were sitting in the plane an hour before we took off. This was due to the weather, so that, I understand. This was another 2 and a half hour flight as well. My poor kids were doing fairly well despite traveling all day. (Remember, two of them are a young toddler and a baby.) Near the end of the flight while we had been traveling for over 11 hours already one of the flight attendants remarks about the mess we had made (my toddler spilled some chip crumbs on the floor) and said that we would have to clean it up, but she said it in a passive aggressive way and asked if we needed a trash bag. While I told her "okay" I don't think she heard me because she said, "I will get you a trash bag," like it was a mission of hers. She never ended up bringing the trash bag. Now mind you, I have a baby on my lap that is still learning how to sit up well on his own and a young toddler that I am trying to keep entertained so he stays in his seat and my 6 yr old is napping. But she expects me to bend down in the tiny space where our legs go while holding a baby to pick up crumbs. Really? When my 6 year old woke up I made sure he helped me and we quickly threw away all of our trash including stuff on the floor as the attendants went by quickly with the trash bags. (Side rant: Why do they always go by so fast even when they see you still trying to gather trash?) Needless to say, we left some chip crumbs on the floor and some fell in between the seats (which already were dirty with other people's crumbs so I wasn't reaching in there). When we got off of the plane I was waiting with the boys for my stroller with the baby attached to me in a wrap. There was one other family with their daughter waiting too by the time I got my stroller. As I am unfolding my double stroller with the baby attached to me and making sure my toddler doesn't run off, the flight attendant who never brought me the trash bag comes off of the plane and said that I left a huge mess and it was rude of me because they have nothing to clean it up with and as I was saying, "You never brought me a trash bag," (which was the only reponse my flabbergasted mind could come up with), she just kept walking and ignored me. WOW.. The mom in the other family waiting for a stroller was like, "Really?!" She couldn't believe how rude that flight attendant was to me while she sees me struggling to juggle my kids and our stuff and stroller while traveling all day by myself (my husband had to stay in TX and work). I am generally a nice person okay, and if she had brought me a trash bag like she said she was, even though she was rude, I would have had my 6 yr old son help me clean up the floor hoping I didn't squish the baby while bending over in that small space with him and doing her job for her. Is it my fault Southwest makes flight attendants clean the plane? Isn't that part of your job? Is it my fault they don't give you guys hand vacuums? So besides the super rude, unsympathetic flight attendant who must have never been a mother, and Southwest getting rid of all of their nonstop flights from Philly to Dallas (and who knows where else), Southwest does not do the amount of COVID cleaning they claim they do. Both planes were dirty and the first one I was on had dirty tray tables that I made sure and wiped off and sanitized for all of us. Southwest is skimping on their cleaning procedures because they are turning over planes at such a quick rate. They just care about the all-mighty dollar. They don't seem to care about their customers anymore. It is a real shame. Southwest, I used to love you, I used to always fly you, but now I must say goodbye. Try to do better, please.

18 REPLIES 18

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Yay, another post that needs a TLDR.

This is a customer to customer forum, you are welcome to submit your comments directly to Southwest Contact Customer Relations 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

FrequentFlyerMa
Explorer B

They don't allow enough characters when filing a complaint via their email form and the upload feature is not working. Only other way to complain is via Twitter (don't have that nonsense) or to call them (so they can do nothing and I can be on hold for over an hour). No thank you. Rather share my experience with other customers. Hopefully SW will realize their service quality has decreased significantly.

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Maybe summarize and reduce the character count and send to Southwest where they would actually read?  I can't be the only one here who isn't going to read a super long rant so currently few are reading here and Southwest isn't aware.  Doesn't seem to accomplish much.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

 

 

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

FrequentFlyerMa
Explorer B

Feels good to get it all out though. I don't have any more time to spend on this today. Maybe I will "reduce the character count" and fit it in their form when I have more time. I feel the context helps the reader better understand the situation. I don't think Southwest genuinely cares anyway. I am just disappointed in them after flying with them for so long.

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

No character limit on letters sent via postal mail.

If you just wanted to yell I guess you accomplished your goal. Have a nice day. 

 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

FrequentFlyerMa
Explorer B

Would they really read a letter though? I wasn't yelling. Just typing. Now their email option isn't even working for me, lol.

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm trying to help you understand that based on my experience here in the Community super long posts like yours do not get read. Southwest employees are paid to read and respond to comments from customers. So, if you actually want to have a chance of making a difference and having whatever complaints you had addressed then the best thing would be to contact Southwest directly. If you just wanted to speak your complaints and have few people listen you've accomplished that. You may think context matters, but length and being succinct matters much more.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

dfwskier
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

I'm trying to help you understand that based on my experience here in the Community super long posts like yours do not get read. Southwest employees are paid to read and respond to comments from customers. So, if you actually want to have a chance of making a difference and having whatever complaints you had addressed then the best thing would be to contact Southwest directly. If you just wanted to speak your complaints and have few people listen you've accomplished that. You may think context matters, but length and being succinct matters much more.

 

--TheMiddleSeat


I agree.

 

The same applies to other contexts, too.

 

I used to an HR manager. If someone were to send me  5 page resume, I might  have scanned it, but I wouldn't have read it.

 

 

Re: Southwest Has Gone Down the Drain

FrequentFlyerMa
Explorer B

Thanks.