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Bad flight experience

April23
Explorer C

My husband and I had an awful experience flying on Southwest on April 23, Austin-LA. The plane was packed, other than wearing masks no other guidelines for the pandemic where in place. Boarding was crowded, no distancing enforced. Many of the people had their masks below their nose and no one was enforcing any mask rules. It was simply announced that a mask was required and that was it, no enforcement. Once in our seats, the person behind us was coughing her heart out loud without a concern for others around her. (she obviously was sick, but she still was in the plane with everybody else). She coughed the whole 4 hours to L.A. Once we landed, we had to wait one hour before we could get off due to landing issue with brakes. It was very scary. It seems that Southwest is saving money by crowding their flights which might be of benefit of Southwest, but not at all of the customers who have been flying Southwest for years. I really don't want to fly SW anymore.

7 REPLIES 7

Re: Bad flight experience

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Today is the last day that any US airline is blocking seats.  Starting tomorrow Delta, who is the only one still blocking seats, will fill every seat.  If anyone is not comfortable flying in a full plane they unfortunately do not have any other option.  This is a customer to customer forum, you are welcome to send your comments directly to Southwest Contact Customer Relations 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Bad flight experience

dfwskier
Aviator A

@April23 wrote:

It was very scary. It seems that Southwest is saving money by crowding their flights which might be of benefit of Southwest, but not at all of the customers who have been flying Southwest for years. I really don't want to fly SW anymore.


Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.

 

Data indicates that it is exceedingly difficult to catch the virus on planes. The best example of that is Flight Attendants, who spend their lives on planes. Flight Attendants have a lower incidence of the virus than the general population.

 

My experience has been different than yours. On almost every  Southwest flight  I have been CONSTANTLY reminded to keep my mask on, and there are numerous stories of people being removed from Southwest flights for not doing that.

 

As of tomorrow EVERY airline will be trying to sell every seat it can. Southwest is no different than the rest. Only Delta is not currently selling middle seats, and that ends tomorrow.

 

My thoughts are that I am responsible for my own safety. It's pretty easy to do.

 

1) When boarding, I do not join the crowd in line. Instead I patiently wait by the gate until my approximate boarding position passes in front of me. Then I jump into the line.

 

2) When boarding, I maintain spacing  from the person in front of me.

 

3) Upon landing, I DO NOT jump up at the "ding."  Instead, I wait til the row in front of me has started deplaning, and THEN I stand up and prepare to get off.

 

4) As I exit the aircraft, I maintain spacing from the person in front of me.

 

All of that being said, you are not talking with Southwest here. You are talking with other customers. Should you desire to file a complaint with Southwest, you can do so here:

 

https://community.southwest.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Submitting-a-Suggestion-and-or-Complaint/ta-p/8724...

 

Re: Bad flight experience

gsking
Aviator C

So, other than the brakes,  it was a normal flight. 

 

Good to hear things are back to normal. 

 

 

Re: Bad flight experience

dfwskier
Aviator A

 

 

      😁

Re: Bad flight experience

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@April23 wrote:

My husband and I had an awful experience flying on Southwest on April 23, Austin-LA. The plane was packed, other than wearing masks no other guidelines for the pandemic where in place. Boarding was crowded, no distancing enforced. Many of the people had their masks below their nose and no one was enforcing any mask rules. It was simply announced that a mask was required and that was it, no enforcement. Once in our seats, the person behind us was coughing her heart out loud without a concern for others around her. (she obviously was sick, but she still was in the plane with everybody else). She coughed the whole 4 hours to L.A. Once we landed, we had to wait one hour before we could get off due to landing issue with brakes. It was very scary. It seems that Southwest is saving money by crowding their flights which might be of benefit of Southwest, but not at all of the customers who have been flying Southwest for years. I really don't want to fly SW anymore.


I would invest in an N95 or KN95 mask especially for any time spent on the tarmac like that. 

 

Waiting for an hour would be enough to sour a flight for me even without the other issues.

 

My other suggestion is to fly early or late, if you are flexible on timing for your flight it may be possible to identify a flight that isn't as full.

 

The Chat Agent won't be able to tell you the load factor directly but ask them if they can accommodate you for an emptier flight.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Bad flight experience

shuebschma01
Explorer A

I have had a couple of similar flights.  One that really bothered me was Denver to Indianapolis in the fall.  There was a man who was clearly drunk not wearing at mask at all.  He spend a big part of the flight walking up and down the aisle.  No one said anything until I complained.  The FA's claimed they could not see him since the lights the down.  I felt it was neglectful on their part.  I called SW and complained.  No one cared one bit.

Re: Bad flight experience

SWFlyer007
Aviator C

I'm just going to say I've flown 20 flights since jan 1, and I've had nothing but good flight experiences.   although i should, maybe I should post 20 times about my flight experiences.