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Memphis international Airport employee investigation needed

Jariel02
Explorer C

To whom it may concern. Today August 13th, me and my fiancée were seeing my daughter off from Memphis international Airport to TX. She was on a southwest flight and the southwest ticket counter agent Melissa Francis (older Caucasian lady) refused us non passenger escort passes to escort my daughter to the gate. She stated that Southwest policy and TSA policy states only one NPE pass was allowed. This of course is completely false as I pulled up the NPE policy and showed it to the Southwest counter. The Southwest agent was still only willing to issue one pass and refused the other pass and that’s when I asked for the Southwest manager. At first she said there was one coming then she later said he wasn’t coming and continued to refuse the second pass after repeated request. Shortly afterwards I was surrounded by 3 Airport police officers that asked me to step to the side and talked to my family. What is most bothersome in this situation is when I eventually talked to Eric Davis, he stated I was correct with the NPE pass policy and that I should have been issued the two passes I requested. So if I was correct, then why was the response the refusal of the gate pass and instead the requirement for police intervention? That was not deserved treatment when the family is correct. This could’ve been all prevented if the gate agents were trained correctly in the first place and the response isn’t to call the police when the customer is showing them what the policy actually states. That’s dangerous and irresponsible on the past of Southwest. Is there any way I can get feedback on how this situation was handled by Southwest.

Furthermore, when we were approached by the police, it got a bit escalated. The interaction with the officers went well for the most part but initially it was tense. This should’ve never happened. This whole incident should be investigated because at the end of the day, a ticket counter agent applying her preference to who the policy does and does not apply to and resulting in the policy and procedure being disallowed selectively resulted in a scene in the airport with police authority being used to apply her authority in incorrect fashion. This shouldn’t be accepted. It’s a bad look for MSCAA as well as Southwest. Can I get a response on how this will be handled or if it will be investigated?

1 REPLY 1

Re: Memphis international Airport employee investigation needed

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A