06-07-2021
09:21 PM
Thank you all for the helpful feedback. The representative I communicated with today was a much better experience than the previous representative I spoke to. Southwest reached out to me and addressed my concerns. I have learned from this experience that a car rental through southwest.com (not southwest vacations) will not be adjusted to accommodate any changes made to your flight. It was my fault to assume Southwest would assist with a easy transition to travel changes/plans they make to your flight and subsequent rental car booked through them. That being said, Southwest has accounted for any potential incurred cost with potentially requiring alternate transportation on arrival and the associated inconvenience: which we are very thankful for. I am happy this issue has been resolved. My only wish was it had not required an open forum to speed along a response and for resolution to occur.
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06-07-2021
12:54 PM
Tom: Thanks for the recommendation. I will give that number a try.
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06-07-2021
12:48 PM
Jessica: We made our car reservation, through southwest, in Feb. I spoke with the SW customer service rep, they said there is no way to modify a car reservation: only to cancel and rebook. With the rise in demand for car rentals and low supply of cars over the last several months, the new cost to rent the same car but pick up 8hrs earlier cost an additional $800. It was mind boggling to me as well that there was not an easier way to correct this issue. I called the car rental company; and, they said they couldn't help me because it was booked through SW; and, I had to go through it with them for any changes.
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06-07-2021
08:40 AM
This is a last ditch effort to get ahold of someone with customer service that can assist us. I have talked to multiple customer service reps and recommended to file a complaint because they could not assist me. I filed a complaint and have heard nothing for two weeks. I then tried SW facebook messenger and received an ambiguous auto message that states "there is a chance that we might not be able to get to everyone who reaches out". I am at a loss of how to proceed. I want to start by saying I've utilized southwest, as my main airline, for many years; and, I've had nothing but good things to say about it. I understand the unique challenges of COVID this year and the need for frequent flight schedule changes. I've been understanding and had no problem contact customer service to rearrange our schedule based on the five flight changes for our two trips planned this summer. There has always been a reasonable flight change options. The last flight changes (at least 6 changes to our summer flights now...losing count) were unfortunately not the case. Our flight from Kansas City to Hawaii had a layover extended twice and lengthening our trip over 3 hrs. I called to find a shorter alternative. A kind rep found us a shorter flight option that was closer to our original travel time. It meant we were waking up at 2:30am for a 5:30am flight and an additional plane change; but, it was an adjustment we were willing to accommodate. I want to emphasize, again, I understand that many of these changes are related to COVID; and, I have been/am very empathetic. With this new flight update, I asked to update my SW car reservation to match this flight change: since this new flight gets us into Hawaii over 8 hrs earlier than our previous flight. This is when the problems started. At first the customer service rep acted like this was feasible. She then states that this 8 hr earlier pick up (same # of days) would cost over $800, she said sorry, can't help you, and came back with the recommendation we pay for an uber to go to our accommodation and come back to the airport 8 hrs later to pick up our rental. This floored me. Our entire trip was booked with Southwest. I've always been able to make free changes to accommodate Southwest's changes to our travel plans. This expectation for me, to incur the cost of their changes, is poor customer service. I asked if there was some other way we could be accommodated for this incurred cost and was recommended we file a complaint. I was also told I could revert back to our exceptionally long flight that SW had changed. I said that I found these two options to be unreasonable and this Southwest flight option was far worse than other airline options. The rep responded "well it's your choice to book another airlines, at least you will get your points back" . After that conversation, I filed a complaint. Two weeks later, I am patiently waiting for southwest to assist me. If this is the new standard for southwest customer service, I will be seeking an alternative airline for our next trip.
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