Southwest Airlines Community

Hi,   I am new to this Community.  Most people, I assume, join because, like me, they are frustrated with SWA.  I am frustrated with SWA.  I have had many non-frustrating experiences with SWA and many very good experience for which I am grateful and consider myself lucky. I also understand and appreciate the complications due to the unprecedented situation the airline industry is having due the the COVID-19 pandemic; however, I am having trouble understanding a SWA's policy related to (re)scheduling a flight that SWA cancelled. It seems like a bit of a double standard (i.e., big double standard) for SWA to expect me to understand and accommodate their making flight schedule changes without my consent, yet not, in return, accommodate my reschedule request due to a SWA policy. To be clear, their policy, to the best of my knowledge, is not due to any legal or regulatory restrictions.   After much deliberating and research, I booked a flight on SWA from Baltimore to San Jose that had a layover in Nashville. The trip is scheduled for October. The layover in Nashville was very important and a primary factor in my deliberation landing on that flight through Nashville. Why? In order for me to convince my elderly parents, who live in Nashville, to go on this trip with my wife and me to San Jose, we promised to travel with them and assist them. My dad is getting frail and my mom feels like she needs help with my dad in the airport and on the trip. In addition to getting to spend time with my parents, we were going to get to spend time with my cousin (my dad's niece) and other family for the first time following the pandemic. I made a promise and everything worked out very well and we thought we were set with the flight.     As you can predict, SWA sent me an email with a change notice regarding our flight, which was no longer transferring through Nashville. No flights from any airports in the Washington, DC area had connecting flights through Nashville. To add insult to the injury, my parent's flight from Nashville to San Jose was also changed from a nonstop flight to a flight with a connection and layover. This change was going to make it even harder for my parents and more important that I be there to help them. I was very frustrated, a little hurt, and got to work to figure out a solution.   I researched the flights and found a solution, but needed to talk with a customer service representative since I could not make the change on-line. After hours of waiting and several transfers my solution was rejected by Jacqueline and Mary due to a SWA policy that does not allow customers to change to a "point-to-point" flight even in the event of SWA being at fault. I understood that that change would be adding a second connection to our flight and understood that we would have to collect any checked bags in Nashville and check them again on the flight to San Jose.   Honestly, Mary was great throughout the call until the end. In a moment of vulnerability I, uncharacteristically with a complete stranger, began to sob when expressing to her my disappointment in the airline and my frustration and fear. She got very condescending stating that there were many factors behind the scenes that I would not be able to understand and those factors require there to be such a policy. She also told me that if SWA did not enforce their policy, that their customers would bankrupt them and that SWA cannot accommodate people who are "asking for the world". I'm not sure my request constitutes "asking for the world" and for her to suggest that it does constitute such an ask is disrespectful at best. I asked for her supervisor.   Before talking with Mary, Jacqueline told me a very upsetting statistic while we were discussing my options. She told me that, even if I could book the new flight today, that it would likely be changed again by the October flight. This fact does not engender a lot of confidence in the leadership and policies at SWA. In fact, knowledge of this insider information made me feel totally powerless and added substantially to my anxiety. She basically told me that SWA can do whatever they want without consideration of the consequences to their customers.   SWA has failed my family miserably on this flight. They owe us nothing, of course, other than the bare minimum for them to fulfill their contractual obligations to us.  However, I have to say that I am surprised by how this airline has handled the current situation and the double standard the force their customers to endure.   Thanks for listening.   Kindest regards,   Jake Stein Rockville, MD ... View more