My frustration comes in a very personal matter for me. My father went into the hospital last Thursday (3/3) and had to have emergency surgery. He is in the foothills of Calif, I am in Phoenix. I had to immediately get on a plane and get up there for fear he would not make it. I was on the road when I got the news, so I first started calling Southwest...I could not get anyone to answer...by the time I got home, I was still on hold and then suddenly I was disconnected, I called back while I got on the computer, could not book anything on the computer, got all the way to the purchase page and it just kept giving me an error msg. So, while I was still on hold, I packed my suitcase and made the 30 minute trip to the airport where I now had to wait in line...someone finally answered before I got to the counter and I literally had 40 mins to get my bag checked, get through security and board my plane...I made it but unfortunately it was very, very stressful and added to the stress of my Father's sudden illness, did not help one bit! I was so disgusted with the lack of customer service and lack of compassion when I was told the representative what was going on that I almost got in the US Air line...
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First of all I would like to say that I have loved Southwest for many years. I do not like the new system but it's business and if that is what Southwest as a company wants to do, so be it.
My frustration comes in a very personal matter for me. My father went into the hospital last Thursday (3/3) and had to have emergency surgery. He is in the foothills of Calif, I am in Phoenix. I had to immediately get on a plane and get up there for fear he would not make it. I was on the road when I got the news, so I first started calling Southwest...I could not get anyone to answer...by the time I got home, I was still on hold and then suddenly I was disconnected, I called back while I got on the computer, could not book anything on the computer, got all the way to the purchase page and it just kept giving me an error msg. So, while I was still on hold, I packed my suitcase and made the 30 minute trip to the airport where I now had to wait in line...someone finally answered before I got to the counter and I literally had 40 mins to get my bag checked, get through security and board my plane...I made it but unfortunately it was very, very stressful and added to the stress of my Father's sudden illness, did not help one bit! I was so disgusted with the lack of customer service and lack of compassion when I was told the representative what was going on that I almost got in the US Air line...
I do not think the airline was ready to roll out this new program and a lot of people have suffered because of it. You say you have reps working overtime and temps coming in to help but I will tell you, when I had to call a week later to try and get home for a few days, I experienced the same long wait time...I drove from San Andreas, CA to the Sacramento Airport (approx 1 hr 20 mins) and did not get an answer on the phone from Southwest.
I always knew that living in another state away from my family would be tough, but I also knew that I was only a 2 hr flight with Southwest away, but there have been so many cuts and direct flights taken out it almost just isn't worth it anymore and the fact that I couldn't get through on the phone and the website was down in my hour of need really was a blow to my "luv" of Southwest. I definitely expected more from a leader in the travel industry. I have flown 3 round trips in the past month and have had delays on at least one leg of each flight...That just isn't the Southwest way and I really hope you get your act together or US Air will be my airline of choice back and forth to the Bay Area!
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