In answer to the e mail posted by Michel Harris, it is not just a matter of number of children boarding with you, but all of the extra things you need to make the trip better for every one concerned, car seat, extra treats, diapers, etc. so even though one child is five the other may be younger, anyway I would like to commend the crew of flight 3394 which had a rough trip on Jan. 31st from california to chicago we were delayed because of the bad snow storm in chicago, but the crew and captain kept us well informed regarding our landing attempts and our diversion to Indianapolis, and he kept every one aware of the situation and his final attempt to land at Midway which he did succeed although four hours past schedule. the landing was pretty smooth considering the weather. however, I do have a complaint with the baggage handlers getting our things unloaded in a timely manner. I was part of a three member group returning on Dec. 30th and one of the parties luggage got lost. It was shipped the next day, but the staff in customer service were clearly overwhelmed with this problem that day, their explanation was we did not expect this volume of people, come on! it was a holiday weekend. Now the same thing occurred on Jan. 31st mentioned above, everyone in the Midwest knew this storm was coming and we waiter over two hours for our luggage to appear, this with one three year old, and one 5 month old which gave us our time to even begin the journey on the road at 2:A.M. My daughter was told they had alot to do so give them a break, have your baggage handlers staged a slowdown or a strike. This part of my experience, with Southwest I am not happy with along with the new pre board for families. I have received two free flights the last year, because when it is necessary for my grandchildren to fly I take the journey with them. In respect to some of the other passengers who complain, I would like to see them in our situation, trying to make an already long day, into the twelve hours we had with the boys because of the circumstances. Also I would like to see an airport with some type of facility where disposable diapers could be purchased along with childs water and some packets of formula. One of our big concerns during this past flight was if stranded in an aiport late at night, without access to our luggae what were we supposed to use for diapers and food, the basic type of things, I don;t care if they stamped their logo on these items this should be available at every airport, and until the delayed flights have come in.
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11-24-2007
08:00 AM
4 Loves
I found your website and decided to add my comments to them. I also fly many round trips on Southwest every year (my daughter lives in Southern California and we travel back and forth, some of the time she travels with her two little boys ages 2 and one half and two months. Her husband travels alot so she comes into Chicago.. She has traveled other airlines and really preferred your old pre-boarding system. However, now since there are not assigned seats, she has really been stressed out over the porcess of trying to gate check a double stroller and get the older two year old settled with his car seat, since she is now paying for his seat which is fine. There will be no way she will be able to handle these trips alone and more than likely I will be traveling back and forth just to help her. I read some of the comments from other travelers about some people who abuse the old pre-board system with older children, but really I have traveled alone and as an adult , can't some of those people give these young families a break and let them sit together and get settled, so they don't have other people behind them up their back. Also just today I was unable to board her with the internet, but her husband got an A pass #22 and her two year old son got an A pass #42, Absolutely insane. It would not let me pull up a boarding pass for her since she was told to put she would have a carry on two month old child, so it kicked her automatically to between the A and B passengers. In all the years I have travelled I rarely saw families abuse the pre-boarding status which made Southwest so popular with young families. I just wish those people who have written in complaining about family travel had to deal with the stress themselves.
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