Brian, you don't get it. she wasn't "asked to cover up" as you say. She was told she couldn't fly unless she changed her clothes. With the level of disempowerment that American passengers have undergone in the last five years, being told you 'can't fly' is a touchpoint only made worse when they've being called out for subjective moral reasons.
Your response on this blog is the most insensitive use of a corporate blog I've seen to date, and coming from the Manager of Customer Communications it shows me that Southwest is steadily losing its way. what had been a sincere positive attitude of caring about the customer and about the profession is quickly becoming a caricature of itself. I've been seeing Southwest employees 'acting cheerful' and 'putting on a face' because that's the company's image and that's their employee's role.
You know as well as I do that the situation could have been handled much better by working with the passenger to express the problem in more specific, actionable terms than 'you're dressed inappropriately' and that Keith the airline agent should have been working from the presumption that the passenger's time was just as valuable as another passenger's sensibilities.
Keith made a mistake by not thinking of a blanket sooner and should have only suggested (and not required) that the passenger take a later flight until all other avenues had been exhausted, but your actions in justifying Southwest's position by using your corporate blog to humiliate this passenger is inexcusable.
I've been an active Southwest customer for 15 years and at this point all I can say is that I'm glad that Virgin America is serving SFO, LAS and LAX, because it gives me an alternate airline filled with people who are sincerely eager to cater to their customers.
Kevin Fox
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