I'm a res agent and luv helping our customers get to and from the places they want/need to go. As you can imagine, we've been hearing the scheduling opening question very frequently as of late. It is very frustrating for us to have to say, "no we don't know when the schedule will open, "they" don't give us that information in advance". As a person who likes to travel, I can understand why our customers, especially our loyal customers, get exasperated, but the truth is, WE REALLY DON'T KNOW WHEN THE SCHEDULE WILL OPEN UP - UNTIL IT HAPPENS. Until Bill's blog, I didn't know about the scheduling department's 180/120 day deal. That's really good information, but it doesn't alleviate the customer's frustration in wanting to complete their booking right then and there. The thing is, we at Southwest bend over backwards to give the absolute best customer service we possibly can for every individual customer, internal and external. We value and appreciate every single one of our passengers and would never want them to feel like they had to fly "someone else". The flying pubic doesn't know the ins and outs of operating a successful, profitable airline. We are not now nor have we ever been the same as "the others". Our customers enjoy our low-fares and can ALWAYS talk to a live person to answer questions or accomodate them as best as we can within our limits. AND the current system has been working succesfully for us and the flying public for over 17 years and I don't think we should look at re-inventing the wheel. Once we've confirmed a persons flight plans, they can depend on it (barring unforseen events). There are too many iff's out there to open up the schedule too far in advance and even tho it's oftentimes painful to have to keep repeating the same thing over and over, I understand the why behind it and can explain it a little better now. Thanks Bill!
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