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A second rate airline masquerading as a budget carrier

Nigeld1963
Explorer C

I am delighted to say that haven’t flown with southwest for many years. Today unfortunately that changed and I had no option. 

 

The entire orocess sucks - almost $500 for a one way ticket and I have to book a place in a line to board 24 hours in advance.

 

There is zero communication for the inevitable delay, and when we eventually board, the pilots clocked out and so here we sit - boarded but  still no closer to leaving.

 

You should fly on your competitor airlines sometime - try JetBlue and see how they treat their passengers compared to the way you treat yours.

 

and there is no way to contact you via email - just an awful experience all round so far. 

5 REPLIES 5

Re: A second rate airline masquerading as a budget carrier

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

The last point I can help you with - there is an email link on the “Contact Us” section of the website (and at the bottom of this page on the community).

 

If you paid $500 you may have been at or near Business Select fare, With that fare type you’d be slotted for A1 to A15 regardless of when you checked in as long as you checked in eventually to claim your boarding pass.

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: A second rate airline masquerading as a budget carrier

SWDigits
Aviator A

@Nigeld1963 wrote:

 

there is no way to contact you via email


I'm also a Southwest customer there are several options to get in touch with the Southwest team:

 

  • Chat within the Southwest app
  • Twitter (@Southwestair)
  • Customer Relations is available by phone, 1-855-234-4654 (see this page for the source)
  • You can get in touch by email via the web form, click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page, then select "Send us a message"

Customer | Home airport DCA

Re: A second rate airline masquerading as a budget carrier

AndSoItGoes
Explorer A

To those who tout the "Contact Us" form on the Southwest website, that is not the same as email. True, you will get an email reply that likely doesn't address your issue. And that reply will be  "locked" -- i.e, you cannot respond to it and start a dialogue. So if the info you receive is unhelpful you have to start over with a new "Contact Us" message. This system clearly is designed to restrict customer interaction with Southwest personnel.

Re: A second rate airline masquerading as a budget carrier

dfwskier
Aviator A

@AndSoItGoes wrote:

To those who tout the "Contact Us" form on the Southwest website, that is not the same as email. True, you will get an email reply that likely doesn't address your issue. And that reply will be  "locked" -- i.e, you cannot respond to it and start a dialogue. So if the info you receive is unhelpful you have to start over with a new "Contact Us" message. This system clearly is designed to restrict customer interaction with Southwest personnel.


I've always had good luck using e-mail. I've always asked for a return call, and gotten one within an hour. Also you could cut and paste your old dialogue into a new message.

 

The reason the airline handles e-mail the way it does is because if the airline published an e-mail address it would be covered up in spam, making it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff -- likely resulting in few people getting timely responses to their inquiries. Lots of companies handle e-mail the way that Southwest does.

Re: A second rate airline masquerading as a budget carrier

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@AndSoItGoes wrote:

To those who tout the "Contact Us" form on the Southwest website, that is not the same as email. True, you will get an email reply that likely doesn't address your issue. And that reply will be  "locked" -- i.e, you cannot respond to it and start a dialogue. So if the info you receive is unhelpful you have to start over with a new "Contact Us" message. This system clearly is designed to restrict customer interaction with Southwest personnel.


I'm inferring their intentions from other experience that I have as I'm not connected directly to Southwest in that way, but the idea of the webform is that the messages can be logged and delegated more efficiently as opposed to a direct email address that could be typo'ed by customers, goes to a specific inbox, changing staff, has to be updated, other problems, etc. 

 

But if you aren't receiveing a helpful response and that same person would have eventually gotten your direct email message the result would be the same. 

 

I think calling, Twitter, or Live Chat in the app may work better then for starting a dialogue than using email.

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.