Hello Everyone! I had a particularly frustrating experience today at the Burbank airport.
I booked a flight from Burbank to Sacramento (confirmed, as a paying customer, not standby at this point) but there was an issue with TSA (unrelated to me), so a bunch of people were running late for flights because of it. I missed my first flight because of that but was told i could get on the next one.
I got through security and went to the customer service desk at the next gate to print my boarding pass and my son's, and the Southwest employee started questioning me about written consent from my son's father for me to fly with my son from Burbank to Sac (not even across state lines, it was a direct flight). I said I didn't have that and shouldn't need it to fly with him. The employees (whom I will not name publicly like this) basically said I couldn't get a boarding pass for my son and they wouldn't put us on the next flight. I tried to ask for a manager and get some help but Southwest's response was basically... like, how do we know that this isn't a kidnapping situation .... basically they wasted over an hour trying to "figure out" if they could let me fly with him and by the time they agreed I was allowed to do so, the next flight was now FULL (all those standby people that missed their flights due to TSA issues that were in line behind me). Therefore, we were unable to fly to Sacramento today and attend the event in Sac that we were trying to get to.
For background: I am a single mom with sole physical custody of my 5 year old son (his dad left 3.5 years ago, haven't seen him since). My son and I have different last names but I have his passport and birth certificate and a court order verifying sole physical custody awarded to me which I also produced.
Is this normal?? I know people fly with their kids and step children all the time. I have never seen or heard of anyone being questioned like this or denied boarding due to a "lack of written consent" from the other non-present parent/legal guardian. Has anyone else experienced this?? and if so, what can I do to avoid this in the future??
I got a refund for the flight but i'm concerned about booking another one with Southwest in the future because I don't want this to happen again....
