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Flight delay and missed connection

Nightmare
Explorer C

I cannot believe the nightmare I am living through trying to deal with my flight reservation and refund after my Southwest Flight was delayed and we were allowed to get off the plane because we were going to miss our connection.

After informing the Southwest agent, we went in search of another flight to our destination. Long story short there were no flights on any airline for the next two days. So our only option was to drive for 13 hours.

Now for the “Wonderful” haha Southwest service. A couple hours later I get an email from Southwest saying we missed our flight at the connection airport and that they canceled our return flight and we forfeited ticket fees. So I decide this should be fairly straightforward. If call Southwest and they will simple refund our money and rebook our original return. Ha, first mistake. The first individual I spoke with after a long wait, said and I quote “you have called the wrong airline.” He did not know how right he was. I should never have tried. When I told him that I wanted to talk to Southwest, he basically was rude and told me I needed to call some other number, but he did not provide me with one. I called again and after a long wait, I finally got an agent who said, “I will transfer you to the proper number.” When she transferred me, the line was busy then went dead. Back at square zero again. You just can’t make this stuff up.

I called again and was given another number to call again after a long wait. When I called this number, I was told they would call me back in 19 minutes if I pushed 1. So I did. The first time, my phone was out of service so I missed that call. Do you think they would call me back? Nah. So I tried again. Same drill. This time the call came in and I answered only to find there was no one on the line and Southwest had hung up on me. Having no other option, I tried again. 20 minutes later I received a call back and this time an agent said, “I am sorry you have to call the Customer Relations line” and gave me the number. Ugh!!! Is Southwest for real? So I called that number and was told it was a 66 minute wait and I could stay on the line or go to their website and send an email. Nobody has over an hour to sit on hold. So I thought a simple email could straighten this out. I was instructed to go to their website by an agent and the email address would be there. I was actually told this by two different agents. Wrong again. Southwest does not accept emails! They probably lack the technology.

So what to do? Let them keep my money and hopefully find a way back from the Kentucky Derby on Sunday. Good luck. Since I was just sitting in the car on our 13 hour drive, I decided to call and sit on hold for over an hour. On this line, they do not offer to call you back. I guess it is acceptable to wait on hold for over an hour, but not for 20 minutes, in which case they will call you back. Finally after waiting for over 70 minutes the music stopped and the recorded messages about appreciating my patience ended and I thought at last. Then Southwest hung up on me. 🤬

One would think that occasionally someone at Southwest might actually try to use their customer service and see how good they were doing servicing their customers. Nah.

While I was searching their site for an email or phone number, I ran across their motto “We think of our company as a customer service company not an airline.” I hope they fly better than they service their customers.

After devoting over five hours of my time attempting to resolve a problem that was 100% Southwest’s fault, I am at a loss of what to do. I am beginning to believe that this was their strategy from the beginning to wear me out so they could keep my money.

3 REPLIES 3

Re: Customer Service

NicoleAshley
Employee
Employee
Solution

We're saddened to hear this. As a peer-to-peer support forum, we are not equipped to assist you here, but we encourage you to reach out via the options in the link below. We know that we can offer a better experience in the future.

 

Submitting a Suggestion and/or Complaint

Nicole
Community Manager

Re: Customer Service

Jwalsh3rd
Adventurer A
Solution

Wow, what a nightmare!  I, like you, am often frustrated by waiting to talk to a real person, getting cut off, being transferred to the wrong person and what seems to be a lack of concern (or even worse lack of training) on the other end.  I am so sorry that you had to go through this experience and I hope this message will help you and others avoid some of the frustration that is inevitable with some circumstances.  I have learned and am convinced that almost every SWA employee wants to serve  customers well, but at times the system gets overwhelmed by uncontrollable circumstances such as weather, computer failures or other system failures.  Messages like yours have motivated me to research ways to work around problems and to try to understand ways to get things done when the system seems to be fouled up.  I have learned at SWA there are a few ways to get a response that are far better than a call when weather or other issues are bogging down the system.   One system that seems fail safe, at least for now, is to tweet @Southwestair or use email response about your issue to SWA.  Both can be found at this website https://www.southwest.com/contact-us/contact-us.html.  The people that respond to the tweets that I have sent have been knowledgable, quick and very helpful.  I have found it to save an enormous amount of time instead of waiting on the phone.  The email is a slower process in my experience, but it does seem to get me the answers, especially related to refunds and such.  Another solution I have used is to wait until the extraordinary issues have cleared up and the phones are not as busy.  I have always found clear and concise information is available when times are normal.  Not that I always am happy with the answer, but I seem to always get a reliable one.  I hope this is helpful to someone that may be frustrated.  SWA is trying!

Re: Customer Service

dfwskier
Aviator A
Solution

Yes that was a awful experience. Sorry you had to go thru it. I've been there and done that, and it is maddening as heck.

 

Jwalsh is right about tweeting or sending an e-mail - both available via the link provided.

 

The SW app now includes a "chat" feature. If you run into future dificulties, that might be another "better" option than phoning to use in attemtping to get resolution.