Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Dissatisfied with SWA

dissatisfied999
Explorer C

Beware flying SWA! I flew standby and was given a confirmed boarding pass by SWA, out of Houston airport, with confirmed destination Kansas City. Flight had 1 stop with no plane change. SWA forced me off the planeduring the stop, in Albequerque, and refused me a flight to Kansas City until 24 hours later on SWA. I was stranded in Albuquerque overnight, and there was great need to reach Kansas City due to hospitalization of loved one with terminal cancer. SWA in Albeq offered me no assistance, hotel, food or even drink. I was forced to purchase a ticket on an alternate airline to get me out of Albeq the next morning. When I submitted this issue to SWA customer service, I was told too bad. SWA won't reimburse me for cost of other carrier's ticket.   So, SWA issues a confirmed boarding pass to final destination Kansas City, and then lands me in Albeq and says 'we changed our mind, too bad', and dumps me in Albeq, forces me to find my own way home asap, and refuses to honor cost of my forced flight on another carrier to Kansas City.  Spread the word - Be wary of flying SWA!!

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Dissatisfied with SWA

bec102896
Aviator A
Solution

@dissatisfied999 

 

Sorry to hear of your trouble with flying standby on Southwest. 

 

When you fly standby on a 1 stop no change you are considered standby for each leg seperatly so my guess is that the leg from Albuquerque was sold out and that's probably why you were removed and unfortunately that's a big risk with standby. The agent in Houston probably should have looked at the seats from ABQ and that may have changed your whole itinerary from the start. 

 

Because this is a customer to customer forum we dont know exactly what happened so I recommend you call customer relations at 855-234-4654 or email them by clicking on the contact us link at the bottom of the page so someone can look in to this for you

 

Have a great weekend!

Blake 

Re: Dissatisfied with SWA

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm curious as to why you were flying standby to begin with. If you were moved to an earlier flight Southwest was most likely trying to help you as only A-List travelers can move to an earlier flight for free. If you missed your original flight then standby is the drawback of missing the flight and Southwest did what it could to get you to your destination. Without flying on a reservation and on the exact schedule you booked and paid for you are unfortunately at risk of not being able to complete your travel on your preferred schedule.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Dissatisfied with SWA

Seat_Amigo_App
Explorer B

Really sorry for your troubles. I guess your story is a good heads up for flying stand-by. SWA does their best fo 99% of travel hiccups. I've been flying with them for 10 years and sure, once in a while, delays, cancellations, weather.....but I'll tell you, they at the top amongst all the other airlines as far as customer service goes.

 

Rusty Shaffer

CEO

www.seatamigo.com

Re: Dissatisfied with SWA

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@dissatisfied999 wrote:

Beware flying SWA! I flew standby and was given a confirmed boarding pass by SWA, out of Houston airport, with confirmed destination Kansas City. Flight had 1 stop with no plane change. SWA forced me off the planeduring the stop, in Albequerque, and refused me a flight to Kansas City until 24 hours later on SWA. I was stranded in Albuquerque overnight, and there was great need to reach Kansas City due to hospitalization of loved one with terminal cancer. SWA in Albeq offered me no assistance, hotel, food or even drink. I was forced to purchase a ticket on an alternate airline to get me out of Albeq the next morning. When I submitted this issue to SWA customer service, I was told too bad. SWA won't reimburse me for cost of other carrier's ticket.   So, SWA issues a confirmed boarding pass to final destination Kansas City, and then lands me in Albeq and says 'we changed our mind, too bad', and dumps me in Albeq, forces me to find my own way home asap, and refuses to honor cost of my forced flight on another carrier to Kansas City.  Spread the word - Be wary of flying SWA!!


I hope there wasn't some mixup with the communication, I don't think the wording should have been "confirmed" for that ABQ-MCI leg. 

 

Lessons learned for anyone else trying similar:

 

  • Standby on a connecting flight should be considered for the risk of that second leg - try to find out how many open seats there are if standby, or else double-check that you are confirmed for all segments.
  • If there is a risk on a second segment, try to get stranded somewhere with more options to get to your destination. Hopefully the situation doesn't repeat itself for you, but for anyone else out there considering a standby with connection.

 

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