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Southwest Airlines Community

Bait and Switch

weirsbigmike
Explorer C

I cannot believe that the government allows SWA to bait and switch.On sunday 07/02/2017

was in in the process of buying 4 tickets for my daughter and grandkids to fly home to Tuscon from Seattle on 7/19/2017.The price was $113 by the time finished putting in the information that prompt said you cannot buy those tickets for $157.Clearly bait and switch.Called cust service should have hit myself with a baseball bat would have gotten a better response.I have beemn in retail sales and management for over 35 years if we did thi sto a customer we would be shut down and i would have problay ended up in jail.Like i told the cust service supervisor it would be like going to mcdonalds ordering a big mac for $5.00 then when you paid for it sorry if you want your big mac it will be $10.00 dollars.There littl ebait and switch cost me over $200 dollars.after reading on the internet seams SWA is the worst at thi sbait and switch.I have alreday talked the the attorney generals office and sent him information.He said he has had alot of complaints about SWAand if he can get enough he has no problem starting a customer class action suit.If you are reading and had  aproblem with this let your legislators and attorney generals know. SWA has pissed of the wrong crazy old man.

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Bait and Switch

chgoflyer
Aviator A

I know this is no consolation, but Southwest specifically says that fares aren't guaranteed until the purchase is final.

 

I find that this happens much more often on Southwest than it does on other carriers. People frequently post on forums and social media about trying to book a flight and the price increasing, sometimes multiple times, when attempting to complete the purchase.

 

The conversion to the new booking system seems to have made the issue worse. It's especially ironic, since it was suggested that the new booking system might alleviate this issue.

 

For what it's worth, you might want to consider making a consumer complaint to the US DOT:

 

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint

Re: Bait and Switch

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

There is also an issue at times with purchasing multipel tickets at once, if there are only two seats left at the designated fare but you purchase four, then it kicks up to the next bracket.

 

Right or wrong in that approach, it would be helpful if there was some feedback when that happens to allow you to automatically buy two and two, instead of all four at the higher rate, or if you prefer to go back and buy each one separately.

 

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

Re: Bait and Switch

rdwardjr
Explorer C

I'm pretty pissed at Southwest for pulling the same Bait and switch on me as I was checking out...same thing. I got the "oops" message when I went to pay. they force you to  refresh your browser & prices were higher. I didn't realize until I paid and thought the price didn't look right. Once you're in the checkout page, the price should remain the same for atleast 5 minutes to allow completion of check-out. THIS DISHONEST BAIT & SWITCH TRICK SOUTHWEST IS PULLING IS WRONG! From now on, when planning travel, I'll look elsewhere and buy from other airlines every chance I get. In fact, when I checked lowfares.com, Delta Airlines had comperable pricing and

I WOULD RATHER GIVE ANOTHER AIRLINE MY BUSINESS SINCE SOUTHWEST HAS PULLED THIS BAIT AND SWITCH TRICK DURING CHECKOUT.

Re: Bait and Switch

dfwskier
Aviator A

Morning.

 

I've had the same thing happen to me. It really is not a case of bait and switch. Here's why:

 

There are a limited number of seats at a given price available on any flight. Once they're sold, they're gone. Thus the fare you are looking at may disappear IF SOMEONE ELSE BUYS IT FIRST.

 

My guess about what happened is that there was one seat available at the price you were seeing.

Someone else was looking to buy a seat at that price the same time you were. They bought it before you hit the buy button. So they got the one remaining seat at that price.

 

Hope that helps you understand what likely happened.