04-12-2018
11:25 AM
04-12-2018
11:25 AM
All fair replies, thanks folks. Great to see a healthy forum here. I'm honestly not looking for any special treatment or rule bending, but just wanted to warn others, as I hadn't noticed this on other promotions (Southwest or otherwise...and I just checked Marriott Hotels, for example, who does require one to stay within the promotional period, and register prior to any stays, but NOT to book a stay only after registering - that's a SW one-off as far as I can gather). @DancingDavidE - I did pull ahead two round trip flights to see family to fit within the promotion timeline, and chose Southwest as my (and additional family members) carrier, despite a higher cost. So yes, I did do something differently than I would have otherwise, including gaining a sense of loyalty respect from SW for noticing that in the past 6 months I've been choosing them more often than the other carriers I fly. Those pull-ahead bookings certainly helped drive SW's revenue, and I intended to start giving SW more "LUV" in additional bookings regarding my business travel, as I am Gold on Delta, and Silver on United. However, this experience changed my mind...I worked within customer service/experience strategy for years, and we knew this sort of experience as one of a few golden rules - "don't offer a carrot to a customer if attaining the carrot is confusing, complex or highly difficult to attain." This goes along with another - give a customer a good experience, and they tell 3 people, give a customer a bad experience and they tell 10. I did talk with Exec Customer Relations at SW, and the agent was very nice, and understanding, and even mentioned that she also feels the Marketing dept at SW should stop this sort of mis-understood promotion, as she's often on the end needing to disappoint the customer. Southwest Marketing - take heed, and talk with your CR/CS department a bit...customer experience is owned holistically across all the customer touchpoints. In the end, I didn't meet the promotion's 15 long worded term's and conditions, and it's impossible for me to achieve at this point, so what's fair is fair. I would just like others to realize what SW's marketing department is up to here - certainly doesn't align with the "Transfarency" campaign. Reminds of the recent Facebook congressional hearings regarding whether user agreements are more customer friendly or business friendly. In my case, SW got me (as well as another family member who travelled SW due to my request) for two RT international flights I would not have otherwise taken, so kudos to their marketing department for that additional revenue, and without a single additional dime spent.
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04-11-2018
10:15 AM
04-11-2018
10:15 AM
Southwest's marketing department just cost the airline a loyal customer. A golden rule of customer experience is that you don't offer a "carrot" unless you make sure it's an effective reward toward loyalty. In this case, Southwest awards an "exclusive" promotion to spur additional loyalty to those already showing some loyalty. Unfortunately, they lost me, and likely others as within the 4th sentence of the fine print, it's not that you must fly 3 round trips within the promotional period and after registering, which is the case for nearly all frequent flyer promotions travel providers use. In fact, this promotion is only valid for NEW booking after registration and the period begins. So, effectively, Southwest Marketing is just begging people who plan in advance to cancel and rebook...which I'm sure operations loves that extra hassel. In the end Southwest earns the same revenue, except in cases like mine where I flew additional flights to attain the promotion only to be told I missed it as even though I flew after registering and within the correct time frame, I had booked my flight earlier. Kinda feels bait and switch like, and as such I'll be skipping airlines and others who use these types of obtuse fine print based promotions. Sayonara Southwest, it's been a fun 12 years.
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