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Southwest Airlines - Extortion and Worst Customer Service
Flight From San Diego to Oakland - Complaint
Review by BRUNO.LAFONTAINE on 2012-04-14
Rating: 
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- We initially bought tickets for the same SWA flight on 4/14/2012, at the same time for a child (8-year old), his father and his grandmother. All 3 tickets were not bought at the same time: the child and grandmother tickets were bought first and then the Dad's.
Later on, the grandmother had to change her plans and called SWA to change her departure time. The SWA representative told her that he needed to change the confirmation number for the child flight, which he did, and assured us that the child and father were on the same flight.
The night before the actual flight, we started the check-in procedure for the child and father, only to find out that they were booked on separate flights.
We called SWA to get the situation rectified. The SWA representation, Shannon (a supervisor in San Antonio TX who would not provide her last name, supposedly according to company policy), flatly refused to correct their mistake and told us that it would be fine for the child to fly from San Diego to Oakland at 8:45 at night by himself!!! She said that it was our mistake not to verify that both father and child were on the same flight, which is wrong because we immediately verified verbally with the SWA representative over the phone when the modifications were made.
In the end, Shannon told us that we would have to pay an extra $48 if we wanted the child to fly with his father and not by himself, which we consider to be extortion. Since we feel that letting an 8-year old fly by himself to be irresponsible, we had no choice but to pay Southwest Airlines the $48.
Later on, the grandmother had to change her plans and called SWA to change her departure time. The SWA representative told her that he needed to change the confirmation number for the child flight, which he did, and assured us that the child and father were on the same flight.
The night before the actual flight, we started the check-in procedure for the child and father, only to find out that they were booked on separate flights.
We called SWA to get the situation rectified. The SWA representation, Shannon (a supervisor in San Antonio TX who would not provide her last name, supposedly according to company policy), flatly refused to correct their mistake and told us that it would be fine for the child to fly from San Diego to Oakland at 8:45 at night by himself!!! She said that it was our mistake not to verify that both father and child were on the same flight, which is wrong because we immediately verified verbally with the SWA representative over the phone when the modifications were made.
In the end, Shannon told us that we would have to pay an extra $48 if we wanted the child to fly with his father and not by himself, which we consider to be extortion. Since we feel that letting an 8-year old fly by himself to be irresponsible, we had no choice but to pay Southwest Airlines the $48.
Comments:
Posted by littleshorty on 2012-04-14:
I believe most companies don't allow CSR's to give out their full names. It's a policy that protects the employee from any type of harassment and/or retaliation from an irate customer.
Southwest doesn't charge change fees so that $48 is a difference in air fare. If you were on another airline, you would have paid way more to change the flight.
Southwest doesn't charge change fees so that $48 is a difference in air fare. If you were on another airline, you would have paid way more to change the flight.
Posted by trmn8r on 2012-04-15:
I had a bit of trouble understanding what happened, starting in the beginning with all tickets were bought at the same time and they were not bought at the same time.
Ultimately, I agree it is the customer's responsibility to confirm who is booked on what. SW is one of the better airlines out there - I'm sorry this happened. Changing flights can be really expensive at some - I agree with shorty.
Ultimately, I agree it is the customer's responsibility to confirm who is booked on what. SW is one of the better airlines out there - I'm sorry this happened. Changing flights can be really expensive at some - I agree with shorty.
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