Mukund sent a message to Gary C. Kelly Chairman, President, and CEO, Southwest Airlines Co. – email address that said:
Hi Mr. Kelly,
I am an employee of another airline and I would like to report an incident which I believe will put you to shame regarding the behavior of your employee on how they treated me during the boarding process at your airline. I was supposed to travel to Oakland for my daughter's college visit in the bay area. I got standby tickets on Flight 1847 (PNR 9DIORZ) from HOU to OAK on 20th July. I arrived and checked in at the kiosk and dropped my bags. They checked my drivers license and took my bags (5 of them). My family and I then proceeded to security and were waiting at the gate 44 for our names to be called. The flight was unfortunately delayed by 5 hours and we waited till then. When the boarding did start, my name was called and when I went up to the gate attendant, she asked for my employee ID which I didnt have in my possession. She then refused to give me the boarding passes and called her supervisor who as well denied us to board the flight. I did produce my e-ID which showed my picture as well as the employee ID number. I dont have a complain against the process but the point at which the attendant decide to implement it selectively there by causing me huge inconvenience. It seemed the only intent was to stop me from boarding and they would have done it even if I had the ID with me. My bags couldn't be pulled out as it was close to departure and I had to go through the ordeal of filing a baggage complaint to get my bags to Houston.
At the time of writing this email, I don't have a clue if I can even receive my bags as I have critical medicines packed in them.
I travelled from MDW to HOU 5 days ago and nowhere I was asked for my employee ID. The ability to book standby tickets itself indicates that I had to be an employee as long as I produce a valid photo ID that matches the names in the PNR.
I have worked in the airline industry for over 20 years and I do understand the need for policies but implementing it on as needed basis with a sole reason to inconvenience a person is unacceptable. I am a human being and then a airline employee and a reasonable judgement call could have been made by supervisor to accommodate my family. My daughter was quite distraught to have missed the interview opportunity at the University of California at Berkeley.
I had always considered Southwest as an epitome in procedures and processes that are friendly to customers. But this experience have killed that image of Southwest that I had prior to this experience.
I hope you do take this email as a serious need to improve your process to help the customers.
Regards
Mukund
