Abram sent a message to Gary C. Kelly Chairman, President, and CEO, Southwest Airlines Co. – email address that said:
I have sent the following complaint/recognition of assistance to Customer Relations. should you have any questions.
On Friday, July 22, my husband, Abe, and I were scheduled to fly from Greenville, SC to Baltimore, MD on Southwest . We were scheduled to depart at 6:45 p.m. We were supposed to transfer to Southwest Flight in Atlanta at 8:55 p.m. and arrive at BWI at 10:55 p.m. The morning of the 22nd, my husband received a text from Southwest informing him that our flight from Greenville to Atlanta would be delayed, and we were now scheduled to depart Greenville at 8:05 p.m. This late departure meant that we would miss our connecting flight in Atlanta. We later received a revised text indicating that the Greenville flight would now leave at 8:30 p.m.
Abe called the Southwest help line and remained on hold for one and one-half hours. After he had been on hold for about an hour, I decided to call also, to see if maybe one of us could speak to someone. When we ultimately spoke to a reservations agent, she informed us that if we didn’t take the delayed flight that night, we would be unable to get out of Greenville until the following Sunday. If we chose to take the delayed flight, we would be unable to fly from Atlanta to BWI until the following day, Saturday. She was unable to provide us with a hotel voucher or even assure us that Southwest would provide one once we got to Atlanta.
We asked her about the possibility of flying from Charlotte to BWI, but she informed us that we would need an entirely new ticket and would have to pay last minute fares. I asked to speak to her supervisor and after more time on hold, Elsa came onto the line. She confirmed us on a flight from Atlanta to BWI that was scheduled to leave at 5:30 p.m. the next day, Saturday. She also said that she could not give us a hotel voucher, but we could get one at the Atlanta airport. We also spoke to Sydney in Customer Relations who, while very sympathetic, gave us much of the same information.
When we arrived at the Greenville airport Friday evening we were told that our plane was delayed again. When I asked the gate agent if he could issue us the hotel voucher, he checked with his supervisor and relayed the message that there were no hotels available in Atlanta. His supervisor, Catrina, came out to speak with us and informed us that, due to the SWA computer issues, there were no hotel rooms in Atlanta and in a number of other cities. When we asked for her advice, Catrina told us that our best course would be to drive to Charlotte and take a flight from there that was scheduled to leave later on that evening. I told her that we had asked about that flight, but were told that we couldn’t take it without buying new tickets. She told us not to worry and gave us boarding passes.
My husband raced over to the car rentals to see if there were any cars available. While he was gone, Catrina called out to me and told me that two SWA employees in Customer Relations, Giselle and Gary Bellio, were driving to the Charlotte airport to try to catch the same flight. They said they’d be happy to take us along. Gary was driving a pickup truck and was concerned that our bags might get wet because of an impending thunderstorm. He was careful to wrap them in plastic before the ride. We were able to board that flight (with more help from Giselle and Gary) and made it back to Baltimore around midnight. We cannot say enough about these two wonderful employees.
To say that we were exhausted and extremely frustrated is an understatement. Our last day of vacation was ruined, and we were sent on a long, aggravating, and unnecessary wild-goose chase. I understand that SWA staff was extremely busy due to the computer malfunctions, but there was no reason why we had to talk to three separate people after being on hold for over an hour and a half. Also, due to these circumstances, SWA should have given their agents a little more latitude to accommodate their passengers so that we wouldn’t have to be passed around multiple times. Finally, someone other than the gate supervisor at the airport should have been able to book us onto the Charlotte flight. It took us 45 minutes to get to the Greenville airport; it would have been less than two hours to the Charlotte airport. Instead of going straight to Charlotte, we had to get a ride to Greenville, and then through the graciousness of Gary and Giselle, go another hour and a half to the Charlotte airport.
While SWA staff tried to be helpful, it seems their hands were tied. If not for Catrina, Giselle, and Gary, we would have had to spend the night in the Atlanta airport and hope that we could get out sometime on Saturday.
Southwest is our primary airline. We have never had any real issues before. We hope to continue flying Southwest in the future and hope that you can take some action to remedy the problems we faced last Friday night and to recognize the employees who went the extra mile for us.
Thanks for your attention.
Robin /Abram
