Kathleen sent a message to Gary C. Kelly Chairman, President, and CEO, Southwest Airlines Co. – email address that said:
Dear Mr. Kelly
I am writing to you as a person who was affected by the router malfunction at Southwest on July 20th. I am sure you have received many communications and expect that this one will likely not make a difference in your actions but I am sending it in hopes that it will. I fly a moderate amount both for pleasure and business and have always had excellent service by Southwest. Honestly I have never liked the cattle call for seating but have accepted the process because with it comes polite, kind and efficient customer service which has lead to me getting to where I need to be at the time I need to be there.
I believe your company’s history of emphasizing excellent customer service is why I found your companies response to this problem so surprising. First let me say you frontline people continued to provide excellent and polite service at a very challenging time with some very challenging customers. That being said it seems to me that you hung your employees out to dry – limiting their possible responses to either rebooking (often flights were unavailable to be useful to customers) and/or giving $200 voucher. I typically hear more that a $200 voucher being offered for someone to voluntarily step off an overbooked flight. These customers were not volunteers and were given less. Unusual times call for unusual measures.
I believe that the character of a company comes through most when they are presented with challenges. I understand this situation was quite a challenge for your company, and I am sure quite costly but it seems that you have the resources which allow you to successfully shoulder this cost; unlike many of your customers. (Record Fourth Quarter And Annual Profit; 43rd Consecutive Year Of Profitability)
I also have more resources then some of your customers, although absorbing this cost has not been easy. I feel badly for the customers who had absolutely no options. I did have the credit to get another rental car reservation and drive from LAX at 11PM to Denver without sleep and then of course competing the return trip 2 days later. This aggravation on July 21st was only brought back when our return flight from LAX to Boston on 7/30 was impacted by weather. We were offered a flight the next day but that would require an uncovered hotel stay at LAX – as that is your company’s policy. Instead we had to change our departing airport from LAX to Orange County airport. We were booked on a flight and given a $66 cab voucher but once we got in the cab learned the cost of the ride was actually closer to $120. Finally the flight got in too late for us to get our reserved shuttle back to our car so the trip ended with a $165 Uber ride at 1:30 in the morning.
I called today to checked on where I would see the voucher for the cancelled flight and learned that your policy is not to refund the early check in cost – another cost shouldered by your customer because your router malfunctioned. As my daughter makes her college choices it is becoming likely that flying will be required for her to get to and from school. Let me say again the character of a company comes out when things do not go right. Southwest is an excellent company when everything is going right but things do go wrong on occasion. I do not feel comfortable with my daughter flying alone on an airline, which does not function well when things go wrong. Your apology does not make me feel differently about this not does it make things better for the 1000s of people who shouldered the cost of your companies problem. An extension of your sale borders on insulting to those who shouldering the added cost to meet to their commitments while you did not meet your. It is a choice. Maybe your stock value will go down for a quarter or two. I guess character is a choice.
