Paul sent a message to Gary C. Kelly Chairman, President, and CEO, Southwest Airlines Co. – email address that said:
Dear Mr. Kelly,
I’m writing to let you know about my disappointment with my recent experience with Southwest Airlines. First, let me say that I have been a loyal Southwest customer for more than 10 years and for several years have been a Rewards member and most years am an A List traveler. I also have made Southwest the first choice / required airline for all of our employees and sales reps. All told we spend over one hundred thousand dollars a year traveling by plane and booking hotels and rental cars through Southwest.
I recently changed a date to fly from San Diego to Rochester, NY and received a confirmation (9EGDFA) from Southwest on 8/19 for the change to the 8/27 flight. When I tried to check in I received an error message. I called Southwest and was on hold for close to 50 minutes. The agent told me there was an error in the system and there was no ticket associated with my reservation (which was paid for with points). I was told I would be sent to Customer Relations. I asked if I could give him my phone number to call me back in case I was dropped in the transfer. I was told that he could not take a phone number and had no ability to call a customer. The agent hung up on me in the transfer.
When I called back I was told that there was no way to connect me to the prior agent and the new agent would need to start fresh. I was on hold again for 80 minutes. Again, I was told the same thing. The reservation was in the system but no ticket was associated with the reservation. Finally I was transferred to a customer relations person. After another 60 minutes the customer relations person said he could help but would need to cancel the first reservation and issue another reservation. He offered to send me boarding passes via email.
When I got off the phone I saw that I not only didn’t have the boarding passes but I had emails letting me know that more than 21,000 points were withdrawn from my account for a change fee and I no longer had the A boarding preference I paid for. Additionally, on my Southwest Account the Boarding passes showed C Group and my A boarding preference, which I paid for prior, was not honored. When I called back the new customer relations person, Cesar, insisted that Southwest was in the right pulling the points for the change fee. I clarified with him that the change was not requested by me but was done because there was an error with the original reservation, which I had paid a change fee for already. I was charged a second time for a change that Southwest needed to make because of your error, not mine. Also, I was told the A group preference I paid for as well could not be transferred to the new reservation. He said it was not an issue because, as an A List Member, I could always board between the A and B groups.
Now I was charged twice for the same ticket and I did not get the A preference service I paid for. I have to say that I was not only shocked after all these years of getting great service from Southwest that this is the way you would do business, but I have to believe that it is illegal to charge a customer twice for a ticket they paid for and have a reservation for when the flight was not cancelled for mechanical or weather reasons, and the customer did not cancel. Again, the change was because the Southwest computer systems had an error, not for anything I did (I had a confirmation and confirmation number on the flight). In my business it would be both illegal and unethical to charge a customer a second time for the software they purchased from us because of an error on our part in delivering the software the first time.
As a fellow business owner I thought I’d contact you to let you know about this practice and that it has seriously hurt my trust in Southwest and is making me re-think our decision to make you our company airline of choice. I really don’t want to do business with an airline that would follow these types of practices. I also would want to know if I had practices in place in our business that double-charged customers and did not provide the services our customers paid for in case you or the management team were not aware of the practice. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Paul
