Southwest Airlines

I am done with Southwest. I just got screwed by the inability to change a passenger just like so many others recently. The agent said they have been telling people about this for some time. News to me. As soon as I can arrange it I'm paying off my Southwest credit card and sending it and my rapid rewards card to them in pieces.

Extremely disappointed in Southwest's recent changes to the policy on the inability to change a passenger name once the ticket has been purchased. I bought a ticket for an employee before this policy took effect who was not able to make the trip. Since then SW started supposedly "enforcing a policy that has been in place" without any sort of notification. Now I'm out almost $500 because they won't refund the ticket or allow me to use the credit for another passenger - even if it's just transferred to my name. Their reason when I filed a complaint? "a proactive step to align our business with the general practice of the airline industry" So it seems SW is in fact purposefully intending to become just another airline. The really upsetting part is that only a week or two earlier another trip for an employee had to be cancelled and I was able to use the flight credit for someone else. Suddenly I can't. No notification at all. I get emails just about every other day from SW advertising their "get- away" deals; couldn't they have simply sent out an email letting us know their policy was going to go into effect? I was an extremely loyal SW customer but they've lost my business for good. I know I'm only one of many people this has affected - they told me as much when I called to complain.

Terrible customer service. I purchased tickets for my employees to take a trip in October 2011 and one of the employees can no longer go. This trip has been planned 5 months in advance. Southwest will not let anyone else use the ticket even though we gave 5 months notice. They would not allow any name transfers. Only the named employee could use the ticket no else could go in her place. They would only refund if they were given a copy of a death certificate of the employee.

Travelled SW for the first time because my son gave me and my husband SW giftcards so we booked a trip to Vegas. We paid the extra $10. each was for early bird seating we got A section between 15 and 30 that was good. I think if you are flying as a couple it is worth the extra so you can sit together. I hear some people are saving seats for their partner which I find to be cheap. Anyway to and from Vegas we had good flights I liked choosing my seat. I will fly SW again as long as SW stays with limited extra fees. I used to fly Continental only but they have imposed more fees than I care to read about. Keep up the good work SW and we will stay loyal to you.

Boston to Norfolk via Baltimore early morning. Boston to Baltimore fine but probably only because the flight was nearly empty and I could sleep. Legroom better than on other legacy carriers. Baltimore to Norfolk a horror. A very loud stewardess with a grating Southern accent spent the whole flight on the PA yelling about seatbelts how no drinks would be served due to turbulence (there was no turbulence) how no one could get out of his seat due to turbulence (there was no turbulence) how cute all the screaming babies onboard were and lastly in signature creepy Americana how there were soldiers or something onboard so to give them a loud round of applause for their service. So loud applause and the obnoxious loud flight crew prevented me from getting any sleep on the flight. I understand Southwest has a particular style - a kitsch-laden obnoxious style. It's not for me. At least the bags were free.

Service was good out of PBI plane looked a little tired but seats comfortable. Upon arriving in BWI connecting flight to LGA was delayed 2.5 hrs. They need to improve their LGA service. Got there but late. Still a great airline.

A mixed-bag trip from Seattle to Washington Dulles . On the plus side I had to change my itinerary at the last minute and was able to do so on Southwest at minimal cost. Flight out was uneventful. Flight back terrible I was stuck in Midway after a Dulles delay the airline stated was a mechanical problem but they refused to provide a hotel voucher. I had to find and pay for my own hotel. The gate agent was very rude.

Is Southwest becoming too big? It used to be one of the few airlines I could rely on for great customer service and quality. But it seems that with the acquisition of Airtran they also acquired the bad habits of big airlines. My last trip with them was a headache that cost me $500. I got stuck in Chicago for one night and received attitude from the crew when I tried to address the issue. It is great that they don't charge for luggage but I'm curious to see how long that is going to last.

Beware more and more Southwest is just another airline. Latest casualty is the previously elegant Rapid Rewards program which used to be 16 credits=1 free flight virtually no restrictions. It has now devolved into just another points system with ever more restrictions. During the transition they are still using Awards which was the mechanism by which you reaped the reward of a free flight. But do not convert points into an award - if you do so mistakenly you will never get them converted back into points. Found this out trying to book a flight by converting to award first which was akin to the previous protocol but the flight had "no" award seats available. You could buy a seat with your points but after conversion to award I didn't have enough points available and Southwest has made their system physically incapable of correcting the conversion not even during this period of new learning for their customers. They make no statement that I could find that such conversions are irrevocable. In other words if you make a mistake too bad - you can pay for a ticket but Southwest won't help you correct your points v. award error and you have to wait for another flight within the coming year to use it. Yes the award expires though the points do not while you continue to generate trip activity.

New Orleans to Las Vegas and Las Vegas to SFO. Excellent experience on both journeys friendly staff on time departures and bags free. I don't understand the benefit of open seating policy but that is the only thing I didn't like. I did however pay $10 extra for early bird-check in and got an "A" pass between 15-20 both times. Early-bird check in automatically checks you in 24 hours before the flight thus increasing your chances of an "A" boarding pass. In retrospect I would only do this for longer flights when it really does help if you can avoid that middle seat.