Southwest Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Baltimore to Boston. Awful the plane just arrived and they say that the AC is not working. So they said that we need to wait two hours for another plane to arrive. It’s only an hour long flight and it has turned in to a mess. The workers are being unhelpful and telling people to go talk to the people at the other gate (where no people are working).

Not Verified | Tampa to Kansas City. I know better than to choose Southwest, but somehow I did. The customer service was horrid. My 11 year old son was flying by himself. He checked no bags. The ticketing agent wouldn’t let me go with him over to the plane and help him make sure he knew where to go. She also wouldn’t let me use my KTN for him to go through TSA Pre, though when I travel with him on other airlines he gets to go through TSA Pre because I do. He’s too young and isn’t eligible for TSA Pre yet. The ticketing agent was rude and weirdly aggressive. I’m definitely never flying this joke of an airline again. If it were just me I’d have no issue, but to do this to an 11 year old is unconscionable. Especially when it was so busy and my son already was nervous and confused. I almost walked over to one of the better airlines and just purchased him a new plane ticket. You definitely get what you pay for with this sad excuse for an airline.

Not Verified | Minneapolis to Cancun via Chicago-Midway. After having a flawless flight to Cancun I was shocked at how things were so bad trying to get back to MSP. After leaving Cancun and told we were going to land in Chicago-we circled Chicago for over 20 min because of bad weather. Then told we were running low on fuel-we had to land in St. Louis to refuel. Then waiting on paperwork...we were finally ready to head back to Chicago. After landing in Chicago we were told we had to stay on the plane for an hour because we were not near customs. After 15 min we were able to get off the plane and get through customs and get our luggage. After all of that delay and when we got to a Southwest agent-he told us the next flight back to MSP would take us BACK to St. Louis and then to Ohio and end in MSP! No Way! So the Southwest agent said, “If you think you can make your flight-go ahead and try!” So I booked it through security with many nice people letting me go ahead of them and starting at B1...I RAN to B26. Sweating and panting I made it to my gate with many “C” people still waiting to board. Hooray! (I was an “A” person.) I gave the ticketing agent my ticket and he called someone and said, “She has a ticket, but she is not coming up.” Then asked me to speak with a gate agent. WELL- MY SEAT HAD BEEN GIVEN AWAY SINCE NO ONE THOUGHT I WOULD MAKE THE FLIGHT!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??? With many people STILL waiting to board! Just unreal! They would do NOTHING for me but tell me I had a 9:50pm flight as my only option! Then they tell me I’m the last seat! A “C”-not an “A” like I was last time! Even though I asked if I could “please” get on earlier! No one was helpful at all-such a shame to leave our resort in Mexico where everyone was kind and helped in any way they could! Large disappointment to end a week of vacation! Really had a different view of Southwest Airlines after this return flight!

✅ Trip Verified | Little Rock to Ontario via Phoenix. This was the worse flight of my life. There were 2 claim to be service animals on my flight. 1 of the dogs seem to really be a service animal because it was very chilled and quiet. The other was barking, jumping on people, the owner even let it loose on the plane doing the flight. Prior to boarding I witness this dog doing all of this, so when I was boarding it was hanging out into the middle of the isle, I asked the flight attendant if he could ask the owner to please hold the dog so I could board, I have extremely high anxiety and fear of dogs. He rudely said no, i'm not its a service dog. I said I understand but I have a disability also and I need to board. He rudely said, I am not going to tell another person how or what to do with their dog. A few people on the flight heard him and said Miss, let me help you and blocked the dog so I could get by. Shortly after plane took off, the dog was loose on the plane, a female flight attendant told the owner he would have to keep the dog with him. I don't have a problem with people that need and/or require service animals, but I do think they should be made to control their animal. I paid almost $800 for my ticket was travel for bereavement of close family and then force to have to deal with my anxiety attack because of this one dog that was clearly not a service animal. This was the worse experience flying ever and I fly often.

✅ Trip Verified | Philadelphia to Memphis. Worst experience ever. Traveling with 3 children and 5 items of luggage. Our flight got weather delayed and missed our last connecting flight. No one on the plane or after exiting the plane was able to help. No one offered a hotel or even a ride with one adult three children, a car seat and four checked bags and a carry on for everyone. We ended up having to stay and even while in line with all these bags and children I was asking for help and all the employees said: “I can’t I’m monitoring lines.” Monitoring lines. Then after rechecking our bags, I got a call to find our new tags were not added. Which means they probably won’t end up at our final destination. I can’t wait for this day to be over just so I never have to fly Southwest again!

Not Verified | Oakland to Vancouver. Renee at Oakland airport service desk was amazing. She assisted me with a flight change to leave earlier than my scheduled departure. She also provided a complimentary drink ticket which I didn't realize! I really appreciate your assistance and wanted to thank you. Keep up the good work and thank you for everything you do.

Not Verified | I regretfully feel obligated to report my experience this previous weekend 6/22 regarding Southwest Airlines and their Southwest Vacations. I have been a loyal supporter of Southwest for over 15 years, and have had nothing but superior customer service and great experiences until this unfortunate event. I went to Southwest as I always do and decided to use their Southwest Vacations options since I was staying at a hotel this trip. Everything was fine, or so I thought, untill 6/22 my scheduled departure date. I go online to check in to my flight only to find out that my flight has been cancelled without notification to me. Surprised I call Southwest and try to understand what has happened. After about 2 hours on hold I was told that my flight was cancelled due to weather and that I had unknowingly booked through a 3rd party and not Southwest themselves, despite using the Southwest official website to book. After a 20 minute conversation I was forced to leave the following day as there were no flights remaining that day (unless I could get to the gate within 10 minutes), causing me to miss previously scheduled and paid for events that could not be made up or refunded. I then call the hotel and try to cancel my room since I will not be staying there and they said that since I booked though Southwest Vacations, they had to cancel the room and refund me. Did not seem like an issue. Fast forward to today, 6/27. I finally am back and get to speak with customer relations from Southwest. Thinking that this should not be much of an issue as they had miscommunication on their end, they could refund me for the nights stay that I would miss as they called and cancelled the night with the hotel, and would be able to compensate me in some manor for the error of not contacting me to allow me to get on a different flight earlier that day that had availability, and some possible compensation for the events that were missed. During the conversation with the agent for Southwest, she specifically said that "They would take responibility" for the error as Southwest Vacations is subcontracted though a 3rd party administrator. Even though it bears the offical Southwest logo, is accessed though their Official website, they contract out that to another party, but she still stated "they would (were taking) take responsibility" I think, great we can get this taken care of, to only have Southwest offer me a $50 voucher. $50 to cover 3 missed events, a premium room on Saturday night in Las Vegas, and a lost day of my vacation. This is 100% unacceptable as they themselves took responsibility for the error and still refused to at the very least refund me the money for the hotel room that was never used and some gesture for the error. I can not believe that Southwest who allows their logo and namesake to be used to mislead loyal customers into using something that they promote on their website, but then do not stand behind even though it holds their name is despicable. I felt disrespected as a loyal customer to be offered $50 for what was a loss of 20 times that amount. Southwest, if you are going to license out your name to a separate company, back them and have a system in place to contact clients, or do not promote them on your official website to defraud your loyal customers.

✅ Trip Verified | New Orleans to San Francisco via San Diego. Where do I begin? This is our first time flying Southwest since August of 2018 and to fully explain my frustration with their customer service I’ll have to start with the story of them cancelling both of our flights and leaving us with no other option than for us to pay 1.2k each for tickets back home in order to catch our out of country flight the next day. We are both wedding photographers and were leaving New Orleans to head to Baltimore for a wedding. The morning of our flight, about two hours prior, we received a notification from Southwest Airlines that our flight was cancelled. They provided us with alternative flight options, which we selected and then put us on standby (without communicating this with us). Fast forward, after a 10+ hour travel day we made it to Baltimore a little after midnight. Keep in mind the direct flight is normally 2.5 hours. The morning of our returning flight from Baltimore to New Orleans we received yet another cancellation notification. However, this time the link to their flight change wasn’t working, no flights were available to select and the help call line to book another flight had a wait time of 2-3 hours. And so I waited, because we didn’t really have any other option. And each time they picked up the call they disconnected us, leaving us with literally zero alternative flight options or any way to get in touch with Southwest Airlines. This charade continued on until 4pm in the afternoon, no contact from southwest, no alternative flights, they straight up cancelled our flights and gave us nothing in return. Because we were leaving the country the next day we had no other choice than to pay 1.2k for a ticket out of Baltimore. Southwest Airlines finally got in touch with us a few days later, not acknowledging any lack in their system, pretending as though the day of our cancelled departure never happened. They offered us a $75 voucher for our trouble. What. A. Joke. Now a year later in hopes that southwest has their stuff together, we’ve boarded our plane from New Orleans only for them to tell us an engine failed to stay on. They asked us to switch planes, no biggie. This stuff happens. Two hours later and we’re finally boarding the next plane. We miss our connecting flight in San Diego due to their delay and end up waiting another two hours for our next flight. They call us to the front desk to adjust our tickets (A group, what’s up - yes, we were quick, we were prepared!) and they had us boarding at the back of the plane. I kid you not. They not only delayed us by 4+ hours but they didn’t even have the courtesy of taking care of us by allowing us to board in our original position, or even during pre-boarding. Come on southwest, we were loyal before you repeatedly screwed us over. So while, Southwest is great with their checked bags, and while it’s awesome that you can be flexible with them, remember there’s a massive chance they’ll cancel your flight and leave you having to spend a couple grand on a new flight and then pretend that never happened.

✅ Trip Verified | El Paso to Oklahoma via Dallas. What happened to all those employees who help in time of need? There were kids on the ground exhausted, people in distress by the boat load. You guys are so quick to tell good stories and how your employees help. They all went home to bed, the few that were there I could tell were bothered by the chaos and had no answers for anyone. There was one employee walking down the long line of people. I thought finally someone to help give us an update. No she was just trying to figure out why so many hundreds of people were in line at such a late hour. I guess if I didn’t start recruiting people at midnight to help find a taxi, UBER or Lyft to Oklahoma I would have slept on the floor and I think your staff would have left thinking that seems wild. It felt like we were treated just like that a wild animal who didn’t belong in the airport. Left @ 12:30pm from El Paso Texas Flight delayed while on plane 655pm due to fuel gauge? The ramp got stuck and there was an electrical problem. Still stuck on the plane. Pilot in disbelief and apologies We wait back in the boarding area only to be told the flight is canceled, hundreds of people get in line. All the staff looked panicked with no words of comfort to a lot of sleepy, tired angry people. We wait for hours to be told no flights till Tuesday, no vouchers for hotel, no rental cars available, too late to rent by midnight. 1am looking for a place to sleep. Decide to start asking Uber and Lyft after 5 drivers refusing to drive that far. I tried to go back into airport and they wouldn’t let me in. I’m tired, stuck with a floor to sleep on. I call Southwest Airlines 1800 number lady tells me she can’t refund my money because I’m attached to my bags. I’m told by other customer after Storm was over many other flights took off. Yet we were canceled. I took lyft to drive us to Oklahoma city. Now its 6.24 I need to figure out how to get my bags and rental car. what a nightmare I'm so upset with Southwest Airlines right now, they left me stranded, and for some reason decided our plane was canceled while others continued to leave to their destination.

✅ Trip Verified | New Orleans to Austin. Flight 2190 was delayed leaving New Orleans because of weather elsewhere but Janez at Gate 4B at Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans, La kept everyone in good spirits. She had the whole gate area engaged in a sing-a-long with incoming passengers; more than once inviting passersby to join in the fun. She went above and beyond her duty as a gate agent to insure that our day would not be ruined by a delayed schedule. Thanks to Janez and Southwest, frustrations were eased and smiles were plentiful!