Regarding Southwest Airlines

[Rhonda (aka Roz) 7]

You've probably seen this in the news in the last couple of days, so I just wanted to share my experience and thoughts.....

Recently, Southwest Airlines announced a one-day “Flash Sale” to its Facebook fans. 50% off flights, on certain late summer and fall dates. The response was so overwhelming, that it crashed Southwest’s system, and as a result, thousands of customers were charged multiple times for the same reservation, and many more people never received confirmations for the flights they did book during the sale. It was a mess, to say the least.

I had the latter happen to me. I booked a flight, and used SWA’s Paypal option to pay for it. After hitting the Confirm button, I got a server error from their Web site. I did not get the confirmation page. So I went over to my Paypal account, and verified that the payment had gone through. It had. So I waited for an email confirmation. It never came.

I waited about an hour, and called SWA’s Customer Service line, and got a busy signal. The line was busy all that evening, and all the next morning. Finally, the following afternoon, I got through to their voicemail, which told me that the hold time would be three hours! I could not hold that long, so I hung up. I tried again that evening, and the hold time was 1-1/2 hours. Again, I hung up.

Finally, the morning of the third day, I got through with only a 10 minute hold. The Customer Service agent I spoke with, Carrie, was very nice. She tried looking up the reservation for me, but there wasn’t one there. The charge had gone through to Paypal, but the reservation was never completed in their system! So, she transferred me to the IT department, where I spoke with Tiffany, who immediately cancelled the Paypal charges, and rebooked the flight for me, at the discounted rate! Throughout the entire conversation, Tiffany was very professional and courteous, even though she had been working very long hours for the past three days, having to deal with thousands of irate customers.

In the meantime, Southwest has posted an apology on their Facebook page, to all their Fans, for the problems they had while trying to take advantage of the sale. They have also put a headline on top of their Web site, explaining the situation and the steps they are taking to correct the problems encountered. They have worked tirelessly for three days, and will continue to work hard for many more days, to fix everyone’s reservations.

This morning, I received a follow-up call from a SWA agent, just checking to make sure everything worked out. She sounded tired, but was very friendly and professional. I thanked her for all her hard work over the past couple of days. She seemed to appreciate that. :)

Kudos to Southwest Airlines for their professionalism and timely response in handling this situation!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

WTG Southwest!!!!

[alexwyattmommy 181]

How refreshing! A company makes a mistake, admits it, apologizes and tries to make right by their customers.

Kuddos!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Maybe next time the marketing department has an idea like this they should check with the IT department first. :rofl3:

[SCTigerCock 171]

I'm going to jump on the pro SouthWest bandwagon.

Our flight out of BWI was ~40 minutes late due to a plane change caused by mechanical issues. By the time we flew as south as Columbia, SC, the Charleston airport had been closed due to weather. They did try to ride it out, but couldn't. They ended up putting us on the ground in Greenville/Spartanburg until the weather passed. We then made it to Charleston SAFELY, granted 2.5 hours later than scheduled.

The entire flight crew (stewards and captain) could not apologize enough. And they had a great sense of humor the entire time.

I would fly SouthWest again in a heartbeat. Sure beats United, who I have NEVER flown getting out of Dulles on time.

[Rhonda (aka Roz) 7]

Maybe next time the marketing department has an idea like this they should check with the IT department first. :rofl3:

LOL!! I'm sure they will next time!!

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Thanks for the info, Roz! Southwest flies out of my home airport (MHT) direct to MCO and I got notice of the flash sale last week, so it's good to know.

Maybe next time the marketing department has an idea like this they should check with the IT department first. :rofl3:

I work in the marketing dept in our company and we've learned to ALWAYS check with IT first... 'cause we almost took our site down once too.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

We have the opposite problem, IT decides to do major maintenance right in the middle of proposals. They lamely say "but we scheduled it for after hours", but when we have a due date, time of day doesn't MATTER!!!!

[Rhonda (aka Roz) 7]

People, what we have here is a failure to communicate! lol