First, Business, Economy…and Southwest

Okay, so I did a little digging last night and recovered some posts from way back when…all the way back to 2006. It’s an oldie, but goodie. Oh, and there’s a reason I don’t fly Southwest. 🙂

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I read once in a book entitled “Ask The Pilot”, that there are 4 classes of service in the air travel industry: First Class, Business Class, Economy Class and Southwest. That statement is one hundred percent true. Southwest is a budget airline that is terrible, and probably not worth the few dollars you save by flying it. I’m sure someone has seen the A&E show AIRLINE. If you haven’t it’s a “reality” show showing Southwest Airlines in action. When you watch it you will most likely see some women screaming at the ticketing agent about her missing her flight due to a long line. I used to side with the airline, saying you should have gotten hear 2 hours before departure. Today I take that back, and now side with the passenger. Yesterday we (My Dad and I) arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) 2 hours before departure. There was a line from the ticketing/check-in counter passed US Airways, British Airways, ATA Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines. The line was enormous. We asked some Southwest employee about the waiting time for the line. “It think it should be about 25-30 minutes” he replied. It took avoer an hour and 15 minutes for us to reach an agent. By that time out non-stop flight to Philly had left and we were stranded at the the airport. So we went upstairs past security to the gate and asked the ticketing agent about another flight. He re-booked us on the 2:45PM N/S flight home (We had to wait quite a while since out flight was orginally for 8:45AM). I told my Dad that there had to be a faster flight home so, I went to every Southwest gate and customer service counter aksing about possible flights. I whippped out the airline timetable book I picket up in Philadelphia a week earlier and looked at every airport and city for a possible connection home. I came up with a few results with flight sonnecting through LAX, Kansas City, Chicago Midway and Pittsburgh, but all the flights were booked. So, me and my Dad waited for out 2:45 flight home (I kept checking for flights up until boarding). Our flight home was fine, but our arrival was not. We arrived thinking our baggage would already be locked up the the Southwest Baggage Office (as the ticket agent said in PHX). He said our luggage would be checked on an earlier connecting flight and would arrive before we did. This was not the case. Our luggage was not there nor did it come down the conveyor for our flight. I went into the baggae office, explained to the guy what happened, and said about five times that their company lost our bags. He said our bags misconnected in Chicago Midway and would be arriving the next morning. I began to tell him that our bags should have been here, while he kept saying “theres lightning all over the country” and “I’m Sorry Sir”. He said to check the conveyor for bags fr0m the next flight arriving from Midway, but reassured us that our bags were coming in in the morning. So we checked the conveyor, and what do you know, the conveyor stops about a quarter of the way through delivering bags. It just shut off. So, I went over to the counter once again, and asked why the machine has turned off, this time a women was there. She ingorned me, and said this is not our fault. I then told her that if your airline’s line was not two hours long and we didn’t miss our flight, then this wouldn’t off happened. She turned away, faking like she was checking her computer for information on the baggage claim shut down. I went out side, told my Dad, and he got even madder. After about another five minutes of waiting (It wasn’t just us waiting, there were about 25 more poeple), I found an information phone connected to the airport operator. I got on the phone and said the following:

Me: “Hi, I’m at baggage claim three for Southwest Airlines, and for some reason it shut off and has not ran for about 15 minutes”

Operator: “Oh, I’m very sorry. I don’t have any control over this matter”.

Me: “Well, I do. I’d like to speak to your supervisor.”

Operator: “We don’t have control over this. You would have to speak with the airline’s supervisor.”

Me: “I don’t care who I have to speak to, make this baggage claim work”.

Operator: “Hold on.”

Southwest Airlines Supervisor: “Hello?”

Me: “Yeah, your airline has ruined my day, and if you don’t get this baggage claim working I might just do the same to yours.”

Southwest Airlines Supervisor: “Yes, I’ll fix it.”

About 1 minute later, the baggage claim turned back on.

For those of you looking to book air tickets on an airline, don’t choose Southwest. On arrival the flight attendant shouted over the PA system, “We know you have a choice when you fly, so thank you for flying Southwest”. I though to myself “Yes I do have a choice, and that’s why I will not be flying your airline any more. Thank you and have a nice day”.