I often recommend people reach out to airlines on Twitter as a “trick” to save long hold times on the phone. That is not excellent advice for Southwest Airlines, though, considering I am still waiting for a Twitter reply almost one full week later.
Southwest Airlines On Twitter – Still Waiting For A Response 162 Hours Later
It was last Thursday, December 22, when operations on Southwest Airlines began to unravel. Friends were traveling from Rochester to Orlando and found their flight via Baltimore canceled. It should have been an easy fix: the nonstop to Orlando was available, but the mobile app and website would not allow for rebooking on that flight, despite all fare restrictions being waved in light of the winter weather.
Southwest does not have a call-back feature and so when you pick up the phone to call Southwest, you do not know how long you may be waiting. So I decided to reach out on Twitter. I presented the problem, hoping for a timely solution.
None came.
In fact, it has now been a week and I still have not even received a courtesy response from Southwest that it is working on my issue (which, of course, is moot at this point).
Most of the Southwest Airlines headlines this week have been about delays and cancellations, but another big story…a huge story…is that tens of thousands of bags are still separated. Show up to any major airport that Southwest serves and you will find bags stacked dozens of rows deep. Southwest has not even begun to metaphorically shovel out of that snowstorm…people who do not come to the airport may go for several weeks without their bag. An airline that cannot even run its flights is not in any position to deliver bags.
CONCLUSION
Telephone is still the best way to contact Southwest Airlines at this time. While others have reported 15-hour hold times, in my experience it has been more like 3-4 hours. If you were thinking Twitter would be easier, think again. At least in my case, it has been a week and I still have not heard a peep from Southwest.
I usually go out of my way to not fly the so called “budget” airlines. I probably flew Southwest a handful of times mainly because of the flight options were perfect to my schedule but I avoid them. The last time I flew Southwest with my family of 4 we stayed a few hours in Chicago for a visit to a Consulate and flew right back home. On the way to Chicago everything was great. On the way back, we got to the gate to board and I had all 4 boarding passes on my phone (exactly the same way we flew to Chicago that same morning). Southwest gate agent said each passenger had to carry their own boarding pass. I told him they were all electronic and my kids didn’t have a phone. He denied boarding and made me go talk to an agent so we could get printed boarding passes to be allowed on board. We were the last to board and had to seat all separate. Last time I ever flew Southwest.
Same in Europe I avoid their budget airlines unless I am alone with just a carry on. Usually the bigger airlines have a better structure to help passengers if needed and that’s where having status plays a huge role. Many times when weather would delay or cancel a flight, Delta is very proactive in making changes that accommodate my needs even without me reaching out to them. Not sure Southwest would do the same.
I fly WN all the time and have never heard of what you describe. You must have gotten a rogue gate agent. When flying to get married on United back in the militant bag sizer days, my wife had her wedding dress neatly folded in a standard carry on and the gate agent said it was too big and we must check it (it was the only thing in the bag, it was just fluffy). After pleading my case she let me take it out and carry it on as well as the carry on. On board the flight attendants couldn’t believe how the GA hassled us… so point is don’t let a crappy GA speak for the whole airline.
But back to southwest. They usually aren’t this difficult when cancelations happen. Usually the app works. I booked a points flight for my MIL which was canceled in this mess and the app was basically broken and they are still holding my points hostage. Southwest is doing some major damage to their reputation. They need to clean house once they get out of this
Spoiler Alert, you’re not going to get a response.
I guarantee all the complainers will be the first to book another flight on this crap airline. Southwest deserves to be put out of business for this nightmare but the flying public is quick to forgive and forget. Never have flown SW and certainly never will after this nightmare
Seriously. you are waiting for a reply.
At least I got a refund pretty quickly, in two days.
I can say that we have had no snow accumulation or ice in Baltimore. It got cold a few nights (for this area), dropping down to single digits in the evenings but no snow (other than a few snowflakes) or ice so weather wasn’t an issue here.
The real problem is companies don’t face serious penalties for poor operations. Fines are usually trivial so the customer ends up getting taken advantage of over and over. Similar to issues with computer security.
Apparently YOU think that you are the only one who has tried to contact Southwest on Twitter – “NEWS FLASH” – you aren’t. With all of their immediate problems, your request has obviously fallen to the bottom of things they are addressing in an effort to resolve this situation. You, like so many others do have a gripe, but piling on with your tale of woe isn’t going to end up being nothing more than whining. Things happen, get over it and do what you can to resolve this issue – hint; bitching doesn’t solve anything.
But it makes me money.
They should have been reinvesting all of their record profits in their systems and technology to prevent situations like this but the top execs were too busy liking their pockets…kinda reminds me of Disney
Very simple. When it says “unable to price” that means someone else just grabbed the last seat. Happened to me a few times in the last few days as flights on SWA appeared and often disappeared within seconds, because guess what, thousands of others are trying to rebook. I was sometimes too late and sometimes got it.
For two hours the seat showed up. It wasn’t just a one-time occurrence.
Furthermore, only changing from a one-stop to a nonstop (multiple different flights) resulted in the error. No trouble moving to different connecting itineraries.
SWA deserves to be run out of business for this yet their stock price is still over $30 a share and people will still fly them religiously.
It’s also odd that the other airlines didn’t try very hard to help SWA passengers despite the obvious result of this debacle being that the government would stick their nose in everyone’s business.