Letter to Southwest Since I Exceeded their Character Count on their Email Form

Dear Southwest:

On Jan. 3, I started the entirely-too-long-of-a-process to book my flight from Kansas City to Austin, where I will be running in the Austin LIVESTRONG half-marathon. I’m running with my uncle, a cancer survivor, and his nephew, also a cancer survivor (stating this to put into perspective that all of this is for a good cause). By the time we run our 13.1, our team will have raised $2,000 for the LIVESTRONG organization.

This debacle started when I found a flight to purchase on southwest.com. To Austin would be flights 1509/3388 departing KCI on Sat., Feb. 18 at a rate of $39, and the return flights would be 1198/3072, departing Austin after the race on Sun., Feb. 19.

Because I had a one-way voucher that expires on Jan. 26, I called 800-I-FLY-SWA to make sure a voucher-worthy seat was available for the Sunday flight. I wanted to confirm that before I paid $50 to extend the voucher. The nice man on the phone ensured me there was and said I should book the flight quickly, which I did. I completed transaction one of paying the $50 fee, extending my voucher and booking my return flight home from Austin. Easy as pie, as is typical when booking and flying Southwest.

Because my other flight would not be with a voucher, I then went to complete my separate transaction of booking my $39 flight to Austin; this was minutes later. I got an error message when I tried to select my flight, so after refreshing the webpage, imagine my shock when I see the flight price had risen from $39 to $178! An increase of $139 in a matter of minutes! I was floored!

I immediately called 800-I-FLY-SWA back and explained the situation to them. I was floored what I was told by Southwest—a company I covet for customer service: there was nothing they could do for me. They gave me another number to call: 214-932-0333. I called the number and got a response I don’t think I’ve heard in the 21^st century: a busy signal. I looked at my phone, back and the number I scribbled down, and back at the phone. They matched; I must of written it down wrong. I tracked down the number on Southwest.com and low and behold—it was the right number. Because of the wonder that is the iPhone call log, I can prove that I called 214-932-0333 at 5:01 pm, 5:05 pm and 5:13 pm Central—being greeted by a busy signal all three times.

It’s about this time I call 800-I-FLY-SWA back and tell the woman that answers this time what is going on. I paid $50 to extend my voucher, went to purchase my $39 flight and it went up to $178. I’d either want the $39 rate or the $50 refunded. She told me she can’t do either, but that my newly extended voucher is now good through Jan. 3, 2013…to which I wanted to respond with, “at this time, I hope to never fly your airline again.” Alas, there’s nothing she can do; I need to call customer relations and she gives me the number: 214-932-0333. I explained I had called that number and it was busy. She said again there was nothing she could do, that I needed to call customer relations.

“Then who am I talking to?” I asked?
“Customer service,” she replies.

Oh, I see. Not.

It’s around this time I send an email to Southwest asking for someone to call me back and also tweet to @southwestair “@southwestair your customer relations line has been busy for an hour now. What's the trick to get thru?” And then I pack up and head home from the office, because my colleagues are tired of me getting worked up about all of this.

5:40 pm

6:15 pm

6:21 pm

6:24 pm

6:38 pm

6:52 pm

7:02 pm

7:19 pm

7:42 pm

Those are the next attempts at getting through to customer relations, again, only to hear the dreaded beep, beep, beep.

Finally, at 8:02 pm I get through. No busy signal! But the greeting on the other end did tell me they closed at 8 pm.

Yesterday, I received a tweet back from @southwestverity and she and I tweeted back and forth about her helping me, which I appreciated. But what if I wasn’t on Twitter; how would I have been helped? This morning I received a response to my email, but ultimately I asked for them to call me, which didn’t happen.

At this point, I’m just disappointed that I was told no twice and basically ignored 12 times by a company I’ve long admired for customer service. And unfortunately, I’ve shared my thoughts with many friends, family members and co-workers.

I guess what I want is this:

1.  Let’s get this flight booked. I’m going to Austin. I’d like the $39 rate that disappeared in front of my eyes. If that isn’t possible, I’d like to be told if there is a voucher seat available for the Feb. 18 flight I referenced above. My uncle has a voucher that I can extend and will use for that flight if a voucher seat is available. (They are transferrable, right?)

2. Please recognize the annoyance Southwest has caused me the last few days. I’m a loyal customer. I travel frequently and SWA is my preferred airline. I accept rules and policies. I just felt I wasn’t listened to during my communications and the inability to talk to who I apparently needed to talk to added fuel to the fire and was frustrating. I like you; like me back. In the end, I’ll continue to fly Southwest and I’ll probably even fly Southwest to Austin (though there is a $59 on Delta I’m seriously considering). Please just show me a little LUV cause I haven’t been feeling it thus far in 2012.

Sincerely,

Wendy Fitch