Southwest, once a great airline, is turning into Delta.
But if this were a gov operation, this would be the norm.
why would he have to purchase something he already paid for? Lets just suppose he missed his original flight and got to his destination another way. Do you forfeit the return flight if you didn’t get on the flight outbound?
weird... i love Southwest Airlines... it is my favorite... they have always been accommodating, even when i have made mistakes...
This happened to me one time on Delta. They insisted that I had not taken the outbound segment of my ticket. I got on the phone with customer service and explained they had an error, and challenged them to explain how exactly I happened to be across the country if I had not taken the flight. They corrected the error and I got on my return.
I did not at any time feel the need to call the press.
The next step before leaving the gate is the count performed by the flight attendants. That always had to be reconciled between the flight attendants and the gate agent at my airline before the flight could be ‘closed-out’. A head count would have shown a discrepancy although tracking who is on board and who isn’t is made more difficult by Southwest’s practice of not assigning seats.
My preferred solution would be to have the passenger refunded for all money he had to expend on this trip and a written apology from the gate agent for the hassle.
I bought a one-way red-eye ticket on another airline that would arrive in Florida before the rebooked flight departed, and I hoped to cancel the outbound but keep the return by clearing it all up at the airport in Florida (the American counters were all closed by this time in California). Naturally, when I got to Florida I forgot all about it, being tired from the red-eye after a long day at work. The storm never came, and the cruise was fine.
A few days later I remembered and called American to check on my reservation. They said I was a no-show and they cancelled my itinerary, keeping my money. They said I could purchase a new ticket for my return. I told them that they created the situation in the first place by canceling the outbound flight and putting me on a flight that was too late for my needs. They said that it was weather related, and they are not responsible for "acts of God." I pointed out to them that the storm they feared never materialized, so it was really a business decision by American to cancel the flight in advance, based on sketchy forecasts.
So at that point, they reinstated my return reservation and credited me for the outbound. It could easily have gone the other way.
-PJ
I travel a lot and have never understood over-booking a flight or cancelling a return leg if you don’t make the outbound leg.
I paid the airlines for a seat on those flights at those specific dates/times. That seat is paid for. And no haggling was involved - I paid full asking price for that seat.
I should be able to use that seat for whatever purpose that does not disprupt the flight. I could put a guitar in it, or a teddy bear or my own patookus.
If they want to use that seat for something else, they can buy it back from me. At least, that’s the way it *should* be, but it sure ain’t the way it is...
