Posted on 07/23/2014 5:46:02 AM PDT by george76
MINNEAPOLIS — A Twin Cities man is upset about the way his family was treated on a Southwest Airlines flight because of a tweet.
Duff Watson says he was asked to de-board a flight from Denver to Minneapolis with his two kids on Sunday after an agent didn’t like a tweet he wrote about her service.
Watson and the agent had a disagreement before boarding initially.
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He’s an “A-List” passenger, which means he gets priority boarding. But a gate agent wouldn’t let his 6-year-old and 9-year-old board with him — so they’d all have to wait to board later.
“In leaving I said, you know, ‘Real nice way to treat an A-list. I’ll be sure to tweet about it,’” he said.
And that’s just what Watson did.
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Soon after getting to their seats, the family of three was asked to leave the plane.
“[She said] her safety feels threatened at this point because of what I tweeted,” Watson said.
Watson’s daughter, Lucy, said she feared for her father.
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Watson says at that point, his children started to cry. He doesn’t understand why his family was targeted.
“There was no use of profanity, there were no threats made. There was nothing other than, you know, a terse exchange between a customer service agent and a customer,” he said.
Watson says he was forced to delete the tweet.
(Excerpt) Read more at minnesota.cbslocal.com ...
“The airline gate agents can be real winners.”
I couldn’t imagine a worse job to have. They have to deal with people bitching and moaning the whole day; day after day.
Last time I checked, assholes could still fly in passenger aircraft, and it’t a good thing, too, or I’d be in real trouble.
A 6 and a 9 year do not need special assistance to board a plane. His kids apparently did not have A tickets so he was trying (seemingly) to get his kids to board early.
Southwest boards the kids and families with special needs after the A group before the B group.
I worked in technical support for a telecom company so I know exactly how they feel.
Some of them do it with a smile, and some prefer torture.
“A 6 and a 9 year do not need special assistance to board a plane”
No, but they need to board with their family.
I don’t fly southwest very often because of their boarding system.
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Funny. I fly SW frequently and have no problem with their boarding system at all.
Just make sure you are near a computer 24 hours before your flight and you’re typically golden.
Flying coach 5 years ago was much better than First Class is now. The cabins are dirty, the flight attendants can be downright surly. They'll have you thrown off the plane in a heartbeat. I've seen it.
As a retired really Frequent Flyer the whole point in gaining Top FF Status is to get privileged and sometimes Gate Agent Personnel need to hear “Do you know who I am” when it becomes necessary. They don’t like it? So be it.
This guy is obviously a Frequent Flyer on SW. I don’t tweet, but I would sure drop a note to SW Prez. Betcha the South West CS Agent at minimum got a reminder on the corporate purpose of FF program.
When did airline staff get so damned surly?
When I was at Disney World, I saw this emasculated dad trying to deal with his young daughter finally yell “if you don’t start behaving, I’m going to tell Tinker Bell!” This pathetic guy reminds me of this dad.
No, but they need to board with their family.
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Exactly. So dad needed to wait until his kids could board, not try to push them in front of others.
It is what used to be called common courtesy.
*shrugs*
I agree...there are nice ways to convince people to give you what you want but being a bully and a Jerk isn’t the way to do it.
that being said, I can also understand wanting to make sure you are sitting with your kids, as a parent I wouldn’t want to chance a drunken pervert sitting next to my child a half a plane away...But if this is a priority for you fork over more cash to another airline where you have better odds of sitting with your children in flight
why is SWA paying someone to monitor tweets ?
how did they find or see his tweet?
is SWA monitoring the wifi?
Most airlines allow top tier passengers to board early - even with two family members. Not sure about SW, I’ve never flown them.
Flying coach 5 years ago was much better than First Class is now. The cabins are dirty, the flight attendants can be downright surly. They’ll have you thrown off the plane in a heartbeat. I’ve seen it.
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I don’t understand the cranky traveler who takes his/her crankiness out on the flight attendants, gate keepers and ticket agents. Grow up, folks. We might note that no traveler has ever been thrown off a plane for being, if not pleasant, at least polite. And we all know how hard it is after delays, multiple airports, 24 hours straight travel time, but it is doable.
I’d rather sit next to a screaming baby than a cranky, rude adult.
Anyhoo... I get to the airport for the flight home, to find out that *almost* all of the flights out are cancelled due to weather. I'm standing in line at the counter, and the two customers in front of me really read the ticket agent the riot act. They both chew out the poor lady in good shape. One person didn't get out of the airport at all that day, and the other got routed to Florida via Dallas (or Denver?) if memory serves.
So, my turn comes up. I stick my temper in my pocket, put on my megawatt smile, and say (approximately)....."So.....it looks like the weather is making a mess of things. Is there anything that you're able to do to help me out, here?" ......"Yes, sir. Let's see what we can do, here."
I got out on one of the few remaining flights, made good connections, and reached my destination - a couple of hours later than scheduled, but not awful.
You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. I'm thinking that there's more to this story than what we're hearing.
“A list” just means you checked in early. Now it usually means you paid $20 each way for priority seating. My guess is he paid one upgrade, and thought he could bring the kids along for free. If they were younger, they would have boarded first anyway.
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