Southwest Airlines - Some Kind Words

[bajdawg]

Date: Christmas, 2009

An exciting day for me. I was going to spend the next 4 days in Phoenix with friends and family. The bad news: I had to get through a flight.

I was flying out of RNO, an airport I've since learned is fairly notorious for rough approaches (and trust me, I've been on more than my share). It was snowing fairly heavily by Reno standards, which was nice as it was my first white Christmas.

The wind was fairly calm with an occasional gust here and there, so I naively thought the trip wouldn't be too bad. Despite the snow, the flight was only delayed 20 minutes, which furthered my confidence that the flight wasn't going to be a big deal.

As passengers deplaned, something already seemed awry. The deplaning passengers looked upset or scared or something. I didn't really think much of it. As I was literally at the plane's entrance, the person immediately in front of me - God bless him or her - asked the flight attendant if it was going to a turbulent flight.

"Oh God, yes!" she replied. "On the way down, several people threw up, and one person fainted."

One person fainted!!! I still to this day do not know why (best theory I've heard is that the plane lost pressure and an elderly person passed out from lack of oxygen), but that was enough to put me in a PANIC! And I mean P-A-N-I-C.

"The flight was bad!?" I heard myself say. It was something that an 8 year old would exclaim.

The flight attendant looked at me. I don't want to overplay this, but to me she looked scared. Keep in mind this is just a body language read, and she wasn't shaking or anything, her eyes just looked, well, scared. "Yes."

"Can I get another flight?"

"You can try."

I went to the counter outside the gate and talked to the Southwest lady. She was extremely helpful and gave me some flight options. I checked when the snow advisory lapsed on the NWS website and I rescheduled a flight after that time. I asked her what the difference was, and she said, "No cost. I'll write it off as weather."

I'm confident any other carrier wouldn't be this understanding and would have charged me for changing that late in the game. I am glad SWA has a strong presence in Reno - except for International flight, they are the only airline I will fly with.

Just as an aside, the flight I ended up taking was literally the smoothest flight I've ever been on.

[readytoboard]

...the person immediately in front of me - God bless him or her - asked the flight attendant if it was going to a turbulent flight.

"Oh God, yes!" she replied. "On the way down, several people threw up, and one person fainted."

...
I went to the counter outside the gate and talked to the Southwest lady. She was extremely helpful and gave me some flight options. I checked when the snow advisory lapsed on the NWS website and I rescheduled a flight after that time. I asked her what the difference was, and she said, "No cost. I'll write it off as weather."

I'm confident any other carrier wouldn't be this understanding and would have charged me for changing that late in the game. I am glad SWA has a strong presence in Reno - except for International flight, they are the only airline I will fly with.

Just as an aside, the flight I ended up taking was literally the smoothest flight I've ever been on.

What a nice story about Southwest! Other airlines charge as often as they can; Southwest is honest and courteous as often as they can be.

[MrsMorton]

I'm surprised the flight attendent said that about people passing out and getting sick. Aren't they supposed to be calm, cool and collected and keep the panic to a minimum? I would've done the same thing you did, and not gotten on that plane.

[Pixie]

I had a similar experience with Delta. I fly for work all the time and I have become a more and more nervous flyer. I used to be able to sleep on planes and was excited when turbulence hit. Now I need 3 xanax to get through a 2 hour flight and I am sick with anticipation of hitting those bumps. Anyhow, after a long day of bumpy flying, I was going to make a connection through DWI to PIT. I just couldn't handle another flight, so I went to the delta counter and explained my situation. The rep. was very kind and understanding and offered to let me fly on the morning flight at no extra charge. I know that delta and american tend to impose $150.00 fees on changes and I thought it was very kind of her to waive that.

Southwest tends to be very very accomodating and overall the crew on my SW flights tend to be the most cheery and animated of all the airlines. I'm so happy you were able to get another flight bajdawg...I'm like you, I look at the faces of the people deplaning and if they look distressed, I'm going to rebook :)

[skadanks]

But what if you change your flight to a later time and the turbulence is even worse then? Turbulence can be a very localized thing, here one minute, gone the next. I've had pilots come on the intercom and tell us that other pilots up ahead warned it's about to get pretty bad and take our seats. Then we experienced nothing but a few light chops. Turbulence can come and dissipate quickly, depending on conditions. Of course there are times the pilot warns and he's correct. Then there's time the pilot says, "this is going to be a pretty smooth flight" and it ends up being turbulent. You just don't know. So I'm just saying that just because those other passengers experienced turbulence doesn't mean that you will. Plus, turbulence is worse landing than taking off, because at least when you're climbing, it gets smoother as you get higher and higher up. When you're landing, the pilot also has the flaps extended which amplifies the gusts of winds. I can handle a turbulent takeoff better than a turbulent landing, even though with landing there's the comfort in knowing you've only got a few minutes left.

[bajdawg]

skadanks - I understand what you are saying and of course I had no guarantees about anything, but there were a couple of things I did to try to avoid turbulence. When I was rescheduling my flight, I checked when the weather advisory lapsed in the area and booked after that. Second, rescheduling the flight had absolutely no impact on my plans whatsoever. It's not like I missed anything big or exciting, I probably would have arrived at my destination and just sat in my hotel or driven around or something. So all-in-all I think it was a good decision and stand by it.

In hindsight, one of the things I overlooked is where the plane had come from. I was flying south, and if the plane was coming from the north then they would have had a different experience. But live and learn, now I know for next time.

[bajdawg]

skadanks - I understand what you are saying and of course I had no guarantees about anything, but there were a couple of things I did to try to avoid turbulence. When I was rescheduling my flight, I checked when the weather advisory lapsed in the area and booked after that. Second, rescheduling the flight had absolutely no impact on my plans whatsoever. It's not like I missed anything big or exciting, I probably would have arrived at my destination and just sat in my hotel or driven around or something. So all-in-all I think it was a good decision and stand by it.

In hindsight, one of the things I overlooked is where the plane had come from. I was flying south, and if the plane was coming from the north then they would have had a different experience. But live and learn, now I know for next time.