Southwest Airlines and email
by Hella ~ May 9th, 2006UPDATE: 10 Jan 2008
Southwest appears to be making progress in regards to receiving customer emails! The customer service page originally linked below now reads:
Important Note About E-mail:
We are hard at work designing a system that will allow us to accept and respond to e-mail, yet maintain that personal touch that you have come to expect from Southwest.
ORIGINAL POST
I find Southwest’s policy on email absolutely ridiculous, particularly in light of the recent launching of their blog (at least it uses WordPress). From their customer service website:
E-mail Policy - Why We Don’t Accept E-mail
Call us traditional, but we elect to steer clear of the chat-style, respond-on-demand, quick casual format and focus on meaningful Customer dialogue. This is not because we don’t care. It’s because that style counters our commitment to Customer Service.
Our Customers deserve accurate, specific, personal, and professionally written answers, and it takes time to research, investigate, and compose a real business letter. We answer every letter we receive in the order it arrives, and we streamline in order to keep our costs low, our People productive, our operating efficiency high, and our responses warm and personal.
Traditional? Come on! I wonder if Southwest relies on email communication to facilitate any of its business-to-business transactions?
Well, I recently wrote in to Customer Service about a bug I found in their Rapid Rewards web scripts. My plane reservations were actually listed under the Car/Hotel Reservation heading. I figured it would be difficult to understand in words, so I went the extra mile to also enclose screenprints and highlight them to draw attention to exactly what I was talking about. True to their promise, they followed up with a letter via mail. I also received a phone call to ask what operating system I was using (totally irrelevant) and then once again right before the bug fix was scheduled to be released.
Here’s an idea
Catering to the Customer (I love how it’s a capital letter; a real business letter would use proper capitalization) would allow those of us who prefer email to send an email while those who prefer “less casual” communication to send in a “real business letter.” I reckon the above depiction is at least partially accurate in that it allows them to keep operating efficiency high. Because if they allowed people to send in legitimate customer service concerns via email, they’d be bombarded with real issues. And how about the cost savings of email? Just scan in that “real business letter”, send it via email, and save the cost of the stamp.
June 17th, 2006 at 2:47 am
The no email policy is especially frustrating for me–they lost my bag, and I can’t reach them by phone. The baggage service office number leads to an answering machine that they apparently don’t listen to frequently, so I have no one to call and no one to email to confirm that my bag–if ever found–will be shipped to the correct address. By the time snail mail might reach them, I will be in another city. Yes, Southwest, your email policy is old fashioned–and extremely inconvenient!
December 29th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Would southwest not want to hear positive feedback? Traveling from St. Louis to Denver during the snow, ice storm in November resulting in the St. Louis airport being shut down could have been a terrible experience however, thanks to Southwest it was made as comfortable as possible. In spite of the long lines and waiting to see if we were able to fly( if the pilot doesn’t want to fly I don’t want to ride). The pilot did try to take off twice but the weather changed that quickly and we had to deplane(he tried).
From that point the Southwest Representatives were very friendly and helpful getting accomadations to stay at an affordable rate of $45.00 a night at a very nice nearby hotel. They took time with each of us trying to reroute and fullfill needs. I was very glad to be flying Southwest and could not have been taken care of better.
February 20th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Southwest’s refusal to allow email responses from customers is akin to shooting oneself in the foot. I had a problem on a recent flight and surprisingly it was handled promptly and efficiently by a Southwest flight attendant. I wanted to commend Southwest on their excellent employee and give a kudo to that attendant but since email is not allowed, nuts to them. No feedback wanted? Okay Southwest, you got it.
April 1st, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Southwest Airline’s no email policy and almost all of their other policies could not be more frustrating. I am a soldier who was supposed to come home on leave from Iraq and purchased a ticket from southwest. When my leave was cancelled I had to cancel the plane ticket and they said I could use it within one year of the flight. When I finally get a chance to use the ticket they changed what they originally told me and said my ticket had expired and they could not even give me the money back. When I asked to speak to a manager the woman who answered the phone told me no and said I would have to call back later. Now I can’t make the flight that I need and I am out the money they took from me. I will never fly southwest again and will advise everyone I know to do the same. Their website has an article about how they love the military and want to take care of soldiers but when they screw one of us over nobody who works for them seems to care!
May 30th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
I recently flew on Southwest from the state of Washington to Arizona.
During the flight I took an interesting picture which showed the shadow the the airplane surrounded by a rainbow. I thought SW might like to see it. Alas, and alak, no email. No picture to them.
Wanna see the picture? Email pegmih@lycos.com. No spamming, please.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:48 am
Southwest has been unable to keep up with their own growth. For the past 14 months, I’ve flown them every week on a project commute to San Antonio. If I had to guess, I’d estimate their flights are late 75% of the time. Granted some of that is due to the weather we’ve had this year. Their web site is a complete joke. Ironically, they won’t admit that it needs a serious overhaul.
June 29th, 2007 at 9:37 am
Southwest not receiving email is just a way of hiding from their customers. I think as a frequent customer, I will start blocking all the mail they send me and demand everything be sent by snail mail. They are just another greedy corporate monster pretending to care.
July 21st, 2007 at 12:49 pm
I’m wondering how could SW bump a 7 year old unaccompanied minor. This caused enormous anxiety on both the sending party as well as the receiving party.
I couldn’t find anywhere to e-mail SW with this problem.
July 26th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Well, I was glad to find this site since I was going crazy trying to find an email address on their website where I could send a comment. My family and I have actually had pretty good service throughout the years although sometimes I think the cheaper fares aren’t worth it; I hate feeling like “cattle”. I just noticed where SW is going to test special sections of seating for families and wanted to put my 2 cents in. I can understand wanting a family to sit together, especially when you have a child under 5 however, I do have a problem with the people who walk up right before boarding and because they have one child, 8 family members are seated before anyone else. And I’ve seen this more than once over the years. I agree, it’s ridiculous that SW does not accept emails and I don’t think they’re being honest when they state the reason why.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:18 am
I would like to thank one of your Captains for taking care of my wife, Alzheimer’s 9 years, while waiting for our Orlando connection at Las Vegas about 2PM on August 6th. Unfortunately I didn’t get the Captain’s name.
I had been watching the Captain move about the crowd speaking to Southwest people. When Annie became uncomfortable the Captain took Annie to the Ladies Room while I watched the baggage. I spoke with the Captain’s First Officer and learned that they were going to Albuquerque to start piloting. He is a USAFA grad, tanker piolet and now a major in the reserve living in Spokane with wife and son.
By way of further identification the Captain lives in Las Vegas and has about 25K hours. A helicopter piolet, the Captain will be 60 in a few years and might continue flying for a foreign airline.
Please thank both these fine Southwest Officers.
Bill/Annie Gray
Melbourne Beach, Florida
PS The Captain reminds me of a much younger version of Pancho Barnes.
September 7th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Southwest refusing email is just a way to not have to receive and respond to customers. Thanks for the blog it confirmed my hunch that they had no email address on their site. I will consider their lack of customer service when I book flights.
September 7th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Southwest Airlines showed their ridiculous side today when they asked the female passenger to leave the plane because her attire was deemed inappropriate, fly the plane! Let us worry about what we are wearing. Oh, she had to be removed because they were afraid of looking bad to one of the 132 passengers on board. Instead they get to look to bad hundreds of thousands more. Get a clue Southwest!!
September 8th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Southwest’s lack of customer relations is appalling. How many customers were won by the company declaring women in short skirts are not welcome on its planes, versus how many customers were lost? True, Southwest is growing - but it could be growing much FASTER if it served its customers instead of harassing them.
September 8th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
southwest airline, should be ashame!! i’m not going to fly with an airline who want to tell me how to dress? I think this time you need to put a bag over your face.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Southwest will lose my business. I used to favor them… but w/ the increased fares, I was wavering. Then they came out w/ a buy 2 get one free deal…. so I bought 2 tickets (myself & wife), anticipating a free ticket. I found out that the advertisement had the small print saying it had to be the same person flying, not two different. (Interestingly United & Delta have had similar promos where 2 different people could fly, and one could get a free ticked). I talked to 2 operators, and had one supervisor call back. Nothing. No future reasons to consider SWA anything other than a COMMODITY. Misleading, higher prices, no helpful customer service, AND no email… (sending complaint via USMail, which obviously costs them more, and me an extra inconvenience). Southwest: You’re DEAD last, now.
September 11th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
what is wrong with your airlines. I see these girls that you “kick” off because of their dress. I saw nothing wrong with what they were wearing….please..your airlines have no right to tell someone how to dress. nothing was showing on either one of the girls I saw.
September 13th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I purchased a ticket last month for $555 - I used a $50 voucher that was going to expire on Sept 18th. I had to cancel the trip the very next day - SWA put the whole amount into my credit account and the whole thing - The $50 voucher and my $505 American Express Payment - is set to expire on Tuesday.
I tried to buy a ticket for about this same amount for travel the following week and I was told the entire credit would be expired since travel would occur after this!
So, for $50 you gain $555? Nice return on investment but you just lost a companion pass member. I fly SWA every single month, usually 3-4 times a month.
This is criminal and I put an inquiry in with my C/C until I can speak with a customer relations person (of course they’re not open after 5!!! WTF?)
SWA just lost another regular customer.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Dear Southwest Airlines,
(I am contacting you this way only because I could find no way to send you an email!)
My wife today typed “www.southwwest.com” (mistakenly doubling the “w”) in a web browser and arrived at the following fake version of the Southwest.com website:
http://www.cnomy.com/?dn=southwwest.com&pid=1POF04615
You should certainly do something about this fraud.
Sincerely,
James R. Meginniss
Tucson, AZ
19 Sept. 2007
September 20th, 2007 at 9:46 am
No email at southwest is impossible for those who live outside US. It would not let me enter a non-us address (even though box for it) Finally gave up and used our US office address - tried to change it it wont let me. If have problems with pasword you hae to enter your membership number and ZIP code - what if you do not have zip code. Then would not accept my US office zip code - what a waste of time. Lets hope they have no real plans for international customers - they are stupid not allowing you to contact via email. I cannot call 1-800 anything from outside US. I have given up - they can stick their rewards program!! Can never get into my account!!
October 6th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I have to admit - I just read about their denial of service to a passenger who was wearing a t-shirt that the airline found “offensive”. This is the most appalling attempt to infringe upon someone’s right to free speech that I have seen in in years. Imagine if this took place in your local mcdonald’s or any other retailer? I tried to email the airline - no way to do so. I’ll never fly southwest, period.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
SW is really starting to puzzle me. I though they were a great airline, but they are just better pretenders than the others. I found it surprising that they denied boarding because of attire that THEY deemed offensive. What a bunch of fools. One thing Americans do not like is others imposing their beliefs on them. This will cost SW some business. I know I won’t be as willing to fly them. Their rates would have to be really low to compensate for their anti-free speech stands. And you can’t even email these guys, and you can’t get through on the phone. WTF?
October 8th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Posted: Aug 27, 2007 10:06 AM Well, heading off to my grandmother’s funeral this past Monday, I found myself in a sticky situation with Southwest Airlines. My grandmother passed on Monday from Breast Cancer (we all know I’ve been doing the fundraising to walk in honor of her) and I headed to VA on Southwest for her funeral. I wore my “Save the Ta-Tas”? tank top along with my several “fight breast cancer”? pins in honor of her. I received great compliments as I walked into the airport, as well as Starbucks giving me half off on my order because they were so moved by my 60 mile walk. I walked up and down the airport (trying to gain more training and miles) as I waited for my plane to board. I finally started to board.
As I took my first step onto the plane, I was pulled over by a flight attendant. Thinking it was another compliment on my tank top, I was smiling……which quickly turned into a frown as the lady told me I “had to take my top off, or put a jacket on because of the word Ta-Tas……This is a family plane”? I quickly said, “your kidding!?…..do you realize this top is a ‘Breast Cancer Organization raising money for breast cancer??!!”? She stood there saying “Im sorry.”? I continued to tell my story,….how my grandmother just passed and I was on my way to her funeral….how I was walking 60 miles to fight and raise awareness for breast cancer in honor of her….how my buttons (and ribbon) shows “ta-tas”? is for breast cancer.”? She did not care and just said “I’m sorry.”? I was absolutely flabbergasted. There was nothing I could say but “you’re kidding.”? That is when the pilot came out with a smile on his face. All he had to say was “What’s the problem? You can just zip up your jacket, right?”? I said, “That is not the point.”? He stood there with a smirk on his face and I continued to ask “why are you smiling?”? Both him and the flight attendant said he was not…and all he had to say was “I guess I am just a happy guy”?. Absolutely blown away, tears falling from my eyes, as I am thinking all I want to do is get to my grandmother’s funeral, there was nothing left to do but zip up my jacket and sit down.
I have never in my life felt so belittled or embarrassed by doing something “honorable for the community.”? I am sitting here raising thousands of dollars in the fight against breast cancer, yet all this flight attendant or pilot could think about was the “offensive”? word “ta-tas”? when seriously, lets be honest, there could be more threatening events happening on the same plane, but we decided to chose this battle!! Worst come to worst, the flight attendant approached me later and asked if I was okay. I asked if I were to wear a shirt that said “Fight Breast Cancer”? because it had the word “breast”? in it, I would have the same situation. All she had to say was “I did not say that.”? Apparently the flight attendant was ignorant and did not know what she was saying. …What if I did not have a jacket? Would they kick me off the plane…because of ‘ta-tas’?? Absolutely ridiculous.
This is just an update on what I have been through this past week. There will be a following letter, if anyone wants to help me in this fight against this discriminating incident. The breast cancer organizations, local news, and of course Southwest will be contacted about this.
Thanks for those that have supported me
Visit my site at http://WWW.WALKFORBOOBS.COM
November 27th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
I also wanted to post here, since I was unable to find an email on the southwest site. They are probably losing out on most positive feedback, since it’s really not worth the time and money to me to send a snail-mail compliment. On a recent flight, I was delighted that they held the plane for 10 minutes so that transferring passenger’s luggage would make it onto the plane. We still arrived on time, and those 10 minutes saved several people hours and hours of hassle over lost bags. In general, I have found their customer service to be considerably better than any other airline. However, reading the other comments on here, I am a little alarmed about Southwest’s seemingly arbitrary dress code policy (which I don’t see mentioned anywhere prominent when you buy a ticket).
November 28th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
I’d suggest that all of you do a bit of research.
Southwest takes every piece of Customer feedback they get via U.S. mail, and has a real human being research every one of them and responds personally with a thoughtful answer, and if appropriate, some compensation.
The reason they can do this is because the requirement to send a letter forces those asking for assistance to think through what they are sending. Better questions = better answers.
Once they open the email gates, they will be flooded with:
o My flight was delayed ! I want a refund ( even though it was delayed due to a thunderstorm I could see through the gate window )
o Various incantations of “you suck” or other non-acitonable complaints
Anyhow, be careful what you wish for. They’ll open up the email channels, but be forced into using form letter replies to keep up with the volume.
Send an email to some of the other big carriers and let me know how that goes for you.
Argh.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
I recently flew southwest airlines. As a matter of fact I am at the airport right now sending this message out. I have to wait another 4 hours for a flight so I have plenty of time. Expecially since I can see the plane I need to be on through the window and the desk lady and supervisor had to be the rudest, unhelpful people I have ever delt with. Little do they know I am in senior management with a company that purchases at least 2 thousand tickets a year with them. I am on a personal trip. However I can assure that this airline will be brought up in the next board meeting and our company will be changing the airlines to a customer friendly airline.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:25 am
I just got home from another Southwest ordeal. Delayed flight, then shifted to another flight, empty promises that baggage will be transfer, baggage missing at destination, told I made a voluntary change; I have to go back to the airport tomorrow to pick up my luggage, etc.
I have flown Southwest for many years but in the past three years, I look at every other option prior to booking a flight with them. Their customer service posture has changed these past years to 1)lie to the customer 2)act indifferent 3)tell the customer if they don’t like it go elsewhere. The only problem is all airlines treat customers the same way under the same pretence and circumstances.
Airlines are the only industry that I know of that demand more from their customers then they expect from themselves.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Three cheers for Southwest for kicking off that woman with the uncontrolled children. They did the right thing. The only thing that could have been better was to never allow them to board a plane. Undisiplined children have ruined many of my flights. There should be muzzles and restraints for them.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
I just received a spam mail with a zip file attached , perporting to have a ticket to print out. As i havn’t bought anything from them i know it’s some scam, but can’t send it to them as they have no address. It took me ages to work that one out! Their loss. but all readers beware.
nick in the U.K.