Half complaint, half praise.
Story: I spent an extended weekend in Chicago but needed to be in Montgomery by 6:30 on Monday evening for a banquet. I booked a 12:10 flight out of Chicago, landing in Houston at 2:50 with a connection to Montgomery scheduled to leave at 3:35, landing at 5:15.
The flight left Chicago closer to 1:00 and landed in Houston at 3:30. Thankfully the 3:35 flight left Houston as scheduled….without me. After sprinting up the jetway and explaining my plight to the gate agent she checked and just looked at me and said “Oh, yeah that flight is long gone.” Which is shocking considering NO ONE leaves on time these days. It’s a given that flights won’t leave origins at a decent hour. Airlines are actually building these delays into the schedule. So when the flights actually leave on schedule it creates a problem for people like me. What’s frustrating is that I kept up my end of the contract. I paid for the flight, arrived at the airport on time, didn’t have liquids or gels and was at the gate precisely one hour before the scheduled departure. Still there was no sense of urgency to get the plane away from the gate on time. No one seemed to move at a pace consistent with keeping a schedule. The inbound flight was late, but it was still there at 11:45..Southwest can turn a 737 around in 30 minutes, why can’t Continental turn around an ERJ in less than an hour?
The flight attendant and gate agent in Houston were extremely helpful as was the customer service rep at the help desk in the terminal. My original plan was to attend a banquet in Montgomery and then rent a car and drive back to Birmingham where my flight Friday originated. I did this because I need to get to work on Tuesday morning. I was offered a flight later to Montgomery but asked to be switched to Birmingham. After a call I was told I could do this and was booked on a non-stop to Birmingham departing four hours later. So here I am in Houston, waiting for that flight.
This is why I love Southwest.
