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Archive 2012 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

jneilosu
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p.1 #1 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

U.S. Airways will never get my business again. If Southwest serves any airport within 30 miles of my destination, clients will be told this is what they are to book for me (I already book all my own stuff on SW).

I'm supposed to be in L.A. right now on an e-shoot. The weather has been bad in Denver, and I missed a flight yesterday. The flight was on time, so because I missed it, there would be no refunds. Fair enough.

They have a flight that gets me to L.A. by 5pm (supposed to be in at noon and shoot afternoon). I say this could work if they can also put me on a later return flight (just do the shoot sunday). Sure, they'll do it, for a change fee of $150 plus a $176 increase in airfare (total $326). I say let me shop. I go to SW booth, find out they can get me in at noon (same time I'm supposed to get in originally) for a $320 one way ticket. I say cool, I'll just buy that ticket and use my return trip as planned thru US Airways.

LUCKILY I THOUGHT TO CALL US AIRWAYS TO SEE IF THIS WOULD BE AN ISSUE.

"Sure, Mr. Neil, you can still take your scheduled return leg, even if you fly out to LA on a different carrier. There will just be a $150 dollar change fee, and any increase in airfare".

For those of you bored by now, here's the bottom line:

They were going to charge me 300 dollars to use a seat I'd already paid for, because by their f****d up thinking a "one-way" passenger is a different situation than a "two-way" passenger.

This would be equivocal to me charging a couple for an engagement session and wedding, them deciding to let a friend do the e-shoot (but still paying me for it), and me telling them on the wedding day that they owe more money because they are now considered a "wedding only" client instead of "wedding+engagement" couple. Horsecrap.

After a second phone call, me telling them I would not only be running their name into the ground whenever possible, but that if I had the time and money, I'd love to sue them and any other airline practicing this, they issued me a refund. Go figure.

How can this be a legal practice? Sure, it's probably buried in some terms and agreement, but people have sued over fine print before.

Not to mention the bag fees. Clients saved 10 dollars not buying SW, so that I could pay 50 to check bags.

I've already used the refunded money to purchase a SW trip (we rescheduled to end of month).

Feb 05, 2012 at 02:49 PM

TTLKurtis
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p.1 #2 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Why aren't you booking your own travel, silly boy? [this is a serious question]

Feb 05, 2012 at 02:53 PM

sherijohnson
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p.1 #3 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

you should book your own stuff

Feb 05, 2012 at 03:09 PM

DONIV
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p.1 #4 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

^^^^^^^^ that.

Feb 05, 2012 at 03:26 PM

Sergio Mottola
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p.1 #5 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

southwest is a great airline, my stepdad is a baggage handler at seatac so i have flight benefits. i think it's tony hoffer's airline of choice when it come to FF miles. i think if you are doing any international work, you want to get with a loyalty program like Star Alliance or Delta SkyTeam, though. southwest is a great budget airline if you're traveling regionally, but you shouldn't necessarily be looking for the cheapest airfare when doing business travel. a comfortable itinerary to minimize travel fatigue is first and foremost for me --- i have no interest in a 6am flight, i'd rather fly in the night before. also, it looks like you were pressed for time with weather, etc. i was doing 8-12 flights a month in the summer, and it is muuuuch better to have a relaxed itinerary with long connection times. second would be which airline/loyalty program. it really is best to stay with one airline consistently, and if anyone here has frequent flyer status, yes they do hook you up, yes you do get upgrades, no you don't have to wait in line, yes you get to hang in the lounge and booze up.

search for a good itinerary and quote the couple that rate + $50, because airfare fluctuates. also, find a hotel you like and send them the cost for that, too. you should book your own hotel as well as your flight.

regardless, you missed the flight. like you said, fair enough. from there, they wanted to charge you a change fee (normal) and the difference in airfare (normal). it doesn't really matter to them how you get to LA, because they are changing the return flight (LAX-DEN) and that hadn't changed from before you called southwest. i guess what i mean is that your wedding analogy is off, because they aren't asking you for anymore money and you didn't miss your wedding day. you missed a scheduled flight, now, you have the chance to still get to LA and make that second scheduled return flight (or pay their change fee).

so, they were willing to rebook you and reschedule you for $326. meanwhile, SW wanted to charge you $320 **ONE WAY**. that's the ripoff (making the total $646, where if you just took up USair on their offer you'd only pay the $326). from what i can see, if you started with SW and missed the flight, you'd be mad at SW the same way you are mad at USAir (because they would charge you the same fee). but really, you're the one who missed the flight (regardless of carrier).

i have missed flights and its frustrating, but i don't see where USAir went wrong here. a few cents from someone who considers airports a second home, and has been in your shoes more than a few times.

Feb 05, 2012 at 03:56 PM

jneilosu
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p.1 #6 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Serg,
I kind of disagree that my wedding analogy is off. US Airways wanted to charge me 300 dollars to take the exact same plane coming home that I would have taken had I flown out on their flight. They claimed this fee was because I was becoming a "one-way" passenger versus round trip. This is exactly like a couple paying me for 2 shoots, skipping the first one, and me charging them a fee because they are only using me for one shoot vs. 2 (even though they've paid me for 2).

Could I have taken the next flight out of Denver, paid the 326 change fee to bump my trip back home til late tomorrow night? Yes, but the times weren't really viable even still. The reason I was willing to take SW out there and catch my original US airways flight home is because I would have gotten to LA at the originally planned time, thus the whole trip would be unchanged, other than the fees.

It's all been taken care of now, but I still think it's ridiculous they can charge you for a flight you've already paid for. I can understand charging you to change your flight time.

TTL and Sheri, I booked the weekend we've changed to, and I will be booking from here on out. I've booked all my own stuff before, this was just a unique situation. The e-shoot wasn't part of the original contract, but they called and said "hey, we'd like to fly you out to LA for an e-shoot". I let them handle the travel. Last time I'll do that.

Feb 05, 2012 at 04:34 PM

ckhagen
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p.1 #7 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Both times I've missed southwest flights, they put me on the next one for nothing. One I slept through my alarm and woke up 30 minutes after the departure time. They said as long as I contacted them within 2 hours they would just put me on the next flight or at least on standby.

Feb 05, 2012 at 04:35 PM

jneilosu
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p.1 #8 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Also, I just noticed you may have misinterpreted my original post. They were going to charge me fees to fly southwest out but the same original itinerary home (i.e. Den-Burbank on SW, Burbank-SW on original flight with US Air).

Feb 05, 2012 at 04:38 PM

Tom Dix
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p.1 #9 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Considering all the white stuff in the front range, inconvenient, but not awful.
Lesson learned, book your own in the future.

Feb 05, 2012 at 04:39 PM

danvprod
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p.1 #10 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

TTLKurtis wrote:
Why aren't you booking your own travel, silly boy? [this is a serious question]

Truth.

Feb 05, 2012 at 04:40 PM

amonline
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p.1 #11 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Sooooo, this was just a rant because you missed a flight? All I learned is; don't miss a flight (or expect to get hit with an additional one-way ticket), and don't tell the original airline you're using the alternate return until you are ready to board.

Oh, and book your own stuff, regardless.

Feb 05, 2012 at 05:21 PM

jneilosu
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p.1 #12 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Guys, I get it, book your own stuff. Perhaps you'd prefer if the post title was "I book my own stuff. But damn myself for booking a non-southwest flight, because it's really eating my lunch this weekend".

Amonline,

As for the alternate airline (SW), I was never going to use it for the return. The options were: A) use alternate (SW) for departure and get to LA at same time as missed flight, then use original return (charged change fees to use original return). B) Use next US flight and get in at 5pm, which would require changing return to try to squeeze shoot in (enter change fees) C) take next US flight out and come back as originally scheduled, thus no time for shoot, but hey, no change fees!

While this topic may seem irrelevant to wedding photography, if you travel much, eventually you're going to run into a situation where you need to reschedule a flight, be it the day before or a month out. Southwest lets you do this for free. Yes, you'll have to pay an airfare increase, but if it's at least 2 weeks out it's usually nothing or less than 50 bucks. They let you check bags for free. I almost exclusively fly SW anyways, but I never truly appreciated these features until yesterday. It was snowing hard here, so I called US the day before my flight, and was informed they were "waiving their policy" and letting people reschedule any feb 3rd flight for feb 5th or 6th. This did me no good. Had it been SW, they'd have issued me store credit essentially, good for 12 months. I could have just rescheduled this shoot for 3 weeks from now, and it wouldn't have cost me a dime.

Feb 05, 2012 at 05:37 PM

joelconner
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p.1 #13 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

It just drives me nuts that SW does not seat assignments...makes it nearly impossible for my wife and I to sit together when we travel through them...

Feb 05, 2012 at 11:02 PM

amonline
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p.1 #14 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

jneilosu wrote:
...use alternate (SW) for departure and get to LA at same time as missed flight, then use original return (charged change fees to use original return)...

That's what I meant. I wrote it wrong. Still, I wouldn't have said anything until I was asked upon boarding the flight home. I'm pretty sure they would not have charged you at that point. They wanted to charge up front because of the opportunistic phone call.

Feb 06, 2012 at 12:56 AM

sboerup
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p.1 #15 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

The wrongdoing that I agree with is that they because you didn't take the first leg of the flight, they are charging you extra for the 2nd leg of the flight purely because you missed the first one, and treating you like a "one-way" passenger. Makes no sense and would piss me off too. I'd let customer service have a piece of my mind because it makes no sense whatsoever.

I love SW as well, great miles program (not so great as it was last year, but still great now).

Feb 06, 2012 at 02:19 AM

camerausername
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p.1 #16 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

It makes no sense to charge you for missing your first flight but wanting to take the return trip. If anything they should give you a discount because now they can take someone on standby or the plane will fly more efficiently without your added weight. If a 50lb bag is worth $25 in fuel, then how much is a human body worth?

Sadly that logic doesn't apply and it's just price gouging plain and simple. American Airlines will do the same thing to you.

Feb 06, 2012 at 01:21 PM

lisy78
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p.1 #17 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

sboerup wrote:
The wrongdoing that I agree with is that they because you didn't take the first leg of the flight, they are charging you extra for the 2nd leg of the flight purely because you missed the first one, and treating you like a "one-way" passenger. Makes no sense and would piss me off too. I'd let customer service have a piece of my mind because it makes no sense whatsoever.

I agree with the above.

Their expectation to surcharge you because you skipped the 1st leg are completely ridiculous.

After all, assuming that these idiots at the airlines really charge more for a 1 way ticket than a 2 way ticket (I can't believe this to be true... I can believe that they might charge you a LOT more than 1/2 but I can't believe 1 way is more expensive... keep reading why not) anyone who is a rational individual living in Denver who might want to go on a roadtrip to L.A. and then fly back would NOT succumb to the airline's dictatorial stupidity, they would instead buy a 2 WAY ticket from LAX to DEN (and back) and never show up for the "and back" part.

What could they possibly do in that case? Ask you to pay for not traveling?

Given the logic I just mentioned it is entirely irrational (and by irrational I mean "YOU CAN PROBALY SUE THEIR DEEP POCKET ASSES IF THEY EVER HARASS YOU LIKE THIS AGAIN" and win) for them to expect to penalize you for NOT taking the first leg of the trip on the assumption that you were trying to scam your way into a 1 way ticket.

Heck I'd sue them for implicit defamation... as they would essentially be saying that i'm a moron for not sticking it to them the easier way

Hum... the more I think about it the more I wonder if they acted like this because there are actual market irrationalities that can be exploited here... will have to look into that the next time I schedule travel... for all I know it's possible that if I need to go from FLL to NYC, leaving on a THU and returning on a SUN it might actually be cheaper to buy a 2 way FLL-NYC ticket leaving on THU and returning on TUE and a 2 way NYC-FLL ticket leaving on SUN and returning on SAT ... and then skipping out on the 2nd leg.... it seems far-fetched but that's about the only thing I can think of would justify their position.

Feb 06, 2012 at 01:35 PM

jneilosu
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p.1 #18 · Encourage your clients to book you on Southwest.

Glad to see a few people understand what I was so mad about. I take responisibilty for missing the flight or requesting a change in flight, but refuse to pay to take a flight that is on my original itenrary.

Feb 06, 2012 at 02:41 PM


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