What a scene this woman made!

[Poohbear123]

I have the same vow, LibertyLover, but only because of SWA's no seat assignment and the examples of people that fly them. The show, Airline, seemed to show only the best SW employees who managed to maintain their cool in some really bad circumstances. I really admire many of them. If they offered assigned seating, I'd probably consider flying SW.

I am a "Example of people who fly SW." I have flown with them 6 times so far, and have nothing but GREAT things to say about them. I came out of "flying retirement" to fly to Orlando with them, and WILL fly with them possibly to Ca next year! Oh, I am overweight and have High Blood Pressure, but I don't cry and pitch a fit for ANY reason. And my Butt fits in ONE seat!

 

[martinp13]

Sounds like the "Princess" needed a tiara! Did you have a spare from Disney?

 

[m4travel]

DH and I have made a solemn vow to never, ever fly Southwest....

Living in California we have flown - and continue to fly - Southwest Airlines all the time. Is it a little inconvenient having to jockey for a seat within your boarding group? Yes. However, as long as you check in via the internet and plan your life to arrive early enough to get a good place in line, you can travel quite pleasantly and inexpensively. And that's a good thing.

We've never had an experience like the one the OP related, but it's the sort of thing that could happen on any airline. I can't imagine why Southwest agreed to participate in that show!

 

[fgms]

I think people start to panic about getting seats together when it is not necessary. We usually end up with B b/c we cannot check in online- we have to go to the airport due to paper tickets and have never had a problem getting seats together. We have even had C once and still were together.

 

[Alice Sr.]

OT - but you can check in 24 hours in advance and get an "A" boarding pass now with SW?

 

[offtheice]

Quite possibly. She seemed really whacked out. Her husband seemed to want to crawl into the woodwork. But before they started to board, she seemed "normal".

I think she got her panties in a wad because she felt "slighted" because as she put it "we were waiting here first in line before all these pther people." They weren't boarding wheelshair pax with 15 members of their extended family. Of the three I saw be preboarded, two were eldery with two other adults with them, and one was a woman who looked to be a para, her DH and one child. Did this nutjob really think they would have to sit in the back of the plane because nine people got on ahead of them?

Personally, the whole idea of preboarding anyone with kids not in a car seat is ridiculous to me. Anyone with an A pass should have no trouble finding seats together, and if you're too lazy to check in the day before and get that A pass, then too bad, fly a legacy carrier with assigned seats. But that's another thread. (Disabled individuals on crutches or using a wheelchair are another story entirely, and IMHO they should always be preboarded, but should also always expect to be last off.)

She seemed to be getting herself more and more worked up, and then just toally lose control. Oh--and I think she had high BP--like through the roof. She was overweight and her face ws very red like people with high BP often have. She's not going to live to see those kids out of elementary school if she doesn't get control of herselfe physically and mentally. I feel bad for her kids.

Anne

Having 3 kids tired and drained at the end of spending 10 days at disney is a wonderfull thing that southwest allows with preboarding.
Did you think maybe she was just having one of those bad days??

 

[ducklite]

Having 3 kids tired and drained at the end of spending 10 days at disney is a wonderfull thing that southwest allows with preboarding.
Did you think maybe she was just having one of those bad days??

Like I said, I'm sure the people in wheelchairs that they preboarded would have loved to have traded places with her and walked on the plane.

Bottom line, her reaction to having handicapped passengers board before families with young kids--and making a scene, pretty much belittling those in wheelchairs--was selfish, cruel, and just bonkers.

Her behaviour seemed to surpass the notion of a bad day.

BTW--I'm drained and stressed from working two jobs with tight deadlines, and picking up freelance work here and there as well. Shouldn't I be able to preboard as well?

Anne

 

[manning]

Five'll get you 10 she is now telling everyone she knows about how SWA employees "humilated her in public." I'm always amazed that when people like this look back on these scenes, they always manage to reverse the order of events so that it is someone else doing the humiliating. Sorry, but when you make a fool of yourself, you have no one but yourself to blame.

The bright side, of course, is that she has now probably sworn to never again fly SWA.

Five'll get you ten she won't be believed by a lot of them.

 

[ducklite]

OT - but you can check in 24 hours in advance and get an "A" boarding pass now with SW?

Yes. I checked in about 21 hours prior to my flight. Got to the airport and got in line about an hour before they began boarding--ate my pizza and worked on my laptop. I was about #8 in the "A" line, there were probably twenty people on the plane due to having been on from the originating city and prebaords before the "A"'s began baording, and I had no problem finding a seat that was perfect.

Anne

 

[nliedel]

In my "I have had every job known to man" life I used to work for an airline. SWA is a little inflexible not ridiculously so. Those kinds of incidents and worse happen with every airline.

 

[mlwear]

What is this show "Airline"? Who airs it? Travel Channel? I'm going to have to look for that one.

 

[keishashadow]

Can't remember if it's AE or Bravo. Family has watched it a few times when nothing else appeals to us - usually quite entertaining.

When I first downloaded DING, they questioned what it was. Youngest DS was quite dismayed to hear we might fly SW "...that's the airline that gets all the drunks & crazy people...".

What is this show "Airline"? Who airs it? Travel Channel? I'm going to have to look for that one.

 

[robinb]

In my "I have had every job known to man" life I used to work for an airline. SWA is a little inflexible not ridiculously so. Those kinds of incidents and worse happen with every airline.

SWA's Rule 240 worries me far more than their "cattle car" boarding. If you are delayed (and it's SWA's fault) they will not put you on another airline's flight. You are stuck with SWA's next available flight. Even so, I have flown SWA a few times and they have been fine because I know how to work with their system.

Anne ... at least you had some pre-flight entertainment .

 

[ducklite]

Anne ... at least you had some pre-flight entertainment .

Anne

 

[Tigger_Magic]

What is this show "Airline"? Who airs it? Travel Channel? I'm going to have to look for that one.

It was on A&E and featured segments from SWA. Typically, the segments chosen were the most dramatic ones usually featuring people at their worst moments -- which makes for good reality TV. Of course, the SW staff were cool, calm and collected in dealing with these characters.

I know every airline has their share of characters, but Airline seemed to imply that SW tended to attract more than their fair share of them.

 

[ducklite]

In all my years of flying I've seen some really loony people on planes and in airports. I agree, it's not restricted to SW. In my experience, Delta and United seem to get a disproportionate number of obnoxious "shouldn't have had that last scotch and soda" businessmen...

Anne

 

[nliedel]

SWA's Rule 240 worries me far more than their "cattle car" boarding. If you are delayed (and it's SWA's fault) they will not put you on another airline's flight. You are stuck with SWA's next available flight. Even so, I have flown SWA a few times and they have been fine because I know how to work with their system.

Anne ... at least you had some pre-flight entertainment .

Rule 240 is no more. SWA does not have agreements with other airlines which, as of a few years ago, don't remember which year, are no more than gentlemen's agreements anyway.

Rule 240 used to state that one airline would honor another airlines tickets. I'm afraid it's a dinosaur!

Airline is a hoot to watch. I also like that Flight Attendant School show, I think it's Frontier Airlines, on The Travel Channel. The nice thing about these cable networks is they rerun things during naptime!

 

[JDietz40]

Like I said, I'm sure the people in wheelchairs that they preboarded would have loved to have traded places with her and walked on the plane.

Bottom line, her reaction to having handicapped passengers board before families with young kids--and making a scene, pretty much belittling those in wheelchairs--was selfish, cruel, and just bonkers.

Her behaviour seemed to surpass the notion of a bad day.

BTW--I'm drained and stressed from working two jobs with tight deadlines, and picking up freelance work here and there as well. Shouldn't I be able to preboard as well?

Anne

I had the same nervous feeling about flying SWA as many have expressed in this thread until we flew them last year to Disney. I did book a second seat for me although as it turned out I did not really need it. This allowed me to preboard with 1 person so I preboarded with DS then 12. DW had A boarding passes printed out in advance from home. On the return trip I felt guilty as other than a number of families with small children We were the only ones in the preboard line. I quietly told the gate attendent that the families were welcome to preboard before us but she told me to take a look and pointed out that it mostly extended family members in the line that should not be preboarding anyway. The flight was not full and she did not say anything to them that I heard but I got the feeling that if the flight was more crowded she would have.

I understand what some have said about the woman having a bad day or being stressed out but many times stress is caused by poor planning. Granted that I am a planaholic and I get teased a great deal by DW for it but she enjoys the benifits of my overplanning during our travels.

As we often say in my workplace

"Poor planning on your part does not not constitute an emergency on mine."


John

 

[robinb]

Rule 240 is no more. SWA does not have agreements with other airlines which, as of a few years ago, don't remember which year, are no more than gentlemen's agreements anyway.

Rule 240 used to state that one airline would honor another airlines tickets. I'm afraid it's a dinosaur!

Hmmm ... that was my point.

If SWA has mechanical problems and you miss your connection, too bad so sad. You're stuck on the next SWA flight, even if it's the next day. The legacy airlines of NWA, AA, United, etc still do Rule 240 where they will put you on another airline's flight and get you to your destination if they cannot within a specified period of time. It is one advantage of flying a legacy airline over SWA. It's not enough of a reason for me to pass up SWA's great fares, though!

 

[ImaFunMom]

We flew Delta once and they did not preboard anyone and a man on crutches missing half a leg had to fight thru the crowd to board and then try to stow his carry-on bag. ARGH. Finally, DH stopped the flow of passengers in the aisle and waited for the man to get settled. He got a few dirty looks, but didn't care. It was sad and I felt bad for the man.