Southwest Airlines
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WHAT HAPPENED SOUTHWEST?
Back in the day, Southwest was the best airline to fly domestically in the states. I do not know what happened. This last trip has been the worst flight experience I have ever encountered. To start my trip, I booked my flights with a longer, 2 hour layover to ensure a slight delay would not hinder my travel. This still was not the case. Southwest changed the gate and plane in Norfolk, resulting in a delay. Next, we boarded and waited for over an hour to just get gas in the plane. Meanwhile, planes scheduled after mine were boarding and taking off, in the original gate my flight was supposed to be. Almost 2 hours later, we took off. I knew I was cutting my layover short at that point, but we were scheduled to arrive with just enough time to spare. I sprinted to my gate, to see my next flight's plane sitting there. The ramp to get on was still connected to the airplane, but no one was there to check me in. I frantically looked around for someone to help me, but no one was in the area. I had to watch my plane leave without me. I then got a text stating they had rescheduled me to the next day in the evening. I went and talked to a Southwest representative, who helpes change my flight to earlier in the day, but would not offer any other flights to the surrounding airports in LA for the evening. I requested they compensate and put me in a hotel, as I now had to stay overnight. I was informed that they would NOT put me in a hotel because they were not responsible for me missing my flight. They blamed the flight control in Norfolk, instead of taking responsibility for being very unorganized, resulting in 9 people missing their flight (to Ontario; there were many more traveling to other places). I talked to another representative to see if I could get a better boarding position, as I had the boarding position B1 prior to them sending my plane off. They had given me C13, which is considerably worse. They would still not compensate me at all. I have been unable to talk to a customer service representative, but if this is how Southwest treats thwir customers now, I will not be back. I did my research during the extra time I had of sitting in the airport overnight, and apparently Southwest has the highest delayed flights percentage. Two years ago, this was unheard of. Their motto of "flying the friendly skies" does not uphold. Its a real shame how far this flight company has fallen.