Flying back from Vegas the other night, I'm reminded of a time I was on a Southwest (SW) flight a few years ago. As the drink service came through, a woman says to the attendant that she absolutely l-o-v-e-s these pretzel-mabobs they hand out, and would buy them if she knew where to get them. The attendant nods, smiles and agrees they are tasty. The attendant disappears and 30 seconds later comes back with a carton of ~50 of these pretzel packages and hands them to the woman, gratis. The woman gushes and accepts gratefully.
Is the woman a SW customer for life? We can bet that her bridge club and grandchildren have heard the story 100 times.
Obviously the attendent didn't run off to ask for permission to give away a ton of pretzels to the lady -- he just reacted with remarkable customer service that left all of us thinking SW really knows how to treat people.
Well, fast forward to the other day -- I'm trying to switch my evening flight to one that is earlier. There are plenty of seats on the earlier flight, and as it turns out the later flight I had originally booked was completely full. So, I call SW thinking I'm doing them a big favor by opening up an additional seat on the later flight for one of their erstwhile standby passengers.
Yes, says SW reservation agent -- for $50 they can make that change.
Really? $50? If they just allow me on the earlier plane, it costs them nothing, makes me happy, as well as the person that gets my seat on the later flight. What happened to the employee empowerment to make everyone's life a bit better? Where is the win-win(-win)?
I expect policy like this this from UAL or AA, but SW? No amount of quirky FAA emergency preambles or tossing peanut packs down the aisle during take off offsets something so stupid. Years of positive experience washed away in a single incident.
Of course, I'll probably still fly SW since they're still much better and cheaper than the alternatives (for now). Just a bummer that they seem to be losing their edge.