A fluid leak forced Deepak’s Southwest flight from Oakland to Seattle back to the airport. Southwest shifted passengers to a waiting plane, and everyone made it to Seattle about two hours late. Within a week, Southwest sent passengers an extraordinarily honest and informative letter detailing exactly what went wrong, and by way of apology, tossed in a $175 voucher.
Deepak writes:
With all the bad press airlines have been receiving of late, here’s a positive story for you. My wife & I were on a flight back to Seattle from Oakland a few weeks ago (Aug 10th). Almost immediately after take off, the pilot came on the intercom and said that a pressure sensor had gone off, and we had to go back to Oakland. After a collective groan from everybody on board, we turned back around and landed. They kept us on the plane for a short amount of time while the mechanic examined the issue. He apparently determined it wasn’t fixable in short order, so they deplaned us, and put us on another plane. All in all, the delay was maybe 2 hours tops, and everybody at Southwest was very nice, as were all of the passengers.
So we arrive in Seattle a couple of hours later than expected, no big deal for us at all, given it was a Sunday afternoon, and we weren’t in a rush to get anyplace but home. A week or so later, we each received the following letter from Melissa Chalupa, Assistant Manager, Proactive Customer Service Communications. Sorry I don’t have a scanner, so I’m transcribing it instead. Included with this letter was a $175 voucher for Southwest!
I’m already a pretty loyal Southwest customer, but this was an unexpected (to me at least) gesture!
Southwest’s letter:
I’m sorry for the unexpected circumstances surrounding the disruption of your Aug 10 flight from Oakland. In addition to my apologies, I’d like to provide you with some information about what happened that afternoon.
Shortly after takeoff, the Pilots received a low pressure indication for one of the two independent hydraulic systems (A&B) on the aircraft. In response to this situation the Captain returned to have the aircraft inspected. In this case, the problem was with the A hydraulic System – there was a fluid leak. After speaking with our Maintenance Department, I learned that the supply line which helps operate one of the movable panels on the aircraft’s wing surface was leaking hydraulic fluid, and as such, the corresponding line was then replaced to fix the problem.
Thank you for your patience while alternate flight arrangements were made to continue your trip. With the hope that you will grant us the opportunity to prove there are better experiences to have with us, I’m sending a LUV Voucher to each person who was onboard your flight that we invite you to apply toward future Southwest reservations. We truly appreciate your valued patronage, and we look forward to welcoming you back again real soon.
Kind Regards
Melissa ChalupaEnclose : One Southwest LUV Voucher.
Compare Southwest’s response to U.S. Airways’. The situations are obviously different, but Southwest is practically eager to throw around vouchers to keep customers happy. As we’ve seen, happy customers mean profitable companies. The difference is just one of the reasons U.S. Airways’ profit plummeted by almost 20% last quarter, while Southwest’s soared 11%.
PREVIOUSLY: Above And Beyond: Southwest Melts Customer’s Heart After Deicing Snafu
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If most of my travel wasn’t trans-Pacific I’d be flying with them. I probably will anyway- fly an Asian carrier to a big airport then Southwest the rest of the way (but I don’t know where they are at the big international airports- lugging my stuff half a mile from international arrivals isn’t my idea of a fun layover)
Wow. I’m comparing this to the experience I had on Atlantic Southeast a couple of weeks ago, you talk about night and day. ASA’s motto is “we’re the only airline flying to this podunk airport, so screw you.”
Then again, that’s why Southwest is the best (and most profitable) airline out there… and why ASA is the worst.
Southwest treats people like human beings, not just a credit card number to charge. I have had Southwest be completely transparent about even a 2 hour delayed flight.
I have had another airline (either American or Northwest) fully cancel a flight and not say sh*t even to the point of the flight info just disappearing from the arrival/departure screen and the passengers having to inquire at the gate desk to an surly attendant who then told us to go to the special desk for a rescheduled flight- 8 hours later with a couple more hours sitting in the plane before we took off.
Once again, yay Southwest. While every other airline is constantly finding new ways to screw their customers, Southwest treats its customers like people.
Well, I can say that the next time I fly, I know which airline I’m using (and it’s not going to be U.S.). It is always super-cool to see stories like this.
Southwest flights generally cost 60-80% more than equivalent flights on carriers like Delta and Continental, I guess because of where I live. I’m not looking forward to finding out how bad it has to get on those other carriers before I’m willing to pay Southwest $500 for a ticket on the same route I can get for less than $300 from the big boys.
Southwest quote of the year regarding a badly delayed flight out of Spokane:
“It’s going to be two to two and a half hours. We have meal vouchers at the counter. Please note they can be used for beer.”
I went to Chili’s and paid $20 for fajitas and a huge honkin margarita; i look at it as free fajitas. We took off a little over two hours late and they sent us all crow-eating letters detailing the screw-up and how very sorry they were, along with a $175 LUV Voucher.
Today seems to be Good Customer Service Story Day. Post about USAir or American Airlines some more so i can snark on them…i feel like i’m losing my edge with all these nice comments.
everybody makes mistakes sometimes, right Hands?
I’ve heard that but I couldn’t testify to it from my own experience.
I received one of these emails from Southwest following a three-hour tarmac delay in Denver earlier this month. The email said a LUV Voucher would be sent to the same email address within 7 days but it never arrived. Emails back to Southwest have gone unanswered. Was a nice (and unexpected) gesture by Southwest to send the original email, however, was tainted by them not following through.