In the grand scheme of things, I’m a fairly recent convert to Southwest Airlines. There were a few things that changed my perception of them: when they changed their old ‘cattle call’ boarding process to numerical order, for example. And they added ‘Business Select’ to give frequent flyers the ability to board in the first group, thus having better seating choices and quicker access to overhead storage for their roller bags. And they were consistently on time! At a time in the airline industry when delays and cancellations became the norm, Southwest continued to have the highest on time departure stats.  Whenever I fly on the West Coast, I will only fly Southwest because I know I’ll get there when they promised I will.

Cut to Friday. In celebrating their 3 millionth Facebook fan, they offered 50% off flights. As you can imagine, the response was overwhelming. So overwhelming, their system began to do very bad things. As it happened, I was booking travel that day and noticed the web site having some issues, but I didn’t think much of it. When I went to purchase my flight, a notice came up that said there were issues with my credit card and to try again later. Even then I figured their system was having issues and I decided to revisit it that evening. Seconds later, I received 3 separate flight confirmations and confirmation numbers for the same flight. My credit card had been charged 3 times. I tried to call Southwest but their lines were busy.  I sent an email through their website and got an automated response. Out of curiosity I went to their Facebook page to see if anyone else was experiencing anything weird.

Well, 917 comments later (attached to their 50% off announcement), I saw that people were having my issue times 10! Several people were complaining about having their credit cards charged 20 and 30 times!!! Seeing that, I instantly felt terribly for every single Southwest employee. Especially the IT team! 

Here’s the funny thing, though. Once I saw it was a systemic issue, I calmed down instantly. I knew without a doubt the issue would be resolved within a couple of days, and my opinion of the company or my loyalty to them was not phased one bit. Why? Because they consistently treat their customers well. They deliver on their service promise. And you know what, one day later, here’s what I received in my Inbox:

Dear Jennifer,

As you are all too aware, the overwhelming response from Customers who took advantage of our August 3 limited time offer created website performance issues at various times during the weekend, and in some cases, created multiple charges to some of our Customers' accounts. We sincerely apologize that you were one of the Customers who incurred multiple holds on your credit or debit account.

We hope you are willing to give us another try. We are confident that if you allow us the opportunity, you will have a better experience the next time you book, and as a gesture of goodwill, we're sending a $150 Southwest LUV Voucher (in a separate e-mail) that we invite you to apply toward the purchase of a future Southwest reservation. The e-mail with the LUV Voucher code will arrive within the next few days.

Our Employees worked overtime to resolve the issue throughout the weekend and have confirmed that the duplications are no longer occurring. By initiating an "all hands on deck" approach, we have proactively initiated refunds back to your financial institution for any erroneous bookings. These refunds are currently being processed, but timing will vary depending on the individual bank.

If you used a debit card and have received overdraft fees as a result of the additional charges, we will process a reimbursement for all overdraft fees that were caused by duplicate charges from Southwest for your reservation purchase. Please fax documentation of those fees via a letter from your bank or a copy of your account showing the fees to 877-506-0154.

Southwest Airlines is committed to providing Customers with exceptional service both online and onboard. Our goal was to resolve this issue as quickly as possible to minimize any inconvenience to you, our valued Customer. We hope you will give us another opportunity to provide you with a better overall experience--you can be sure that we are looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Sincerely, Teresa Laraba
Senior Vice President Customers
Southwest Airlines

This is what I call a Remarkable Recovery! Notice they:

·         acted quickly!

·         acknowledged what a huge issue it was.

·         apologized!

·         spelled out exactly what they were going to do to resolve the issue.

Notice, too, they did not make excuses, they didn’t blame it on anyone or anything. And, they didn’t put any responsibility on their customers. It was Southwest’s mistake, so they are applying the man power to correct it. You know what? They screwed up and it impacted me. But I’m a bigger fan because of how they tackled the issue head on. They consistently make it easy to be a customer.