Tag Archives for southwest airlines.
Wild video shows a passenger with an oversized hiking backpack leans over the counter at Orlando airport’s gate 125, arguing with a Southwest Airlines agent. She gestures wildly toward the jet bridge door but she’s blocked from boarding.
A Southwest Airlines passenger gets into an argument at the gate. He seems to have shown up late – his seat have have been given away to a standby passenger. But he pushes past the agent and tries to rush the boarding door anyway and get onto the plane.
“I had a few light beers last night,” Southwest Airlines captain David Paul Allsop told police at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport after TSA officers said they could smell alcohol on him. Minutes later, body camera footage shows officers stepping into the cockpit of his Boeing 737, telling him he wasn’t flying, and leading him away.
FBI agents complain that Southwest Airlines is frustrating to deal with in unruly passenger situations on aircraft because passengers can’t easily be identified by their seat assignment.
Of course there are two other huge advantages seat assignments will bring,
When the flight finally boarded, a gate agent reportedly told them “you’re the only two people on this flight because they forgot about you.”
In their rush to light their business model on fire, with checked bag fees, expiring flight credits, devalued frequent flyer programs and paid seats, Southwest Airlines has moved quickly to implement changes but hasn’t done the work to make those run smoothly or to maximize revenue.
“Southwest is hoeing me.” A Southwest Airlines passenger says that’s what an employee told her, after the airline lost her bag, then when it was found it was delivered to the wrong address, and the airline and courier service simply pointed fingers at each other – forcing the woman to get the police involved.
A few days ago a passenger and check-in agent at the Southwest Airlines counter in Denver got out of hand. They wound up in a fight – and the customer got tackled by police – after his aggression shifted from the airline to law enforcement.
Now we see how paid seat assignments are working out for the airline, which they’re selling now for flights starting January 27, 2026. They don’t seem to have figured out the revenue-maximizing formula yet, or they don’t have the technology fine-tuned yet to adapt seat fees by market easily.
Southwest Airlines flight 1496 made a split-second dive to avoid a mid-air collision on Friday. The crew executed a startling descent of about 500 feet- dropping from around 14,100 feet to about 13,625 feet—to avoid a collision.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
