Complaint Review: Southwest Airlines - Salt Lake City Utah

You must not fly often. Here's a tip: To determine when to arrive at the airport, first find the flight time on your itinerary- this is when they close the doors and stop boarding. Then, subtract 20 minutes for a 737 or Airbus A320 aircraft, and 45 minutes for a 757, 767, or larger aircraft. Then, subtract another 20 minutes for security checkpoints and the walk to the gate. Finally, subtract another 10 minutes for check-in. The answer is the time you should be walking in to the airport. Example: 7:10 am flight from AUS to DEN Boarding starts 6:50 am. Be at Security at 6:30 am. Check in at 6:20. If it's the first flight of the day, the airline employees won't be there early. Don't worry, they won't leave without you, unless you are not at the gate at the designated departure time. I've had employees let me on the plane after the doors were closed, whenever I have a connecting flight on the same airline that arrived 5 minutes late or less. If you are connecting from another carrier- too bad. If you treat them nice, they will treat you nice. Simple rule. The only reason to be at the gate early is if you want to volunteer for DBC (Denied Boarding Compensation- to get a free ticket in exchange for giving up your flight) or if you like to look at airplanes. Disclaimer: I travel 300 days per year. Generally, TSA takes me 5 minutes or less except at ORD and DEN. I check in online the night before, or at the hotel. Sometimes the pedestrian walkway from the garage to the terminal has a kiosk that no one knows about. If there is an airport hotel, look in the lobby for a multi-function ticket kiosk (for all airlines). No waiting in lines. sincerely, Tex

You must not fly often. Here's a tip: To determine when to arrive at the airport, first find the flight time on your itinerary- this is when they close the doors and stop boarding. Then, subtract 20 minutes for a 737 or Airbus A320 aircraft, and 45 minutes for a 757, 767, or larger aircraft. Then, subtract another 20 minutes for security checkpoints and the walk to the gate. Finally, subtract another 10 minutes for check-in. The answer is the time you should be walking in to the airport. Example: 7:10 am flight from AUS to DEN Boarding starts 6:50 am. Be at Security at 6:30 am. Check in at 6:20. If it's the first flight of the day, the airline employees won't be there early. Don't worry, they won't leave without you, unless you are not at the gate at the designated departure time. I've had employees let me on the plane after the doors were closed, whenever I have a connecting flight on the same airline that arrived 5 minutes late or less. If you are connecting from another carrier- too bad. If you treat them nice, they will treat you nice. Simple rule. The only reason to be at the gate early is if you want to volunteer for DBC (Denied Boarding Compensation- to get a free ticket in exchange for giving up your flight) or if you like to look at airplanes. Disclaimer: I travel 300 days per year. Generally, TSA takes me 5 minutes or less except at ORD and DEN. I check in online the night before, or at the hotel. Sometimes the pedestrian walkway from the garage to the terminal has a kiosk that no one knows about. If there is an airport hotel, look in the lobby for a multi-function ticket kiosk (for all airlines). No waiting in lines. sincerely, Tex

You must not fly often. Here's a tip: To determine when to arrive at the airport, first find the flight time on your itinerary- this is when they close the doors and stop boarding. Then, subtract 20 minutes for a 737 or Airbus A320 aircraft, and 45 minutes for a 757, 767, or larger aircraft. Then, subtract another 20 minutes for security checkpoints and the walk to the gate. Finally, subtract another 10 minutes for check-in. The answer is the time you should be walking in to the airport. Example: 7:10 am flight from AUS to DEN Boarding starts 6:50 am. Be at Security at 6:30 am. Check in at 6:20. If it's the first flight of the day, the airline employees won't be there early. Don't worry, they won't leave without you, unless you are not at the gate at the designated departure time. I've had employees let me on the plane after the doors were closed, whenever I have a connecting flight on the same airline that arrived 5 minutes late or less. If you are connecting from another carrier- too bad. If you treat them nice, they will treat you nice. Simple rule. The only reason to be at the gate early is if you want to volunteer for DBC (Denied Boarding Compensation- to get a free ticket in exchange for giving up your flight) or if you like to look at airplanes. Disclaimer: I travel 300 days per year. Generally, TSA takes me 5 minutes or less except at ORD and DEN. I check in online the night before, or at the hotel. Sometimes the pedestrian walkway from the garage to the terminal has a kiosk that no one knows about. If there is an airport hotel, look in the lobby for a multi-function ticket kiosk (for all airlines). No waiting in lines. sincerely, Tex

You must not fly often. Here's a tip: To determine when to arrive at the airport, first find the flight time on your itinerary- this is when they close the doors and stop boarding. Then, subtract 20 minutes for a 737 or Airbus A320 aircraft, and 45 minutes for a 757, 767, or larger aircraft. Then, subtract another 20 minutes for security checkpoints and the walk to the gate. Finally, subtract another 10 minutes for check-in. The answer is the time you should be walking in to the airport. Example: 7:10 am flight from AUS to DEN Boarding starts 6:50 am. Be at Security at 6:30 am. Check in at 6:20. If it's the first flight of the day, the airline employees won't be there early. Don't worry, they won't leave without you, unless you are not at the gate at the designated departure time. I've had employees let me on the plane after the doors were closed, whenever I have a connecting flight on the same airline that arrived 5 minutes late or less. If you are connecting from another carrier- too bad. If you treat them nice, they will treat you nice. Simple rule. The only reason to be at the gate early is if you want to volunteer for DBC (Denied Boarding Compensation- to get a free ticket in exchange for giving up your flight) or if you like to look at airplanes. Disclaimer: I travel 300 days per year. Generally, TSA takes me 5 minutes or less except at ORD and DEN. I check in online the night before, or at the hotel. Sometimes the pedestrian walkway from the garage to the terminal has a kiosk that no one knows about. If there is an airport hotel, look in the lobby for a multi-function ticket kiosk (for all airlines). No waiting in lines. sincerely, Tex

I also ask you, where were you ripped off? You made it through security and got to your flight and arrived on time. SOunds like southwest did what they were supposed to do with you. As for the alcohol, yes southwest will serve alcohol on their planes. Most airlines won't serve you more than 2 drinks on a flight though. To be drunk enough to be removed, the person would need to be drinking at the airport before the flight or between transfers. They won't let DRUNK passengers on the place. As for distance, its 500 miles from SLC to Phoenix. That would require the plane to fly at 461.4 miles per hour which is well below the speed of sound. The cruising velocity of the planes southwest uses is 514 miles per hour. It is definitely feasible for the plane to travel from SLC to Phoenix in that time frame. Your 1 hour 20 minutes includes take off and landing I'm sure and not actual time in the air. If you had gotten stuck at an airport due to southwest, you might have a case for a rip off, but being as it sounds as if you got to your destination on time, I don't see what the problem is.

I was commenting on the overall operation of SWA. Who knows why the gate agent was late. Were you at SLC on subsequent days to determine whether this was a pattern at that airport? It certainly wasn't at Albuquerque, Baltimore, Phoenix, and all the other places I've boarded Southwest. If you had a problem with it then you should address it in writing with Southwest but you boarded the flight OK didn't you? The comment about flight time was absolutely silly as was the alcohol comment. I've flown Southwest scores of times and have never noticed any drunks kicked off a flight. If I were you I'd quit flying Southwest. It will give the rest of us who support an airline with customer service more room aboard.

According to Southwest's Contract of Carriage (page 13) they have the "10 minute rule" or TMR. Basically, it says that you must have a boarding pass and be at the gate 10 minutes prior to departure or else you risk having your reservation canceled. So where did you hear that you must be at the gate 30 minutes prior to departure? Next time check in online. Its really quite easy and you will get a better boarding number.

the coments i made were largly directed to the ground operations of southwest. try reading the origanal report, then coment on the report. if you would like to make more unrelated observations please feel free to do so. you totlaly miss the point of who served the drinks and.............. just read it this time

I'm flying Southwest more and more now after experiencing the lack of customer service on many of the majors. You may have had a bad experience on SWA but my trips have been trouble free and Southwest is a great choice for air travel. I especially like their policy of not charging $100 to change a flight and $10 to speak to a reservation agent on the phone like American. My first and last flight to Hawaii on American out of DFW to Honolulu didn't even serve peanuts unless you purchased a snack box. Seating on the 767 was the tightest I've experienced since the old TWA short DC-9's and cabin service was virtually non existant. The flight attendents spent most of the time in the galley playing hand held video games and chatting. If you wanted a glass of water they acted as if you were a serious interruption. Southwest is nothing like that. Everybody has a bad day and it sounds as if you started with either an inadequate breakfast or a sleepless night. Don't pick on the only airline in North America that makes as effort to excel in customer service. I also applaud them for kicking the drunks off the plane. How would you like to have a drunk blocking the aisle or emergency exit in the event of an emergency. Lighten up.

First you put "Southwest defies TSA" then you change it to "airport authority". TSA sounds more impressive then some innocuous "airport authority". Usually, local "airport authority" follows federal guidelines.

yes you are correct, "two hours early" is a request by the airport authority, not tsa.

Isn't it one hour on domestic flights and two hours on international flights?