Southwest Airlines Reviews & Complaint Guide

The area around seat 31A smelled strongly of the lavatory for most of the flight. A crew member offered a middle seat several rows back, but that was the only option. For a long trip, this was one of those problems that sounds small until you are stuck with it for hours.

Once the connection was missed, every person pointed somewhere else. Airport staff said to call, the call center said to ask the airport, and the app kept showing options that disappeared before I could select them. Nobody sounded responsible for getting us to the destination anymore.

The app changed first, the airport screen changed later, and the people at gate E6 still had no explanation. By the time someone finally said the 15:20 departure was delayed, several passengers had already missed the chance to adjust their connections. The delay was frustrating, but the silence made it worse.

The app said Southwest Airlines WN726 was boarding soon, the airport screen still showed delayed, and the gate desk told us to ignore both until they made an announcement. That kind of mixed information is exhausting when you are trying to decide whether to get food, call a ride, or run to a different gate.

A phone was left with the wrong family member during boarding, and I expected that to become a mess. The gate agent at C7 stayed calm, coordinated with the people still outside the jet bridge, and got it back before the door closed. That one employee saved the trip from starting badly.

I submitted the refund form after a cancelled Madrid Barajas to Buenos Aires Ezeiza trip and received a case number right away. After that, nothing was simple. Each call felt like starting over, one agent could not see the previous notes, and the email replies never gave a real date for when the money would be returned.

The fare looked reasonable when I booked, but the final cost felt different after seat selection, baggage, and a change fee. For the Delhi to Kolkata trip, the add-ons made the ticket feel misleading. I would rather see the real price earlier than be surprised step by step.

The wheelchair request was on the reservation, but when we reached Johannesburg nobody seemed prepared for it. We waited, asked twice, and almost missed the boarding window. Special assistance should not depend on finding the right person at the last minute.

The check-in line at Dallas/Fort Worth was long enough that I expected a disaster. A gate agent near H9 noticed the tight connection on WN911, moved the document check along, and explained exactly where to go next. It was the kind of calm help that makes a stressful airport morning feel manageable.

The airport desk told us all rebooking had to be handled by phone. I called twice from the terminal, waited long enough to watch other passengers give up, and still did not reach anyone who could fix the trip. When travel plans are falling apart, being bounced between airport staff and the call center is not support.

A minor name correction should not have taken two calls, a fee, and repeating the same passport information again. The second agent eventually fixed it, but the first case note apparently was not visible. I spent more time proving the problem than actually solving it.

We started a vacation with one suitcase missing after Southwest Airlines WN142. The desk at NBO took the claim and told us to buy basic clothes, then every phone call after that gave a different answer. The bag finally reached the hotel almost two days later with a broken zipper pull, and the reimbursement offer did not come close to what we spent.

We came off a long international leg exhausted and still had one more flight to go. The crew on Southwest Airlines WN179 noticed several people were connecting onward and made a point of checking who needed gate information. It was not fancy service, just thoughtful and human, which mattered after a long day.