A few years back we were flying MDW to MCO on the soon to be defunct ATA and meeting the teenage daughter at MCO. As a result of a funeral, the highways were closed and then backed up. Even after this we managed to get to baggage check-in 32 minutes prior to departure but were "locked out" by ATA's computer. After ten minutes of explaining the situation (a teenager waiting at MCO, no money, no where to stay) and begging, they gave my wife a boarding pass. Despite the fact that she got to the gate prior to departure (the doors were still open), they wouldn't board her. Our seats had already been given away. (No ATA employee bothered to let the gate know that my wife was on the way.) Since it was Friday of Spring Break (of course) ATA wouldn't even bother to put us on standby until the following Monday and couldn't confirm us until Tuesday.

We called all of the 800 numbers and (as expected) no airline had any seats from the Midwest to Florida. So, I went to a SWA customer service agent. She actually listened to our story. The only thing that she could confirm was a flight from MDW to SDF, with an unlikely standby hope of catching the SDF to MCO leg of the trip. I think that she was shocked when I said "I'll take it." After she printed the ticket she told me not to get off the plane in Louisville, that I was confirmed to MCO. Now I was shocked! An employee of a big corporation had listened to a father's concern for his family and made a decision to fix something (which, BTW, was not caused by either the employee or her airline).

My daughter and I ended up having a nice father/daughter weekend and the rest of the family flew down two days later (on SWA). I haven't flown a domestic flight with anyone else since.

(P.S. I did feel a little guilty when a standby pax got called off the flight in SDF. To be honest, it wasn't too deep and totally passed when I found my distraught daughter at MCO.)