Ok, tell me this, how many times on your favorite carrier do you ask for comp due to maintenance delays and they give it to you? I am betting, actually hoping, that it is never. Do you know why? Of course you do, you would just rather come on here and try to portray Southwest as evil. So let me run a scenario by you that has happened to me before and that might just explain to you why a gate agent would refuse to offer compensation when the flight is delayed for mechanical, let alone ANY reason.

Say you are on a flight that has a 3 hour delay because the plane is broken. You go to the gate agent and they give you a $100 voucher for your troubles. So you get on the plane and are delayed another 1 hour as they feel the need to double check the repair they made to make sure you are 100% safe. Then you get to your connection point (much more likely on a hub-n-spoke legacy, but roll with me on this one) and you have missed your scheduled connection because they didn't hold the plane for 3 hours. Now you are getting into your final destination 7-8 hours later than your original time because of the missed connection...but you have your $100 voucher. Now the airline is in the situation of having to issue ANOTHER paper voucher/voucher card...or they say you were already comp'ed and are S.O.L. Issued more comp, no big deal right? Now you have TWO cards or vouchers to keep up with instead of just waiting until it was all said and done, getting to your final destination and then raising the whole issue at once and getting any comp that you deserve.

Make any sense? Normally it is better for a gate agent to do their job (ie get you confirmed on another flight or get people moved to assure connections) and to ask for you to wait until all the facts and issues are in before starting to issue compensation.

Thank you LUV for always trying to do things the right way.