dsokolik

So, here's what happened to me last Friday. My flight from LGA to STL (originally scheduled for 5:50 departure) was delayed significantly due to weather.

I asked to go standby on an earlier non-stop. During boarding of that flight, the gate agent announced my name (along with one other) and gave us boarding passes for the flight.

I then boarded, stowed luggage, fastened seatbelt and was thankful that i'd get home at a decent hour.

THEN, after the flight was ready to depart....they announce my name on the plane and ask me to leave.

I received no logical explanation from anyone about why I was allowed to board and then had my seat taken away. I can only assume it was someone's incompetence that led to the situation.

I certainly feel that SW should provide reasonable compensation for this. There is no way I should have been allowed to board if the seat wasn't available.

I complained to them on twitter and they responded with a $100 voucher. Is that reasonable?? Doesn't seem like it to me.

Southwest needs to learn how to better handle their standby lists.

MSPeconomist

Did WN call the police to drag you off the plane? Were you injured?

My guess is that some passenger showed up late or maybe one or more WN employees needed to take the flight.

If other standbys were called to board after you, perhaps they should have been offloaded first.

dsokolik

I sincerely thought about asking everyone to take their cell phones out and start recording....but since I did still want to get home on a Friday night, I didn't make a scene.

The flight I boarded standby had been delayed for several hours, there is no reason that someone should have showed up late. And regardless, thats not the point. They shouldn't let standby's board until they are certain that they have a seat for them.

nsx

Probably a mistaken count of passengers. They thought they had a seat for you but they actually didn't. It's unusual but it does happen. Through passenger in the lavatory is one way the count can be off. Or simple human error.

Kevin AA

If someone showed up for their reserved flight late that was delayed by hours and then denied boarding because SWA decided a standby passenger was more important, we would sure hear about that.

I don't think you deserve $100 for being a whiny person.

lougord99

I would gladly get on a flight, which I didn't have a res for, and be booted off for $100. Sounds to me like you hit the jackpot.

smmrfld

IMO you received $100 more than you deserved. Move on.

Marko123

I'd be more than ok with $100 in this situation.

jeffandnicole

"THEN, after the flight was ready to depart....they announce my name on the plane and ask me to leave. "

There was no way the plane was 'ready to depart' if they took you off the plane.

This story seems mighty exaggerated. Why didn't you pull out your own cell phone to record the incident?

OzzyOzzie

I've witnessed it twice. Standbys get seated and then are asked to leave for what I assume are late arriving passengers.

dsokolik

What else do you call it after everyone else had boarded and flight attendants are going through their final checklists???

HomerJay

You did not have a reservation for that flight. You were standby. There were operational problems, probably due to weather. A likely scenario is that a connecting passenger from a late-arriving flight had arrived. He had a reservation. You were flying standby.

They put him on his flight, for which he had a reservation. They put you on your flight, for which you had a reservation.

It was inconvenient to you, but the airline did no wrong.

synergistic

I have to admit, I'd be kinda salty if I was asked to leave a flight after I'd boarded - even as standby. I know how it works, I'd have no real room to complain, but I'd be irritated as well.

I'd complain about it in a lounge thread. I might even fire off an email to CS because, ugh, all of a sudden I'm back to being heavily delayed and that's irritating too.

Then I'd get a $100 voucher and be completely shocked, a little chagrined, and grateful. I'd have to say something nice about WN in the lounge thread.

pinniped

Well, it sounds like it was wrong to board standbys at the point in time they did. @:-) Either (a) board the standbys and then later-arriving passengers are deemed to have missed the flight or (b) don't board standbys if you're still holding open the possibility that connectors or new arrivals with BPs in hand will be permitted to board. Either option is acceptable and within the airline's rights.

When I've gone standby (on any airline) in the past, I'm boarded literally within 1-2 minutes of the door closing. A passenger running up after me, saying they should be on the flight, would (should) be told no - you're too late.

I'd be angry if I was deplaned after I was seated. I'm never angry if I just try to go standby in the gate area and simply don't make it.

Is it worth fighting for more than a form-letter apology and a token voucher? No. Nothing is going to change.

wrp96

It doesn't even have to be a late arriving passenger. It could've been a weight and balance issue due to weather discovered at the last minute and the choice is take a delay to offload bags or fuel, or offload standbys and don't take a delay.