I had a bizarre experience with Southwest Airlines in 2024. I had booked an afternoon Southwest Airlines flight from LAS (Las Vegas) to SFO (San Francisco). I breezed through security and was about to board the flight. However, when the boarding gate agent scanned my mobile boarding pass for the final time, the machine flashed red. The agent tried a few more times to no avail.
I was asked to provide my reservation number, so I pulled it up from my emails. What should have been a 10-second search took several minutes. They could not find my reservation on their system. I was confused. How did I get past multiple layers of security then? I was astounded when I opened the Southwest Airlines App. My ticket was no where to be found. The miles I gained through the purchase were rolled back before to the amount prior to the transaction. My Reservations page showed no trace at all. Not a crossed out ticket, no "invalid" marker, nothing.
I argued that something must have gone wrong, but they ordered the gate to be closed and had the plane depart in time. I was frustrated and demanded a proper explanation. One of the agents dialed multiple departments and told me after more than 5 minutes of talk that my credit card was declined, and that the ticket was automatically cancelled because of the failure. I knew this was a lie because I would have gotten a text message from my credit card provider had that been the case. Still, I called the fraud department just to double check. The transaction was successful.
I called out their incorrect statements but they didn't budge and refused to explain further. I argued with a Southwest Customer Service Representative on the phone who reiterated the same nonsense talking points. After a half-an-hour conversation with no progress, I exited the post-screening area and went to the ticket sales area. I explained my situation and demanded the Southwest employee a proper reason. This person had a different excuse. They said that their "automated fraud detection system" may revoke purchases they view as fradulent. When I questioned why I wasn't notified, he simply shrugged it off that the system sometimes doesn't do so. He refused to put me on the next and last Southwest flight from LAS to SFO for the day.
I was furious but had no choice to take another airline's plane because I didn't want to ride Southwest again nor could I afford to risk receiving the same treatment. I also had to return to San Francisco that day. I ended up taking a United Airlines flight, paying a hefty price. I was so paranoid that I asked the United agent to check my boarding pass' validity before the gates opened. Thankfully I got home safely.
After arriving home, I calmed down and tried to understand what happened. According to my research, it is common for U.S. airlines to target people of color, young, foreign, poor, solo travelers to resolve overbooking issues. According to DoT guildelines, I am eligible for 400% of the original fare because I arrived more than 2 hours late than the original flight. However, Southwest declined my claim, asserting that such compensation is only applicable when Southwest cancels my flight. They never admitted overbooking in their email response, repeating the "fraud" talking point again.
I filed a DoT complaint online and am waiting for Southwest's response. Can airlines skirt compensation regulation by crying "fraud" and wiping my purchase off their servers to deny any purchase ever took place? I've also talked to some foreigners who experienced similar issues, and they said they didn't even get refunds. How is this even legal?
Edit: This was not the first time I booked Southwest, and I had no issues riding a previous flight.
