More Ableism from your Friendly Neighborhood Southwest Airlines

[u/SunnySydeRamsay]

I booked a flight for a friend of mine last month and requested pre-board ahead of time, which was granted. I was on the phone with my friend while they were at the Southwest ticketing counter. During their conversation with the ticketing agent, they specifically requested pre-boarding and gate transfer assistance when they arrived at Las Vegas.

Upon arriving to the Las Vegas airport with a multiple hour layover, they were not greeted with any agent that would provide assistance, nor was she provided with any sort of instruction on how to make contact with an agent upon arrival at LAS. Initially they were set at a nearby B gate. The gate changed without notice to a gate in the C terminal and eventually switched back to a B gate without notice, and then to, I believe, another B gate, again without notice, though it could have very briefly went to a C gate again before that. During this time, I had to direct her, using an online map, the exact directions to take to get to each gate. She took the wrong turn on at least two occasions.

They could not locate a gate agent anywhere during this situation, and once she did, the agent was extremely rude and refused to speak with me on the phone so I could communicate needs related to her disability, as she was unable to effectively communicate for herself, being overwhelmed by the environment of a large airport and under extreme stress. Friend in question literally started having a pnaic attack because of this agent. I put her on the phone with a friend to help calm her, and called the Southwest customer service number, who advised me they could not assist and that she should find another gate agent. I called her back. After 10-15 minutes of wandering to other gates, she finally located a different Southwest agent; they were extremely hesitant to talk to them after being traumatized by the first agent. This gate agent also refused to speak to me directly, but I had her put me on speaker phone. They were able to get some sort of supervisor. They, fortunately, stumbled upon the new correct gate.

What did Southwest offer for this breach of contract and extremely traumatizing experience for everyone involved? A travel voucher for $150 and no promise of future accessibility training.

Tl;dr, don't fly Southwest if you have a disability and require accommodation. The July 2025 Air Travel Consumer Report shows five civil rights complaints for Southwest in April alone. Since they're switching their model to be like every other airline and are now running more expensive in some cases, there's not really a reason to use them anyways, but particularly if you have a disability, don't use them.

Edit: I was reading the wrong section; twenty-eight disability complaints in May. Second in disability complaint volume and the fourth largest domestic airline.