Trip To Colorado

We left for the airport around 3 am and everything was fine until we got closer to the airport when the snow started coming down at a good clipper. We had to take it very slow as you couldn’t see the lines in the road. We parked in the airport garage and went to check-in. The guy at the Southwest counter was confused when I told him we were going to “gate check” my mom’s wheelchair and so I had to explain that we were “checking in the wheelchair at the gate.” He was nice, but not the smartest person. We then went through security. It’s a small airport and so didn’t take too long although they made us wait because they didn’t have someone to check a passenger that set off the whole body scanner (I still don’t understand why you have to take off your belt and shoes if the machine sees through your clothes.) The airport had a smoking area past security which was nice and then we boarded. The flight wasn’t full and so my mom sat by the window and I sat by the aisle with no one in the middle seat. We waited on the runway, away from the terminal, for an hour because of the 3 inches of snow. You would think that an airport in northern New England would be prepared for such a small amount. When we did take off the flight was long and bumpy. We landed in Denver and waited for our chair to be brought up. The one flight attendant was helpful with that. We took the train to the main terminal where we met my sister-in-law. That’s when the “fun” began. All the signs said that our bags would be at carousel 7 and so like most intelligent people we waited at 7 for them to come. When nothing came I looked around and saw a Southwest employee walking with our bags to the Lost Baggage Office. I stopped her and told her that they were supposed to have come off at 7 like the signs said. She was very stupid and just gave me a blank stare. When she did speak she asked for my baggage tags. I told her that if the bags had come off at 7 like they were supposed to I wouldn’t have to show any ID to get them. She said “Oh well” and so I told her I wanted to speak with her supervisor. She said that her supervisor wasn’t there – of course he/she wasn’t standing in the middle of the airport – and so I said that we then needed to go to where the supervisor was or have he/she come to us. She went to the Lost Baggage Office and went into a room. She called from the room and said the supervisor was busy on the phone and I told her that I still wanted the supervisor right away. She made some stupid remark and went back into the room. I left the Office and told my mom and sister-in-law that the woman was an “idiot.” Right after I said that the 4 female employees standing behind the counter started shouting at me that they were going to “call the police because I was verbally attacking the employee.” These have got to be the dumbest Southwest employees I have ever met. I told them that I was out of their office and said that she was an idiot to my family and not to her face and that if they wanted to call the police then they could and I would love to explain everything to them. In the end the supervisor came out, said something to the women and came over to me. I started explaining the situation about the bags and how the employee “handled” my complaint. The supervisor could have cared less and kept saying that nothing was there fault and that they were not allowed to communicate with anyone (regarding the different baggage carousels.) She was an even bigger idiot than the first woman I dealt with. I saw that I wasn’t getting anywhere with her so I told her that since she wasn’t handling the problem correctly I would file a complaint with her boss and left. I guess the police were never called as they never came. I think the stupid women behind the counter knew I didn’t do anything illegal, but wanted to abuse their authority and threaten me. A few days later I got an online survey from Southwest and wrote about the experience and then filed an official complaint about the two employees. I received a response a few days later which said they were sorry at how I was treated and that they would mention it at their next meeting to make sure it never happened again. I’m surprised Southwest admitted their guilt as they are usually too cocky and can do no wrong in their own minds. We then got into my sister-in-law’s car and drove to Colorado Springs.