Southwest says computer glitch caused ticket woes

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By Linda Stewart Ball

DALLAS (AP) - Southwest Airlines' attempt to thank its Facebook friends with a half-price ticket sale backfired when customers were inadvertently billed multiple times for a single flight - they're not feeling the "luv."

"No, it wasn't a hack, it was just a technology glitch in our system that caused that," duplicate bookings and billings to customers' debit and credit cards, Ashley Dillon, a Southwest spokeswoman said Saturday.

The company became aware of the problem around 5 p.m. Friday, she said, when they experienced website slowdowns and saw that customers were having to repeatedly refresh pages to take advantage of the airlines' one-day "luv2like" promotion.

The special sale designed to celebrate Southwest's reaching the three million mark in Facebook fans was supposed to give customers who booked flights on Friday a 50 percent discount on certain fares.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20120805/DA0ESDRO0.html

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In this Feb. 9, 2012 file photo, a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 waits to take off at Chicago's Midway Airport as another lands. Southwest Airlines' attempt to thank its online friends with a half-price ticket sale has backfired with customers inadvertently being billed multiple times, not feeling the "luv." Airline spokeswoman Ashley Dillon on Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012 blamed a "technology glitch" for the duplicate billings to debit and credit cards. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

[pattymcq]

1. Yes and they didn't bother to tell people....

I was charged at least 18 times, it wasn't just charging for the tickets, it was saying you didn't get them......so I was very happy to get the half price tickets which I didn't know I got until at least 4 hours later!! So the glitch started right away at around 3PM, not 5PM.... No confirmation emails went out at all, plus it said you didn't get them......sheesh.....still working on straightening it out....called customer service 3X, all they said was I can't help you book them, no hint of a problem. Oh well, happy to be going to Vegas from Philadelphia for $170 a ticket!!!!

[mwooldri]

2. One heck of a mess. Still being tried to cleaned up.

From the credit card company end it's not pretty at all. On Saturday all we saw was multiple holds placed on our customers' cards. The normal process is that the company that placed the hold on a particular account needs to contact us and request the hold be reversed. Since it was happening to so many of our customers, emergency plans were put in place and specific departments were dedicated to clearing up this mess somewhat.

Beyond that I don't know what else will happen but I guess I'll find out soon.

[LuckyLib]

3. Americans want cheap airline tickets, and this is the crap they have to put up

with to feel like they're getting them. The airlines are crooks in the same pot with the banks, mortgage lenders, health care industry, etc.

Southwest -- just give folks cheap tickets across the board -- quit the gimmicks, let the "market" determine if folks flock to your company.