I first wrote about this a few months ago and it has been talked about on multiple websites as well. This is a known issue with Southwest and is affecting many customers in countries around the world as Southwest is still geo-blocking multiple countries.
Southwest Still Geo-Blocking Multiple Countries
Southwest “working on a fix”
Southwest said several months ago that they were aware of this issue and were “working on a fix”. For a company that is involving in customer service, it is a major fail that they have still not fixed this months later. I have contacted them several times about it to see when it would be fixed and they keeping punting and finally do not answer at all.
Who Cares?
Some people had mentioned that it might be because Southwest does not operate flights in those countries. While that is true, there are many people that travel in those countries and want to use Southwest. Or, they used Southwest to get to an international gateway for their flights. They may need to change those or even check-in. Also, there are other people who live in different countries and are trying to book on Southwest for future trips to the US.
Southwest is Losing Potential Customers
That last group of people is a group I am hearing from over the last month and they say they will be buying tickets with a different airline because they cannot connect to Southwest. The options are to use a VPN or call Southwest to find and book travel. In the year 2016, it is not common for us to have to phone in to find and buy airfare and people are not going to make that extra effort most of the time.
How about it? Have you had trouble accessing Southwest.com? I have heard from people in many countries, including Norway, Taiwan, Greece, Finland, and South Korea. It would be nice if Southwest could address and fix this problem soon so that their customers are not forced to book with other airlines or to have to use other methods to book with Southwest.
South Africa is blocked
So what? Let Southwest handle this how they see fit. It is clearly an insignificant % of their business otherwise they would address.
Engines falling off airplanes is a bigger issue than Steen in Oslo being unable to book a LGA-ATL ticket.
The problem is that they are saying they are addressing it – for months. Plus, how do they know what percentage they are missing in business? It also affects those US-based travelers who are trying to check in for their connecting flight on their returns from abroad. Anyway, I guess you would feel better if Delta had something like this!