[ridilman]

I am writing because of the problem had I with the grounding of Southwest flights on April 2, 2011. I was supposed to fly back from San Diego that day to Cleveland Ohio. Our friends took my wife and I to the airport and dropped us off. My wife is disabled so we attempted to do curbside check in with the 3 bags we had with us. Remember "bags fly free." When i presented our boarding passes the attendent told me that our flight to Las Vegas had been cancelled. I asked about alternate flights and she typed and typed and typed and then turned her terminal over to another customer service rep who typed some more. She then faced me and said she could get me to Las Vegas late that night or to Houston, Hobby but she could not get me back to Cleveland before Tuesday. It was then Saturday. I asked if she could get me to Chicago, Pittsburg, Columbus, Buffalo anywhere in the Midwest and she told me no she could not that all flights were sold out. So here I am in the airport with three bags and my disabled wife and she cannot get me home until three (3) DAYS LATER. I ASKED ABOUT GETTING ON ANOTHER AIRLINE AND WAS TOLD THAT SOUTHWEST DOES NOT HAVE ANY AGREEMENTS WITH OTHER CARRIERS. I asked about whether Southwest would compenste me for my three days stay somewhere or to reimburse me to take another carrier. I was told no, they would not do that. I am upset that it was their fault that the planes were grounded, but I had to pay the penalty. They told me they would refund the cost of my return flights. It cost me $1500 to fly on Continental to get back to Cleveland at 6 am on monday morning plus $200 for a room in Las Vegas. (They got me to vegas at midnight on Saturday.) I complained to Southwest and they have told me that they would refund the legs I did not fly and sent my wife and I each a $100 voucher to fly on Southwest again. Oh I forgot to mention it cost me another $100 to put my bags on Continental. As you can see I am not a very happy customer even if "basgs do fly free"
I would welcome anyone elses comments. I saw tons of news articles about how they were on top of inspecting their palnes and making them safe but not q thing about the passengers they displaced and the hassles they went thru. If anyone heasr of a class action suit as a result plese let me know.