I’ve always regarded Southwest Airlines as being something of a joke when it comes to airlines. This is without ever having actually flown with them. The flight crews look like they’re all going to go golfing rather than operate an airplane, and fighting for your seat just doesn’t seem right.

But they’ve been right up there with Jet Blue in airline ratings lately. Highest on-time percentage, highest customer satisfaction, etc, etc. (I’ll take a moment to point out that my old friends at ASA ranked absolute bottom of the list in 2003 in every category, except number of customer complaints.)

So Dad’s flying to Delaware to see Kelsey in a play up there, and he offered to buy me a plane ticket to go along with him. He was flying from Nashville, through Midway to Philadelphia on Southwest. We decided I’d get a Southwest ticket through Midway as well, and we’d be on the same flight to PHL.

I went to the Southwest website, selected the two $99 fares (which don’t come to a total of $198 as advertised, but rather to a total of $240 once taxes are added) and entered my credit card information. A few seconds later I got a confirmation email which listed me as being Berck Nachzeng. I clearly entered my name incorrectly, and only quickly glanced over the “Is this right?” page. So now I was going to have to call them.

I knew I was in for some unpleasantness because Joanna recently went through a similar ordeal. When her Dad got us plane tickets to go to Virginia, he’d gotten a ticket for “Joanna Nachzen”. This would have been fine, except that Joanna had not (and still has not) legally changed her name. (Maybe she’s waiting to see if it sticks?) Knowing that it would be nearly impossible for her travel without a photo-ID that matched her ticket, she set about trying to change it. Everyone she talked to at Delta insisted that would cost $75. Eventually Robert, who can apparently convince anyone of anything just by being nice, called and convinced them to change it without charging the $75.

So, I clicked on the “Contact Southwest Airlines” button on their webpage and dialed the number for reservations, which indicated it was available 24 hours a day.

The line rang, and then the strangest thing happened: someone answered. In all my dealings with airlines, I’ve never managed to speak to anyone without first going through much wait and hassle. Shocked and stunned, I explained the situation to the guy at the other end.

“Oh boy.. You’re out of luck. I don’t think you’ll be able to fly anywhere!”

Surprised, but knowing that Southwest encourages humor on the part of its employees, I played along.

“Oh, dear…”

“Just kidding, give me your confirmation number and I’ll fix it.”

With less than a 90 second telephone call, the problem was solved, and I got a new confirmation email within the next 90 seconds, displaying my correct name.

So far I’m impressed with Southwest.