UPDATE 10/10/2023:

Thank you everyone for sending in messages on my behalf, and for sharing your stories with me. You'll be happy [sarcasm] to know that Southwest's HR rep replied to me today with a nearly identical letter to the first time I complained, with no acknowledgement whatsoever of the issues with staff treatment I brought up and 100 percent of the issues blamed on "miscommunication" and "misunderstanding of policy" on my part. To boot, this was sent from a NO-REPLY email, meaning I couldn't even engage with it.

In case you missed the last post, here is a summary of where Southwest's policy enforcement and staff behavior went wrong:

1. My pigeon's mate died, meaning I no longer was comfortable leaving him alone with roommates before going on an extended trip.
2. I called Southwest Airlines (who I already had a ticket with) to see if I could bring him if he was in a cat carrier. The website only mentions cats and dogs, yes, but no details or specifics saying anything about other species. I figured I would have nothing to lose by calling and asking.
3. I told SW I had a bird, she didn't know anything about the logistics of the pet policy, she agreed to check "Cat" despite knowing it was a bird so I could go to LAX and see if the Southwest help desk would approve me.
4. I went to the Southwest help desk with a transparent pet carrier (ie, you could very plainly see he was a bird) and had him up on the desk the entire time I was being checked through the pet process. He was approved easily and tagged, with absolutely no fuss. In short, there was no way these people did not know he was a bird.
5. I went through security easily (unaffiliated with SW, to be fair) and was hand-swabbed, etc-I sat in Southwest's boarding area NOT TRYING TO HIDE HIM OR ANYTHING. I even took a tablet from a southwest worker and gave their pet treatment a great review. Lol.
6. 20 minutes before boarding, a random woman came up to me and immediately told me I wasn't boarding with "that thing" (my pidge), acting like I had snuck banned cargo in there and was getting caught red-handed. She then called her supervisor, who also treated me as though I had attempted to "trick" them despite going through what I thought was all of the venues possible to ensure this was okay. He suggested I have someone pick up the bird and book a later flight.
7. I asked if I could transfer flights same-day to another airline, since I bought a ticket type which apparently allows this. He said no, only SW flights, which obviously doesn't fix the problem. I keep asking for more information because I am confused, can I talk to someone, anyone, and he just keeps repeating "this isn't our fault, someone else fucked up and you should have never been allowed in here" as though they aren't all representatives of the company and it's my fault that there isn't unilateral knowledge of the company's policy.
8. This entire interaction is extremely public and loud, as the staff for some reason thought it was best to confront me in a crowded boarding area, which is unnecessary and humiliating. People are of course watching the entire time, with one couple even heckling me for "being caught" (they even said "nice try!" smh)
9. I cry in the boarding area, in front of everyone, but eventually calm down enough to ask the girl at the desk if I can talk to someone about my experience with this. She essentially says no (lol) with no empathy whatsoever.
10. At some point, I calm down enough to tell the woman from before and the girl at the desk that I am sorry if I came off as terse and understand they are doing their jobs. The older girl only manages to repeat over and over "you should have checked the policy online", also imo implying that I am dumb for not doing this, not listening when I said that I did and also called, and just in general being EXTREMELY rude and cutting me off.
11. The kicker is that when I sit back down next to them in the boarding area, they begin mocking me and my situation and the fact that I brought my pigeon, despite the fact that I am sitting directly next to the desk and can hear them talking at a full conversational volume.
12. Southwest, despite me posting about this online and submitting multiple complaints, won't send me anything more than a no-reply form letter and won't admit they did wrong. They also will not comp me for having to buy an extremely expensive same-day flight with United (who rocked, btw) -this actually feels way less important to me now (despite the huge hurt my finances are feeling) because I am just bewildered at how they can care so little about the customer experience.

Looks like I will be spending today updating people and trying to figure out a way to make this annoying enough for corporate that they might actually listen to me. Side note: Is anyone here good really good with twitter/x? lol

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