I haven’t flown Southwest Airlines in close to 10 months but one of the main reasons I love the airline is due to their friendly customer service as well as free checked bags policy.

Good customer service goes a long way in leaving a good impression. They even used to give out a really cool perk to kids. (I’m not sure if they still do these days.)

I came across a tweet from the CEO and President of Southwest, Gary Kelly yesterday which made me laugh…

Like I mentioned above, Southwest still allows us to check bags for free. However, there is something that can not fly with the airline or be checked- hamsters!

Apparently a family brought their pet hamster along just to find out it wasn’t allowed onboard.

The Reinhardts and their son were going away for a month and wanted to bring their hamster Kylie along. When they went to check in for their flight from Dayton to Los Angeles they found out the bad news.

What to do, what to do?

I’m not sure that hamster boarding exists, especially not at the airport. That’s when Southwest Customer Service Supervisor Loren Stacy stepped in to help.

Loren offered to watch their pet hamster while they were away for a month!

Wow, talk about amazing customer service and going beyond your job description. Nuts About Southwest mentioned that Loren had a bit of a learning curve when it came to taking care of the hamster but got some help from her kids.

Find out more from Nuts About Southwest here.