Southwest Airlines in a nationwide meltdown

[Anonymous]

Stranded with Southwest cancellation. Just booked Amtrak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these posts are just so classic DCUM. It's YOUR fault you are suffering and stranded in an airport due to an unprecedented confluence of circumstances during one of the busiest times of the year. You totally should have planned better.

This and the number of morons on the news who put their oh so "vital/life saving medications" in their check luggage. And are so distraught because they can't get their luggage. I don't know why the news casters don't call them out and use it as a PSA to say that is DUMB plan.

[Anonymous]

Don't rely on southwest. Take another airline. We just booked a new flight and had some flexibility so it wasn't a terrible price. We'll take the southwest refund.

[Anonymous]

Awesomeness at Dallas/Ft worth. I got on a flight. Im not in a flee bag motel. Went from standby to standby. Im in an exit row. Not my typical 2A.

Now you know…take a direct flight.

This is victory. Now bring me a double!

[Anonymous]

Some of these posts are just so classic DCUM. It's YOUR fault you are suffering and stranded in an airport due to an unprecedented confluence of circumstances during one of the busiest times of the year. You totally should have planned better.


This and the number of morons on the news who put their oh so "vital/life saving medications" in their check luggage. And are so distraught because they can't get their luggage. I don't know why the news casters don't call them out and use it as a PSA to say that is DUMB plan.

I took two additional days worth of my son's medication (which is a controlled substance, so we have limited ability to refill prescriptions in advance of running out) in my purse. I didn't have more of the meds because the pharmacy would not refill early. I packed no meds in luggage, but did not expect to be stranded for more than 2 days anywhere. Luckily, my son's doctor was able to connect me to a provider licensed in the state in which we have been stranded (and will continue to be until Thursday AM) who was willing to write for a few additional doses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should I be worried about our SW flight from BWI - Tampa on Friday, 12/30?

From CNN:

Southwest: Expect more days of cancellations
Southwest warns that this week’s cancellations and delays are expected to continue for several more days, with representatives saying the Dallas-based airline is planning to dial back its flight schedule in order to get operations on track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these posts are just so classic DCUM. It's YOUR fault you are suffering and stranded in an airport due to an unprecedented confluence of circumstances during one of the busiest times of the year. You totally should have planned better.

And if you had the nerve to travel to see family at Christmas without an extra $5000 (again, at Christmas) to easily dump on backup travel arrangements, well, that’s what you get for thinking you had any right to travel on a budget!

Ha! I’m actually surprised no one has posted this as serious feedback. Especially the energetics who will stay at the airport no matter how long they have to wait for another flight.

Someone did. It was a few pages back as an “unpopular opinion”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Some of these posts are just so classic DCUM. It's YOUR fault you are suffering and stranded in an airport due to an unprecedented confluence of circumstances during one of the busiest times of the year. You totally should have planned better.


This and the number of morons on the news who put their oh so "vital/life saving medications" in their check luggage. And are so distraught because they can't get their luggage. I don't know why the news casters don't call them out and use it as a PSA to say that is DUMB plan.

I took two additional days worth of my son's medication (which is a controlled substance, so we have limited ability to refill prescriptions in advance of running out) in my purse. I didn't have more of the meds because the pharmacy would not refill early. I packed no meds in luggage, but did not expect to be stranded for more than 2 days anywhere. Luckily, my son's doctor was able to connect me to a provider licensed in the state in which we have been stranded (and will continue to be until Thursday AM) who was willing to write for a few additional doses.

I said nothing about your scenario at all. I was specifically talking about people who put their meds in checked bag which you didn't do. You had bad luck, sorry about that.

I too take a controlled substance and travel all of the time. I peel of a dose once a week, typically Sunday evening and have a little stock pile that I use for emergency back up. I rotate through that bottle, so I don't have "stale" meds.

[Anonymous]

After a canceled flight from sea to bwi on Alaska on Sunday, I rebooked on sw for Thursday, then I panic booked another flight on United for Friday. Think I should even try to take the Thursday sw flight? Or just cancel it now and take the Friday flight. It’s an early morning flight and I’m solo with a toddler so I’d hate to get to sea and have it cancel then, which is what happened to us on Sunday. Ughhh I just want to get home!

[Anonymous]

I am no expert, but why can't Southwest just cancel every flight for one day, fly all the planes and crew to where they need to be for the next day, and then just resume normal operations? It seems like they are snowballing their problem by flying such a reduced schedule for so long. According to them the issue not weather (any more) or staffing, but just locations of planes and staff. So take a day to reset and move on. I don't get why that's so hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am no expert, but why can't Southwest just cancel every flight for one day, fly all the planes and crew to where they need to be for the next day, and then just resume normal operations? It seems like they are snowballing their problem by flying such a reduced schedule for so long. According to them the issue not weather (any more) or staffing, but just locations of planes and staff. So take a day to reset and move on. I don't get why that's so hard.

I don’t think they have the software to do this. Seriously it’s from 1999

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am no expert, but why can't Southwest just cancel every flight for one day, fly all the planes and crew to where they need to be for the next day, and then just resume normal operations? It seems like they are snowballing their problem by flying such a reduced schedule for so long. According to them the issue not weather (any more) or staffing, but just locations of planes and staff. So take a day to reset and move on. I don't get why that's so hard.

I think they literally do not know where everyone is, let alone where they need to be. It sounds like their system is literally done by having staff call into the office to have someone else work a spreadsheet that isn't shared, or something, to tell who is where and where to go next.

I would say it's unfathomable but I work for an organization that still makes us fill out paper timesheets like it's 1986 so I can't talk.

[Anonymous]

I wish I knew when they would get my luggage to me. They refused to fly us but then flew our luggage to our destination without us. We can’t go for weeks without our clothes.

[Anonymous]

I think people need to grow up. The storm didn't pop up out of nowhere. You knew the storm was coming you knew it was a busy travel period. You fly Southwest because of the price. The prices are typically cheaper because they don't have several extra aircraft like the legacy carriers, and they don't utilize the hub and spoke model like many of the legacy carriers. They also don't have the luxury of the smaller regional jet partners.

You flew when you knew there would be bad weather and a busy holiday week. Then you say they should have preemptively done more, but no can say what that more is.
Imagine the S show and S slinging that would be going on if they had preemptively canceled all flights and then the storm turned out not be as bad as was predicted. Which if we are Monday morning quarterbacking is what they should have done. And then everyone would be shedding tears about how they didn't get to see XYZ and Southwest ruined million of peoples holiday.

There system went down. Have you never dealt with a system outage at your work. The scale of the company is why it is on the news. If it was Jim Bobs Air Charter Service and he ran on SalesForce and that went down, it wouldn't be the top news story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people need to grow up. The storm didn't pop up out of nowhere. You knew the storm was coming you knew it was a busy travel period. You fly Southwest because of the price. The prices are typically cheaper because they don't have several extra aircraft like the legacy carriers, and they don't utilize the hub and spoke model like many of the legacy carriers. They also don't have the luxury of the smaller regional jet partners.

You flew when you knew there would be bad weather and a busy holiday week. Then you say they should have preemptively done more, but no can say what that more is.
Imagine the S show and S slinging that would be going on if they had preemptively canceled all flights and then the storm turned out not be as bad as was predicted. Which if we are Monday morning quarterbacking is what they should have done. And then everyone would be shedding tears about how they didn't get to see XYZ and Southwest ruined million of peoples holiday.

There system went down. Have you never dealt with a system outage at your work. The scale of the company is why it is on the news. If it was Jim Bobs Air Charter Service and he ran on SalesForce and that went down, it wouldn't be the top news story.

Clearly you haven’t read a single news article explaining the issues going on.