Southwest Airlines in a nationwide meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find the people defending this situation and blaming it on the travelers themselves to be mind boggling. I personally was not affected by it (one of the few SW flights that was not cancelled from my departing airport). However, it looked just terrible for others.

Probably someone who works in airline lobbying, a rightwing think tank opposed to regulation, or one of the “public affairs” firms hired by Southwest to shape public opinion. DC is full of these nasty ho’s with MBAs.

Nope don’t work in the industry at all, don’t work in PR, the opposite of right wing. Just a common sense adult.

I’m sorry you are struggling right now but this isn’t the place.

Wow,pp. You are gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find the people defending this situation and blaming it on the travelers themselves to be mind boggling. I personally was not affected by it (one of the few SW flights that was not cancelled from my departing airport). However, it looked just terrible for others.

Probably someone who works in airline lobbying, a rightwing think tank opposed to regulation, or one of the “public affairs” firms hired by Southwest to shape public opinion. DC is full of these nasty ho’s with MBAs.

Nope don’t work in the industry at all, don’t work in PR, the opposite of right wing. Just a common sense adult.

I’m sorry you are struggling right now but this isn’t the place.

Wow,pp. You are gross.

Huh? This isn’t the forum for PP to work through her issues. She should get a therapist.

You are projecting. The PP has not indicated any sort of mental health issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find the people defending this situation and blaming it on the travelers themselves to be mind boggling. I personally was not affected by it (one of the few SW flights that was not cancelled from my departing airport). However, it looked just terrible for others.

Probably someone who works in airline lobbying, a rightwing think tank opposed to regulation, or one of the “public affairs” firms hired by Southwest to shape public opinion. DC is full of these nasty ho’s with MBAs.

Nope don’t work in the industry at all, don’t work in PR, the opposite of right wing. Just a common sense adult.

I’m sorry you are struggling right now but this isn’t the place.

Wow,pp. You are gross.

Huh? This isn’t the forum for PP to work through her issues. She should get a therapist.

You are projecting. The PP has not indicated any sort of mental health issue.

If PP has been aggressively blaming travelers page after page, then yeah. That’s an indication.

[Anonymous]

NP: is there any order to the bag collection? I would be worried that any random person could just show up at an airport and take bags. to be fair I've always wondered about this but it seems like an opportunity for theft to have all of those bags out there with the owners miles away. does anyone check ID's or anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
If PP has been aggressively blaming travelers page after page, then yeah. That’s an indication.

DP. You do realize there are multiple people saying that while SW has the overall blame, some of these people are contributing to their own angst. I have a colleague headed to the airport tomorrow to catch his SW flight for a weekend vacation. WHY? Why would you knowingly attempt to start a trip on an airline that is cancelling 70% of its flights? Stay home, or don't dare complain on Monday when you can't get back home.

It's a disaster but to the greatest extent that individuals can make the best choices for their own situations that would help a tiny bit. The guy with the pregnant wife and toddler who even attempted to travel during a timeframe where weather was shutting down airports and disrupting flights on all airlines is an example. Huge potential for flight disruptions even before the SW meltdown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP: is there any order to the bag collection? I would be worried that any random person could just show up at an airport and take bags. to be fair I've always wondered about this but it seems like an opportunity for theft to have all of those bags out there with the owners miles away. does anyone check ID's or anything?

BRB, I'm going to go pick up a couple of new Tumi suitcases!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several ways in which the FU is different from normal weather delays:

1) SWA software collapse. We were sitting in BWI for hours watching a slow motion disaster. One flight attendant was stuck somewhere. They found a replacement flight attendant. They were then on the phone for hours trying to reach someone at SWA to update the crew record to put the replacement attendant on. As my teenager said, she could write the code to automate that in a day. It’s ridiculous that they did not have software to handle this.

2) we were on a flight with tickets purchased months ago. No weather issues, no crew issues, no mechanical issues. They bumped my children from that flight to accommodate A list preferred people from other flights that had been cancelled. I e never heard of an airline bumping passengers just because they want to accommodate other passengers. Ironically, my husband and I are A list preferred (so did not get bumped but couldn’t leave our kids standing in the airport). I thought this policy was absolutely outrageous and I’ve never heard of that happening before. They also rank the stand by list by whether you have status so there was no way for the kids to get off stand by.

3) also oddly they loaded our luggage even though we had been bumped from the flight hours before the plane took off. Most airlines have the capacity to pull luggage in that circumstance — I assume this is another failing of the SW software. I thought there was an FAA rule that the luggage couldn’t fly if the person wasn’t checked in for the flight.

What did you ulitmately do PP? Your situation is especially maddening because your flight actually took off.

We just came home but I’m upset about our luggage which they sent to our destination and I has been sitting at the carousel for days now. (Some nice lady there sent us a picture of one bag! But we have no way to get it of course). There is stuff in there the kids need for school plus Christmas presents they got that are now sold out, etc. im seeing people online saying it will be a month or two before we get our stuff. I just don’t know whether to go out and buy whole new wardrobes for everyone. Unfortunately we were going to a cold weather destination so it’s all our winter stuff in the bags.

Your entire winter wardrobe is in those bags?

Not mine, although it is most of my underwear and my casual stuff like leggings. (A weeks worth of underwear is basically my underwear supply!). For my kids, it is a bit worse as their wardrobes are not so deep. So if they lose a couple hoodies and half a dozen joggers/jeans that is most of their wardrobe. Another teen packed all her sports bras and her sneakers. And our snow boots are in the checked luggage so trying to decide how long we can go without snow boots. And their snow pants which they need for an upcoming school trip. If we had a better sense of how long it realistically would be, I would be able to plan better. This week is not a big deal but we really do need a lot of it for next week and the week after.
A weeks worth of clothing is a lot of stuff!

This is mind boggling. You have 7 pieces of underwear? And your kiods have *less* than that? A couple of hoodies is your kids' entire wardrobe?

Next year, skip the flight over Christmas, and buy your family some clothes, FFS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several ways in which the FU is different from normal weather delays:

1) SWA software collapse. We were sitting in BWI for hours watching a slow motion disaster. One flight attendant was stuck somewhere. They found a replacement flight attendant. They were then on the phone for hours trying to reach someone at SWA to update the crew record to put the replacement attendant on. As my teenager said, she could write the code to automate that in a day. It’s ridiculous that they did not have software to handle this.

2) we were on a flight with tickets purchased months ago. No weather issues, no crew issues, no mechanical issues. They bumped my children from that flight to accommodate A list preferred people from other flights that had been cancelled. I e never heard of an airline bumping passengers just because they want to accommodate other passengers. Ironically, my husband and I are A list preferred (so did not get bumped but couldn’t leave our kids standing in the airport). I thought this policy was absolutely outrageous and I’ve never heard of that happening before. They also rank the stand by list by whether you have status so there was no way for the kids to get off stand by.

3) also oddly they loaded our luggage even though we had been bumped from the flight hours before the plane took off. Most airlines have the capacity to pull luggage in that circumstance — I assume this is another failing of the SW software. I thought there was an FAA rule that the luggage couldn’t fly if the person wasn’t checked in for the flight.

What did you ulitmately do PP? Your situation is especially maddening because your flight actually took off.

We just came home but I’m upset about our luggage which they sent to our destination and I has been sitting at the carousel for days now. (Some nice lady there sent us a picture of one bag! But we have no way to get it of course). There is stuff in there the kids need for school plus Christmas presents they got that are now sold out, etc. im seeing people online saying it will be a month or two before we get our stuff. I just don’t know whether to go out and buy whole new wardrobes for everyone. Unfortunately we were going to a cold weather destination so it’s all our winter stuff in the bags.

Your entire winter wardrobe is in those bags?

Not mine, although it is most of my underwear and my casual stuff like leggings. (A weeks worth of underwear is basically my underwear supply!). For my kids, it is a bit worse as their wardrobes are not so deep. So if they lose a couple hoodies and half a dozen joggers/jeans that is most of their wardrobe. Another teen packed all her sports bras and her sneakers. And our snow boots are in the checked luggage so trying to decide how long we can go without snow boots. And their snow pants which they need for an upcoming school trip. If we had a better sense of how long it realistically would be, I would be able to plan better. This week is not a big deal but we really do need a lot of it for next week and the week after.
A weeks worth of clothing is a lot of stuff!

This is mind boggling. You have 7 pieces of underwear? And your kiods have *less* than that? A couple of hoodies is your kids' entire wardrobe?

Next year, skip the flight over Christmas, and buy your family some clothes, FFS.

DP but bras are freaking expensive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several ways in which the FU is different from normal weather delays:

1) SWA software collapse. We were sitting in BWI for hours watching a slow motion disaster. One flight attendant was stuck somewhere. They found a replacement flight attendant. They were then on the phone for hours trying to reach someone at SWA to update the crew record to put the replacement attendant on. As my teenager said, she could write the code to automate that in a day. It’s ridiculous that they did not have software to handle this.

2) we were on a flight with tickets purchased months ago. No weather issues, no crew issues, no mechanical issues. They bumped my children from that flight to accommodate A list preferred people from other flights that had been cancelled. I e never heard of an airline bumping passengers just because they want to accommodate other passengers. Ironically, my husband and I are A list preferred (so did not get bumped but couldn’t leave our kids standing in the airport). I thought this policy was absolutely outrageous and I’ve never heard of that happening before. They also rank the stand by list by whether you have status so there was no way for the kids to get off stand by.

3) also oddly they loaded our luggage even though we had been bumped from the flight hours before the plane took off. Most airlines have the capacity to pull luggage in that circumstance — I assume this is another failing of the SW software. I thought there was an FAA rule that the luggage couldn’t fly if the person wasn’t checked in for the flight.

What did you ulitmately do PP? Your situation is especially maddening because your flight actually took off.

We just came home but I’m upset about our luggage which they sent to our destination and I has been sitting at the carousel for days now. (Some nice lady there sent us a picture of one bag! But we have no way to get it of course). There is stuff in there the kids need for school plus Christmas presents they got that are now sold out, etc. im seeing people online saying it will be a month or two before we get our stuff. I just don’t know whether to go out and buy whole new wardrobes for everyone. Unfortunately we were going to a cold weather destination so it’s all our winter stuff in the bags.

Your entire winter wardrobe is in those bags?

Not mine, although it is most of my underwear and my casual stuff like leggings. (A weeks worth of underwear is basically my underwear supply!). For my kids, it is a bit worse as their wardrobes are not so deep. So if they lose a couple hoodies and half a dozen joggers/jeans that is most of their wardrobe. Another teen packed all her sports bras and her sneakers. And our snow boots are in the checked luggage so trying to decide how long we can go without snow boots. And their snow pants which they need for an upcoming school trip. If we had a better sense of how long it realistically would be, I would be able to plan better. This week is not a big deal but we really do need a lot of it for next week and the week after.
A weeks worth of clothing is a lot of stuff!

This is mind boggling. You have 7 pieces of underwear? And your kiods have *less* than that? A couple of hoodies is your kids' entire wardrobe?

Next year, skip the flight over Christmas, and buy your family some clothes, FFS.

DP but bras are freaking expensive!

Get yourself to Nordstrom rack where brand name bras are $35 or less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several ways in which the FU is different from normal weather delays:

1) SWA software collapse. We were sitting in BWI for hours watching a slow motion disaster. One flight attendant was stuck somewhere. They found a replacement flight attendant. They were then on the phone for hours trying to reach someone at SWA to update the crew record to put the replacement attendant on. As my teenager said, she could write the code to automate that in a day. It’s ridiculous that they did not have software to handle this.

2) we were on a flight with tickets purchased months ago. No weather issues, no crew issues, no mechanical issues. They bumped my children from that flight to accommodate A list preferred people from other flights that had been cancelled. I e never heard of an airline bumping passengers just because they want to accommodate other passengers. Ironically, my husband and I are A list preferred (so did not get bumped but couldn’t leave our kids standing in the airport). I thought this policy was absolutely outrageous and I’ve never heard of that happening before. They also rank the stand by list by whether you have status so there was no way for the kids to get off stand by.

3) also oddly they loaded our luggage even though we had been bumped from the flight hours before the plane took off. Most airlines have the capacity to pull luggage in that circumstance — I assume this is another failing of the SW software. I thought there was an FAA rule that the luggage couldn’t fly if the person wasn’t checked in for the flight.

What did you ulitmately do PP? Your situation is especially maddening because your flight actually took off.

We just came home but I’m upset about our luggage which they sent to our destination and I has been sitting at the carousel for days now. (Some nice lady there sent us a picture of one bag! But we have no way to get it of course). There is stuff in there the kids need for school plus Christmas presents they got that are now sold out, etc. im seeing people online saying it will be a month or two before we get our stuff. I just don’t know whether to go out and buy whole new wardrobes for everyone. Unfortunately we were going to a cold weather destination so it’s all our winter stuff in the bags.

Your entire winter wardrobe is in those bags?

Not mine, although it is most of my underwear and my casual stuff like leggings. (A weeks worth of underwear is basically my underwear supply!). For my kids, it is a bit worse as their wardrobes are not so deep. So if they lose a couple hoodies and half a dozen joggers/jeans that is most of their wardrobe. Another teen packed all her sports bras and her sneakers. And our snow boots are in the checked luggage so trying to decide how long we can go without snow boots. And their snow pants which they need for an upcoming school trip. If we had a better sense of how long it realistically would be, I would be able to plan better. This week is not a big deal but we really do need a lot of it for next week and the week after.
A weeks worth of clothing is a lot of stuff!

This is mind boggling. You have 7 pieces of underwear? And your kiods have *less* than that? A couple of hoodies is your kids' entire wardrobe?

Next year, skip the flight over Christmas, and buy your family some clothes, FFS.

DP here. Is this the new a-hole response because the other one got boring? I would be totally bummed to lose a week’s worth of my favorite stuff because most people tend to take their favorite clothes on vacation with them. Plus, pp explained all of the things in the bags they only have one of, like heavy coats, snow pants and boots. You are just being a jerk on purpose. Sorry you can’t afford travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several ways in which the FU is different from normal weather delays:

1) SWA software collapse. We were sitting in BWI for hours watching a slow motion disaster. One flight attendant was stuck somewhere. They found a replacement flight attendant. They were then on the phone for hours trying to reach someone at SWA to update the crew record to put the replacement attendant on. As my teenager said, she could write the code to automate that in a day. It’s ridiculous that they did not have software to handle this.

2) we were on a flight with tickets purchased months ago. No weather issues, no crew issues, no mechanical issues. They bumped my children from that flight to accommodate A list preferred people from other flights that had been cancelled. I e never heard of an airline bumping passengers just because they want to accommodate other passengers. Ironically, my husband and I are A list preferred (so did not get bumped but couldn’t leave our kids standing in the airport). I thought this policy was absolutely outrageous and I’ve never heard of that happening before. They also rank the stand by list by whether you have status so there was no way for the kids to get off stand by.

3) also oddly they loaded our luggage even though we had been bumped from the flight hours before the plane took off. Most airlines have the capacity to pull luggage in that circumstance — I assume this is another failing of the SW software. I thought there was an FAA rule that the luggage couldn’t fly if the person wasn’t checked in for the flight.

What did you ulitmately do PP? Your situation is especially maddening because your flight actually took off.

We just came home but I’m upset about our luggage which they sent to our destination and I has been sitting at the carousel for days now. (Some nice lady there sent us a picture of one bag! But we have no way to get it of course). There is stuff in there the kids need for school plus Christmas presents they got that are now sold out, etc. im seeing people online saying it will be a month or two before we get our stuff. I just don’t know whether to go out and buy whole new wardrobes for everyone. Unfortunately we were going to a cold weather destination so it’s all our winter stuff in the bags.

Your entire winter wardrobe is in those bags?

Not mine, although it is most of my underwear and my casual stuff like leggings. (A weeks worth of underwear is basically my underwear supply!). For my kids, it is a bit worse as their wardrobes are not so deep. So if they lose a couple hoodies and half a dozen joggers/jeans that is most of their wardrobe. Another teen packed all her sports bras and her sneakers. And our snow boots are in the checked luggage so trying to decide how long we can go without snow boots. And their snow pants which they need for an upcoming school trip. If we had a better sense of how long it realistically would be, I would be able to plan better. This week is not a big deal but we really do need a lot of it for next week and the week after.
A weeks worth of clothing is a lot of stuff!

This is mind boggling. You have 7 pieces of underwear? And your kiods have *less* than that? A couple of hoodies is your kids' entire wardrobe?

Next year, skip the flight over Christmas, and buy your family some clothes, FFS.

DP but bras are freaking expensive!

Get yourself to Nordstrom rack where brand name bras are $35 or less.

Go away troll.

[Anonymous]

I mean if you're either at a place and trying to get home or you have travel and you don't have the financial resources to replace the flights, of course you're just going to hope you're in the 30%.

Yes, I'd probably just try to book another flight. But I also realize that's because I have the money to do so. Most people don't.

Don't blame people for trying to get what they paid for and being unable to just drop hundreds or thousands on a replacement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean if you're either at a place and trying to get home or you have travel and you don't have the financial resources to replace the flights, of course you're just going to hope you're in the 30%.

Yes, I'd probably just try to book another flight. But I also realize that's because I have the money to do so. Most people don't.

Don't blame people for trying to get what they paid for and being unable to just drop hundreds or thousands on a replacement.

Yes. Obviously 30-40% of people are getting out. We flew home 12/24. 2/3 of the departure board was cancellations. By some crazy stroke of luck, our flight departed on time and without issue, other than we had a pilot flying in the cabin, and at the last second he got off and said he was being sent somewhere else and a different pilot took his seat. We knew we were lucky but it was before we understood the full extent of what was happening around the country. I feel more lucky everyday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean if you're either at a place and trying to get home or you have travel and you don't have the financial resources to replace the flights, of course you're just going to hope you're in the 30%.

Yes, I'd probably just try to book another flight. But I also realize that's because I have the money to do so. Most people don't.

Don't blame people for trying to get what they paid for and being unable to just drop hundreds or thousands on a replacement.

Yes. Obviously 30-40% of people are getting out. We flew home 12/24. 2/3 of the departure board was cancellations. By some crazy stroke of luck, our flight departed on time and without issue, other than we had a pilot flying in the cabin, and at the last second he got off and said he was being sent somewhere else and a different pilot took his seat. We knew we were lucky but it was before we understood the full extent of what was happening around the country. I feel more lucky everyday.

+1

We feel so lucky. The flight before us and the flight after were both cancelled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are several ways in which the FU is different from normal weather delays:

1) SWA software collapse. We were sitting in BWI for hours watching a slow motion disaster. One flight attendant was stuck somewhere. They found a replacement flight attendant. They were then on the phone for hours trying to reach someone at SWA to update the crew record to put the replacement attendant on. As my teenager said, she could write the code to automate that in a day. It’s ridiculous that they did not have software to handle this.

2) we were on a flight with tickets purchased months ago. No weather issues, no crew issues, no mechanical issues. They bumped my children from that flight to accommodate A list preferred people from other flights that had been cancelled. I e never heard of an airline bumping passengers just because they want to accommodate other passengers. Ironically, my husband and I are A list preferred (so did not get bumped but couldn’t leave our kids standing in the airport). I thought this policy was absolutely outrageous and I’ve never heard of that happening before. They also rank the stand by list by whether you have status so there was no way for the kids to get off stand by.

3) also oddly they loaded our luggage even though we had been bumped from the flight hours before the plane took off. Most airlines have the capacity to pull luggage in that circumstance — I assume this is another failing of the SW software. I thought there was an FAA rule that the luggage couldn’t fly if the person wasn’t checked in for the flight.

What did you ulitmately do PP? Your situation is especially maddening because your flight actually took off.

We just came home but I’m upset about our luggage which they sent to our destination and I has been sitting at the carousel for days now. (Some nice lady there sent us a picture of one bag! But we have no way to get it of course). There is stuff in there the kids need for school plus Christmas presents they got that are now sold out, etc. im seeing people online saying it will be a month or two before we get our stuff. I just don’t know whether to go out and buy whole new wardrobes for everyone. Unfortunately we were going to a cold weather destination so it’s all our winter stuff in the bags.

Your entire winter wardrobe is in those bags?

Not mine, although it is most of my underwear and my casual stuff like leggings. (A weeks worth of underwear is basically my underwear supply!). For my kids, it is a bit worse as their wardrobes are not so deep. So if they lose a couple hoodies and half a dozen joggers/jeans that is most of their wardrobe. Another teen packed all her sports bras and her sneakers. And our snow boots are in the checked luggage so trying to decide how long we can go without snow boots. And their snow pants which they need for an upcoming school trip. If we had a better sense of how long it realistically would be, I would be able to plan better. This week is not a big deal but we really do need a lot of it for next week and the week after.
A weeks worth of clothing is a lot of stuff!

This is mind boggling. You have 7 pieces of underwear? And your kiods have *less* than that? A couple of hoodies is your kids' entire wardrobe?

Next year, skip the flight over Christmas, and buy your family some clothes, FFS.

DP here. Is this the new a-hole response because the other one got boring? I would be totally bummed to lose a week’s worth of my favorite stuff because most people tend to take their favorite clothes on vacation with them. Plus, pp explained all of the things in the bags they only have one of, like heavy coats, snow pants and boots. You are just being a jerk on purpose. Sorry you can’t afford travel.

I made no mention of favorite clothes, being bummed or winter equipment. The PP said nearly her entire stash of underwear was in the checked bags, and her kids had even less than that. That is, frankly, nuts. You should read more carefully before throwing insults around.