Southwest Airlines in a nationwide meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Were you the PP who was repeatedly attacking the guy with a pregnant wife?

[Anonymous]

We just took southwest back home from Florida with no issues or delays…must have been the only ones

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Were you the PP who was repeatedly attacking the guy with a pregnant wife?

More than one of us told him he was an idiot to even attempt travel in the first place in his situation. Southwest imploding made it that much more awful but he had no business flying given the circumstances he shared. What's happened with the airline is a disaster of epic proportions but did some people set themselves up for problems? Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just took southwest back home from Florida with no issues or delays…must have been the only ones

Excellent and hopeful news! Was this your originally scheduled flight? Sounds like it, just curious. Let's hope we hear more stories like this in the next few days.

[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 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.

??? You are the one insulting someone over the amount of underwear they have. Time to rethink your life choices that led you to that moment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Were you the PP who was repeatedly attacking the guy with a pregnant wife?

More than one of us told him he was an idiot to even attempt travel in the first place in his situation. Southwest imploding made it that much more awful but he had no business flying given the circumstances he shared. What's happened with the airline is a disaster of epic proportions but did some people set themselves up for problems? Yes.

You have no idea about his circumstances. Seek an alternate outlet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was posting from from Dallas airport yesterday. It appears my posts were deleted.

I was flying American and my first flight was late and I missed my connection. I was flying first class. Customer Service immediately booked me on a flight a few hours later. Again, first class. While the American agent was printing my boarding pass she got a message on her screen advising her to call someone. She called and was told my seat sold for an amount significantly higher than I paid (I used points). She immediately told me this when she hung up. Her supervisor arrived and was not happy I knew this.
So the supervisor told me to hurry to another terminal, and that he would put me first on the standby list to get on that flight. I did just that and I was eighth on the standby list and did not get on the flight.
So how it works you go from one flight to the next and try to get on from the standby list. However, you can only put yourself on one standby list so you end up being on the end because you are put on it after you get rejected from the last flight.
I did end up getting on a flight at 3 PM. I had a window seat on the exit aisle next to two extremely obese men. When I went to the restroom, I was talking to two flight attendants sitting in the jumpseat about this nightmare. They said, oh, you were the passenger in 2A. They ended up bringing me a double vodka and cranberry juice. It was very nice of them and I appreciated the gesture. I learned a lot yesterday.
The not funny part was when we got off the plane I saw the guy who was sitting next to me was carrying 2 cats in some cat carryon bag. I am highly allergic to cats. The good news is the sore throat, itchy ears and runny nose was not a sign that I was getting sick. It was cats on a plane.

How did they know your seat assignment on an earlier flight? Weird.

Not weird if you frequently travel the same route. You get to know different flight attendants. I am 2A. That’s my seat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was posting from from Dallas airport yesterday. It appears my posts were deleted.

I was flying American and my first flight was late and I missed my connection. I was flying first class. Customer Service immediately booked me on a flight a few hours later. Again, first class. While the American agent was printing my boarding pass she got a message on her screen advising her to call someone. She called and was told my seat sold for an amount significantly higher than I paid (I used points). She immediately told me this when she hung up. Her supervisor arrived and was not happy I knew this.
So the supervisor told me to hurry to another terminal, and that he would put me first on the standby list to get on that flight. I did just that and I was eighth on the standby list and did not get on the flight.
So how it works you go from one flight to the next and try to get on from the standby list. However, you can only put yourself on one standby list so you end up being on the end because you are put on it after you get rejected from the last flight.
I did end up getting on a flight at 3 PM. I had a window seat on the exit aisle next to two extremely obese men. When I went to the restroom, I was talking to two flight attendants sitting in the jumpseat about this nightmare. They said, oh, you were the passenger in 2A. They ended up bringing me a double vodka and cranberry juice. It was very nice of them and I appreciated the gesture. I learned a lot yesterday.
The not funny part was when we got off the plane I saw the guy who was sitting next to me was carrying 2 cats in some cat carryon bag. I am highly allergic to cats. The good news is the sore throat, itchy ears and runny nose was not a sign that I was getting sick. It was cats on a plane.

How did they know your seat assignment on an earlier flight? Weird.

Not weird if you frequently travel the same route. You get to know different flight attendants. I am 2A. That’s my seat.

Seek help. This thread is about Southwest, which doesn't even assign seats. Not everything is about you -I'm not sure you realize that though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was posting from from Dallas airport yesterday. It appears my posts were deleted.

I was flying American and my first flight was late and I missed my connection. I was flying first class. Customer Service immediately booked me on a flight a few hours later. Again, first class. While the American agent was printing my boarding pass she got a message on her screen advising her to call someone. She called and was told my seat sold for an amount significantly higher than I paid (I used points). She immediately told me this when she hung up. Her supervisor arrived and was not happy I knew this.
So the supervisor told me to hurry to another terminal, and that he would put me first on the standby list to get on that flight. I did just that and I was eighth on the standby list and did not get on the flight.
So how it works you go from one flight to the next and try to get on from the standby list. However, you can only put yourself on one standby list so you end up being on the end because you are put on it after you get rejected from the last flight.
I did end up getting on a flight at 3 PM. I had a window seat on the exit aisle next to two extremely obese men. When I went to the restroom, I was talking to two flight attendants sitting in the jumpseat about this nightmare. They said, oh, you were the passenger in 2A. They ended up bringing me a double vodka and cranberry juice. It was very nice of them and I appreciated the gesture. I learned a lot yesterday.
The not funny part was when we got off the plane I saw the guy who was sitting next to me was carrying 2 cats in some cat carryon bag. I am highly allergic to cats. The good news is the sore throat, itchy ears and runny nose was not a sign that I was getting sick. It was cats on a plane.

How did they know your seat assignment on an earlier flight? Weird.

Not weird if you frequently travel the same route. You get to know different flight attendants. I am 2A. That’s my seat.

You frequently travel the same route with a connection. With points. And know all of the flight attendants on at least three of the different flights.

Totally plausible.

I am starting to see why your earlier post was deleted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am in Florida with return Southwest tickets on 1/2 to DC. Do you think I should rebook now on another airline? I need to be back to work and my kids in school on 1/3. What would you do?

Schools don't reopen on 1/3

Ours does.

+1

My DD’s private school does.

DCPS is back on the 3rd. I think MCPS and FCPS are too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven't read all the posts, but hope that Southwest can recover from this debacle. They are the only airline that allows a change without a fee and probably the only airline that does not impose a luggage charge.

This is part of the problem, their lower cost model means they don’t have the infrastructure the bigger airlines have. It worked right up until it broke.

SWA's net income for Q3 2022 (just 3 months) was $277 million. This was what they made after they paid for everything. There is no excuse for their infrastructure issues. Its not because they give free checked bags.

https://www.southwestairlinesinvestorrelations.com/news-and-events/news-releases/2022/10-27-2022-114539343

They should be reinvesting every cent of profit into infrastructure upgrades, but that’s really not that much money.

That money should be given to the people. Or the government.
A billion dollars a year of pure profit isn't that much money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was posting from from Dallas airport yesterday. It appears my posts were deleted.

I was flying American and my first flight was late and I missed my connection. I was flying first class. Customer Service immediately booked me on a flight a few hours later. Again, first class. While the American agent was printing my boarding pass she got a message on her screen advising her to call someone. She called and was told my seat sold for an amount significantly higher than I paid (I used points). She immediately told me this when she hung up. Her supervisor arrived and was not happy I knew this.
So the supervisor told me to hurry to another terminal, and that he would put me first on the standby list to get on that flight. I did just that and I was eighth on the standby list and did not get on the flight.
So how it works you go from one flight to the next and try to get on from the standby list. However, you can only put yourself on one standby list so you end up being on the end because you are put on it after you get rejected from the last flight.
I did end up getting on a flight at 3 PM. I had a window seat on the exit aisle next to two extremely obese men. When I went to the restroom, I was talking to two flight attendants sitting in the jumpseat about this nightmare. They said, oh, you were the passenger in 2A. They ended up bringing me a double vodka and cranberry juice. It was very nice of them and I appreciated the gesture. I learned a lot yesterday.
The not funny part was when we got off the plane I saw the guy who was sitting next to me was carrying 2 cats in some cat carryon bag. I am highly allergic to cats. The good news is the sore throat, itchy ears and runny nose was not a sign that I was getting sick. It was cats on a plane.

How did they know your seat assignment on an earlier flight? Weird.

Not weird if you frequently travel the same route. You get to know different flight attendants. I am 2A. That’s my seat.

Seek help. This thread is about Southwest, which doesn't even assign seats. Not everything is about you -I'm not sure you realize that though.

Wow. That got personal.

I was not flying on Southwest. I was flying on American. The best way to simplify a response is to say that there is a domino effect in airline travel when something like this happens.

[Anonymous]

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.

Yup! SW is the worst! The NYT article today said they suffer from thinkin they are "exceptional". Sounds Trumpy.

[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 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.

This is such a weird thing to pick on me for! I have about 10 pairs of underwear—why would I have more? I do wash weekly. I packed about 6, incliding most of my favorite ones. For my teen son, I packed about 10 pairs because he sweats like a teamster and I wanted him to be able to change pants. He owns about 7-10 pairs of athletic pants, and I packed most of them. (I didn’t park any of his dress pants but he definitely doesn’t want to wear those to school next week!).
I just think it’s really weird that you think people have dozens of pieces of underwear or casual pants. Why would I buy my teen son 15-20 track pants? Do people do that? It’s not a money issue but it just seems so wasteful and wouldn’t fit into his dresser anyway. I also packed all our long underwear — I’ve replaced some of it already but am waiting on whether to replace the expensive all-silk ones. My spouse is pissed because he packed both his swimsuits and he’s having trouble finding replacements at this time of year.
We have super cheap luggage so I’m hoping it’s not an attractive one for the luggage thiefs. Im wondering if lot of people will be getting “felll off the truck” presents for 3 Kings Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

This is such a weird thing to pick on me for! I have about 10 pairs of underwear—why would I have more? I do wash weekly. I packed about 6, incliding most of my favorite ones. For my teen son, I packed about 10 pairs because he sweats like a teamster and I wanted him to be able to change pants. He owns about 7-10 pairs of athletic pants, and I packed most of them. (I didn’t park any of his dress pants but he definitely doesn’t want to wear those to school next week!).
I just think it’s really weird that you think people have dozens of pieces of underwear or casual pants. Why would I buy my teen son 15-20 track pants? Do people do that? It’s not a money issue but it just seems so wasteful and wouldn’t fit into his dresser anyway. I also packed all our long underwear — I’ve replaced some of it already but am waiting on whether to replace the expensive all-silk ones. My spouse is pissed because he packed both his swimsuits and he’s having trouble finding replacements at this time of year.
We have super cheap luggage so I’m hoping it’s not an attractive one for the luggage thiefs. Im wondering if lot of people will be getting “felll off the truck” presents for 3 Kings Day.

Racist, much?