Southwest Airlines in a nationwide meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All my SW flights were fine. Flew Christmas Day and back yesterday. No problems at all.

At least acknowledge your luck! We made it home unscathed but I’m not smug to not admit my extreme good fortune.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AUS to BWI tomorrow. I’m feeling pretty confident. Same route has not been cancelled last couple days. Slightly annoyed at the relatives asking about it. I appreciate the concern but I am an adult and can figure out my flights. At least I think I can.

Flight was on time. When we landed at BWI in the afternoon of the 30th no flights appeared as cancelled on the boards.

[Anonymous]

It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:To those affected by SW and their incompetence, you have my sympathies. Weather happens, mixups happen, stuff happens, but Southwest and their efforts in the last week are not acceptable.

I live equal distance from BWI and Dulles- near Frederick, while I favor IAD and United, I have flown Southwest plenty and never had any serious issues. Like many, I don’t like their checkin and boarding process, but if the fare is a lot cheaper I’m ok with SW. This latest debacle with SW will probably change my mind when considering them. Also, for all their talk about “low fares,” it’s just talk. Their pricing is pretty similar to all the other carriers.

Maybe I’m flying different routes, but I live near IAD and almost always take SW out of DCA because United is usually $50-$100 per ticket more, and we have 4 tickets to buy.

^^^plus United like to change their flight schedule a bunch of times until the nonstop flight you bought no longer exists and your other options are limited. I agree SW screwed the pooch here but don’t act like United is a paragon of virtue.

Everyone’s experience is different but I have never had an issue with United. We’ve changed our tickets with ease, got credits when we canceled that were easy to use to rebook, no delays or cancellations . I almost always book United. Last week when the storm was forecast they offered free flight changes if you were worried your day/time would be impacted and could move it, which we did. I know this isn’t the case for everyone but truly United is our choice airline for these reasons.

There was definitely a period of time where every flight I booked on United got changed/altered so many times before I actually flew that the schedule was unrecognizable. I’d go from a 9am nonstop to an 8pm with a connection. And this happened over and over again to where we just gave up flying them.

Southwest screwed up this holiday season, no doubt, and I understand why their system of circular travel was most impacted by the storms and then completely destroyed when there were software problems. At the same time, with everyone screaming about Southwest's inefficient system, aren't we overlooking the benefits of that system, which in my experience, is fewer connections and more direct flights?

DP here. There are definitely benefits. I get why people are beyond pissed - I would be too - but it seems like they just need a major software overhaul. I hope they don’t get rid of point to point flights!

2 free luggages
Cancellations allowed even same day if flight for no fee
100s of tier I and tier II city routes, and covers the Caribbean countries
Newer fleet
Decent entertainment system.
Booking system and app have always been fine.
Clear prices, no hidden fees, seat fees, baggage fees, class fees, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were majorly impacted by Southwest's meltdown and had to drive home over a thousand miles because one flight was canceled and then another. But, we're not majorly angry. Only not thrilled by our experience. We will definitely fly Southwest again.

Our United return flight yesterday was offering us $500 per passenger voucher to give up your seat and “fly home another date”.

When would that be if 3 weeks of flights are overbooked for winter break??

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:To those affected by SW and their incompetence, you have my sympathies. Weather happens, mixups happen, stuff happens, but Southwest and their efforts in the last week are not acceptable.

I live equal distance from BWI and Dulles- near Frederick, while I favor IAD and United, I have flown Southwest plenty and never had any serious issues. Like many, I don’t like their checkin and boarding process, but if the fare is a lot cheaper I’m ok with SW. This latest debacle with SW will probably change my mind when considering them. Also, for all their talk about “low fares,” it’s just talk. Their pricing is pretty similar to all the other carriers.

Maybe I’m flying different routes, but I live near IAD and almost always take SW out of DCA because United is usually $50-$100 per ticket more, and we have 4 tickets to buy.

^^^plus United like to change their flight schedule a bunch of times until the nonstop flight you bought no longer exists and your other options are limited. I agree SW screwed the pooch here but don’t act like United is a paragon of virtue.

Everyone’s experience is different but I have never had an issue with United. We’ve changed our tickets with ease, got credits when we canceled that were easy to use to rebook, no delays or cancellations . I almost always book United. Last week when the storm was forecast they offered free flight changes if you were worried your day/time would be impacted and could move it, which we did. I know this isn’t the case for everyone but truly United is our choice airline for these reasons.

There was definitely a period of time where every flight I booked on United got changed/altered so many times before I actually flew that the schedule was unrecognizable. I’d go from a 9am nonstop to an 8pm with a connection. And this happened over and over again to where we just gave up flying them.

Southwest screwed up this holiday season, no doubt, and I understand why their system of circular travel was most impacted by the storms and then completely destroyed when there were software problems. At the same time, with everyone screaming about Southwest's inefficient system, aren't we overlooking the benefits of that system, which in my experience, is fewer connections and more direct flights?

DP here. There are definitely benefits. I get why people are beyond pissed - I would be too - but it seems like they just need a major software overhaul. I hope they don’t get rid of point to point flights!

That was a major factor in this breakdown. Point to point isn’t robust.

People use them because their flights are direct. If they move to hub and spoke, that advantage disappears

Well at least they’d have a flight. Pick your poison. Is direct worth this complete breakdown?

A breakdown that happens once every 50 years?! Yes, I’ll make that trade anytime. We fly southwest 3-4 trips a year out for DCA or BWI. It’s the only airliner direct to my hometown now, avoid Chicago and a 90 minute commute.

Maybe if we didn’t have kids and both didn’t work we’d use no direct flights via Chicago or Detroit or Atlanta or Cincinnati and double or triple the travel time. Woo hoo.

[Anonymous]

So sick of the Southwest apologists! It wasn’t the weather, it wasn’t point to point it was a systems failure.

The unions have been warning of the software problems for years, the last CEO admitted they had been underfunding software for years, the company filed a disclosure with the SEC admitting lack of modern software could cause financial problems. A similar thing happened on a smaller scale in the last couple years.

This whole idea that we have to put up with shitty service or we’ll get no service is just last stage capitalism BS. The company spent $9 billion buying its own stock instead of upgrading software.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

It’s absolutely ridiculous to look at an airline that had to cancel a week’s worth of flights that no one else had to cancel and not think it was in meltdown and I certainly hope they force Southwest to focus their business model more on flying planes than boosting the stock price so the CEO can take home $10 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

There’s a mess. At least some of it could have been prevented. Are you bothered that the media are reporting this as news? Are you bothered that with THOUSANDS of cancelled flights and tens of thousands of stranded passengers, the Department of Transportation is openly concerned?
I guess you’re more worried about investors than stranded passengers? Any other reason for misusing the word “bully” and trying to politicize an enormous mess that’s only partially related to the weather?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So sick of the Southwest apologists! It wasn’t the weather, it wasn’t point to point it was a systems failure.

The unions have been warning of the software problems for years, the last CEO admitted they had been underfunding software for years, the company filed a disclosure with the SEC admitting lack of modern software could cause financial problems. A similar thing happened on a smaller scale in the last couple years.

This whole idea that we have to put up with shitty service or we’ll get no service is just last stage capitalism BS. The company spent $9 billion buying its own stock instead of upgrading software.

Agree with all of this and yet still plan to use Southwest the majority of the time as it has the routes we use, and we have companion pass and lots of points. Once all that is gone we might reconsider but its been a very good experience for us these past 15 years or so as we've raised our family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

There’s a mess. At least some of it could have been prevented. Are you bothered that the media are reporting this as news? Are you bothered that with THOUSANDS of cancelled flights and tens of thousands of stranded passengers, the Department of Transportation is openly concerned?
I guess you’re more worried about investors than stranded passengers? Any other reason for misusing the word “bully” and trying to politicize an enormous mess that’s only partially related to the weather?

Let’s get them appointed politicians involved, that’ll fix it!

Agree that all that will result from that is less routes and higher costs for customers.

No, it doesn’t surprise me that a huge wind, cold, ice storm that covered 70% of the continental U.S. a couple days before Xmas resulted in cancelled flights and rebooking issues.

We also weren’t surprised that our route, which didn’t need a plane going from Boston to DCA and back all day long had more and longer issues than a long haul jet doing one 6-10 hour route every day or a shuttle runner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

There’s a mess. At least some of it could have been prevented. Are you bothered that the media are reporting this as news? Are you bothered that with THOUSANDS of cancelled flights and tens of thousands of stranded passengers, the Department of Transportation is openly concerned?
I guess you’re more worried about investors than stranded passengers? Any other reason for misusing the word “bully” and trying to politicize an enormous mess that’s only partially related to the weather?

Let’s get them appointed politicians involved, that’ll fix it!

Agree that all that will result from that is less routes and higher costs for customers.

No, it doesn’t surprise me that a huge wind, cold, ice storm that covered 70% of the continental U.S. a couple days before Xmas resulted in cancelled flights and rebooking issues.

We also weren’t surprised that our route, which didn’t need a plane going from Boston to DCA and back all day long had more and longer issues than a long haul jet doing one 6-10 hour route every day or a shuttle runner.

Ooh let’s trust businesses to take care of us because they know best— that’ll work out great!

No one is surprised there were delays Christmas weekend but no other airline had to cancel their entire schedule for a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So sick of the Southwest apologists! It wasn’t the weather, it wasn’t point to point it was a systems failure.

The unions have been warning of the software problems for years, the last CEO admitted they had been underfunding software for years, the company filed a disclosure with the SEC admitting lack of modern software could cause financial problems. A similar thing happened on a smaller scale in the last couple years.

This whole idea that we have to put up with shitty service or we’ll get no service is just last stage capitalism BS. The company spent $9 billion buying its own stock instead of upgrading software.

A new software system tracking 1000s of planes, the pilots and attendants, who each land in 10+ different cities each day would still not result in returning to flights as quickly as a shuttle hopper or long haul model. They need more time to reset after a disaster no store storm at a time off 100% booked flights. It was a perfect storm for them. They carry more domestic passengers daily than any other carrier and they offer more domestic cities than any national or regional airliner. Of course their jets and crew are scattered about.

But if Biden and Buttegieg want to create another domestic delta or United shuttle triangle play to big MSAs and let customers link to regional jets for cities less than 1m people, so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

There’s a mess. At least some of it could have been prevented. Are you bothered that the media are reporting this as news? Are you bothered that with THOUSANDS of cancelled flights and tens of thousands of stranded passengers, the Department of Transportation is openly concerned?
I guess you’re more worried about investors than stranded passengers? Any other reason for misusing the word “bully” and trying to politicize an enormous mess that’s only partially related to the weather?

Let’s get them appointed politicians involved, that’ll fix it!

Agree that all that will result from that is less routes and higher costs for customers.

No, it doesn’t surprise me that a huge wind, cold, ice storm that covered 70% of the continental U.S. a couple days before Xmas resulted in cancelled flights and rebooking issues.

We also weren’t surprised that our route, which didn’t need a plane going from Boston to DCA and back all day long had more and longer issues than a long haul jet doing one 6-10 hour route every day or a shuttle runner.

Ooh let’s trust businesses to take care of us because they know best— that’ll work out great!

No one is surprised there were delays Christmas weekend but no other airline had to cancel their entire schedule for a week.

Money grab!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s not in meltdown.

It’s a workhorse, short haul busy airliner that has a ton of offering. A single plane of there’s does 11+ routes a day, all different, not a shuttle repeat loop or long haul flight.
Thus when a “once in a generation” cold snap and storm come through during the busiest travel time of the year (Xmas winter break), it has to pause longer than other airliners that don’t have as many daily flights or passenger counts.

It’s too bad mass media and now the govt/buttegieg are jumping on the political Bully Southwest, Bully Texas, Bully the Midwest band wagon.

If they force SW to change their business model there will be less routes offered, less frequently, higher prices, baggage costs, and no last minute customer cancellations.

There’s a mess. At least some of it could have been prevented. Are you bothered that the media are reporting this as news? Are you bothered that with THOUSANDS of cancelled flights and tens of thousands of stranded passengers, the Department of Transportation is openly concerned?
I guess you’re more worried about investors than stranded passengers? Any other reason for misusing the word “bully” and trying to politicize an enormous mess that’s only partially related to the weather?

This happens once in awhile. Same thing happened to us with Hurricane Sandy. Nothing resumed quickly and planes were damaged. People got to Chicago in the hopes of getting in big summer flights and were denied. now imagine that happening to 2/3s the country on Dec 22nd.