Southwest Airlines in a nationwide meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a flight on southwest in 10 days. Should I try changing it?

Yes, change it. They cannot overhaul their computer system in ten days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a flight on southwest in 10 days. Should I try changing it?

Yes.

[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.

One role of our government is consumer protection. Not sure how much they can force SW to do, but hopefully the attention will force SW to upgrade their IT systems. I think it’s also worth taking a look at their routing system. Maybe a modified hub/spoke would work better. Or at a minimum a better contingency plan for mass cancellations. They’ve neglected their operations for a long time - while expanding - and consumers have suffered.

And this was way beyond weather delays. Most airlines had a lot of delays/cancellations - for a few days. SW took significantly longer to rebound. Have they gotten everyone home yet? Even if the planes are flying again doesn’t mean that passengers (and luggage) are where they need to be.

Good luck with depending on politicians to protect us from airline abuse. They’re so deep in cahoots with airline lobbyists, that it’s a joke.

Hey, where can we see what exactly SW did with the 7.2 BILLION dollars (of OUR tax dollars) Congress doled out to SW?

[Anonymous]

Honestly those who can get refunds should, then purchase tickets on another airline. SW needs to completely update their computer systems. We don't know how far along that process is, but odds are it'll be a while until that's live and functioning correctly.

[Anonymous]

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?

My flight this evening out of Fort Lauderdale to BWI was cancelled 😕

[Anonymous]

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?

My flight this evening out of Fort Lauderdale to BWI was cancelled 😕

Find out WHY.

Was it because so many people canceled it didn’t make sense to run the route? Delta, AA, UAL and jet blue do that all the time in midday, half full flights. They roll you to a later one, it sux.

[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.

One role of our government is consumer protection. Not sure how much they can force SW to do, but hopefully the attention will force SW to upgrade their IT systems. I think it’s also worth taking a look at their routing system. Maybe a modified hub/spoke would work better. Or at a minimum a better contingency plan for mass cancellations. They’ve neglected their operations for a long time - while expanding - and consumers have suffered.

And this was way beyond weather delays. Most airlines had a lot of delays/cancellations - for a few days. SW took significantly longer to rebound. Have they gotten everyone home yet? Even if the planes are flying again doesn’t mean that passengers (and luggage) are where they need to be.

It’s like a bank run the last few days. Mass media tells you to go pull your money out before it’s gone, so everyone does and the money is gone.
Mass media tells you to cancel your SWA flight, why not- no fees, full credit, can cancel any time, so everyone does and the flight gets pulled.

[Anonymous]

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?

My flight this evening out of Fort Lauderdale to BWI was cancelled 😕

Find out WHY.

Was it because so many people canceled it didn’t make sense to run the route? Delta, AA, UAL and jet blue do that all the time in midday, half full flights. They roll you to a later one, it sux.

This is probably why.

https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/1610022277491425282

[Anonymous]

Whew, I am so grateful that we booked on a different airline this year, we often fly southwest but flights were more expensive when we booked over the summer. We met up with family at a neutral location the day after Christmas and they were all booked on southwest and had flights cancelled and had to drive instead. Would have been a longer drive for us with 2 kids so I’m glad we didn’t have to do that! What a mess. My ILs had to bribe a southwest agent to get their bags back after their flight was cancelled, they just had all the bags on the back and weren’t bringing them out unless people offered to pay them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

One role of our government is consumer protection. Not sure how much they can force SW to do, but hopefully the attention will force SW to upgrade their IT systems. I think it’s also worth taking a look at their routing system. Maybe a modified hub/spoke would work better. Or at a minimum a better contingency plan for mass cancellations. They’ve neglected their operations for a long time - while expanding - and consumers have suffered.

And this was way beyond weather delays. Most airlines had a lot of delays/cancellations - for a few days. SW took significantly longer to rebound. Have they gotten everyone home yet? Even if the planes are flying again doesn’t mean that passengers (and luggage) are where they need to be.

It’s like a bank run the last few days. Mass media tells you to go pull your money out before it’s gone, so everyone does and the money is gone.
Mass media tells you to cancel your SWA flight, why not- no fees, full credit, can cancel any time, so everyone does and the flight gets pulled.

No, most of the flights were cancelled when people had few other options to rebook elsewhere. That is not the reason for the mass cancellation on the 26th, most people didn’t even know what was going on yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a flight on southwest in 10 days. Should I try changing it?

Yes.

\

what about a kid flying back to school on 1/19?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a flight on southwest in 10 days. Should I try changing it?

Yes.

\

what about a kid flying back to school on 1/19?

From where and to where? BWI didn’t seem to be as affected as elsewhere, flights have been coming and going. Now if there’s another storm to throw them out of whack, who knows.

I would leave a buffer though, don’t fly on the day you absolutely need to be there, go a day or two early.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a flight on southwest in 10 days. Should I try changing it?

Yes.

\

what about a kid flying back to school on 1/19?

From where and to where? BWI didn’t seem to be as affected as elsewhere, flights have been coming and going. Now if there’s another storm to throw them out of whack, who knows.

I would leave a buffer though, don’t fly on the day you absolutely need to be there, go a day or two early.

Lol! Tell that to my husband trying to fly Manchester to BWI Ended up on Amtrak from Boston after days of cancellations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

One role of our government is consumer protection. Not sure how much they can force SW to do, but hopefully the attention will force SW to upgrade their IT systems. I think it’s also worth taking a look at their routing system. Maybe a modified hub/spoke would work better. Or at a minimum a better contingency plan for mass cancellations. They’ve neglected their operations for a long time - while expanding - and consumers have suffered.

And this was way beyond weather delays. Most airlines had a lot of delays/cancellations - for a few days. SW took significantly longer to rebound. Have they gotten everyone home yet? Even if the planes are flying again doesn’t mean that passengers (and luggage) are where they need to be.

It’s like a bank run the last few days. Mass media tells you to go pull your money out before it’s gone, so everyone does and the money is gone.
Mass media tells you to cancel your SWA flight, why not- no fees, full credit, can cancel any time, so everyone does and the flight gets pulled.

No, most of the flights were cancelled when people had few other options to rebook elsewhere. That is not the reason for the mass cancellation on the 26th, most people didn’t even know what was going on yet.

Todays the 2nd and people are asking about January flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a flight on southwest in 10 days. Should I try changing it?

Yes.

\

what about a kid flying back to school on 1/19?

Oh boy, better book a couple flights and the train. Keep us posted!!