Southwest Airlines in a nationwide meltdown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I haven’t heard of anyone being stranded who has funds for a solution. All the posts instead are about how to be reimbursed. People with money have options. You can Uber offsite to a place that still has rental cars or a hotel further away from the airport.

That's not going to work if you are hoping to get on another flight on standby. You need to be near the airport, or at the airport.

But southwest is flat out telling people not to expect flights for days. Sitting at the airport seems futile.

Is anyone else picturing a bunch of frazzled SW employees with pencils and erasers in a conference room trying to reroute planes and crew by hand? I’m chuckling to myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel very lucky. Because we live in the DC area, with 3 airport options, when my flight was cancelled, they were able to fly me into another airport the next day. I had to pay for a $125 uber ride to get me to my home (since the arrival airport was far), but I was so happy to be there that I didn't care. I was also able to find a hotel for the additional night that I was stuck in a city that we transferred through (on my own dime).

However, I was really horrified by what I saw at the airport that I departed from. Endless lines, people with little kids and elderly people sleeping on the floor of the airport, and people stuck there for several days until they could get a new flight.

Unpopular opinion but if you can’t afford an unexpected hotel for a few nights or a rental car to drive yourself home, you don’t have enough money to be flying in the first place. We are not rich, but my family would never sleep in an airport for one night, let alone multiple. Yes, the problem is southwest, but living so close to edge financially and still buying plane tickets is very irresponsible.

You don’t get it. So many flights (thousands, hundreds alone in some airports) were canceled that on top of regular holiday tourism, there are no more hotel rooms to get in a lot of these places. Same with rental cars. It’s not that everyone can’t afford it, it’s they’re GONE. Your money is only so useful to you if there’s stuff to buy with it. For a lot of these places, there isn’t.

I haven’t heard of anyone being stranded who has funds for a solution. All the posts instead are about how to be reimbursed. People with money have options. You can Uber offsite to a place that still has rental cars or a hotel further away from the airport.

In our situation, we just didn't return our rental car. We called and extended it to return the car in our home state, which was five states away. The rental car agency didn't blink or even charge us that much for the extra days/different return location.

We were traveling with two other families. One family did exactly the same thing we did with no issues. The other family exchanged their small rental car for a larger one so it would be more comfortable for the over 1000-mile drive home.

We had money, sure, but it didn't take THAT much more money.

Exactly. No one should be sleeping at the airport.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I haven’t heard of anyone being stranded who has funds for a solution. All the posts instead are about how to be reimbursed. People with money have options. You can Uber offsite to a place that still has rental cars or a hotel further away from the airport.

That's not going to work if you are hoping to get on another flight on standby. You need to be near the airport, or at the airport.

But southwest is flat out telling people not to expect flights for days. Sitting at the airport seems futile.

Is anyone else picturing a bunch of frazzled SW employees with pencils and erasers in a conference room trying to reroute planes and crew by hand? I’m chuckling to myself.

It seems futile now. Up until yesterday afternoon, being at the airport was the only way to possibly get on a flight since the phone systems were basically inaccessible. If you saw some planes going out, it seemed possible you could make it onto a flight.

Have a friend who was at San Diego airport for 8 hours on Sunday, eventually got onto one of the 3 flights that wasn't cancelled to her destination.

[Anonymous]

In our situation, we just didn't return our rental car. We called and extended it to return the car in our home state, which was five states away. The rental car agency didn't blink or even charge us that much for the extra days/different return location.

We were traveling with two other families. One family did exactly the same thing we did with no issues. The other family exchanged their small rental car for a larger one so it would be more comfortable for the over 1000-mile drive home.

We had money, sure, but it didn't take THAT much more money.


Exactly. No one should be sleeping at the airport.

Well, I am sure that the people sleeping there had a reason for it. It didn't look fun, or comfortable. I don't know what their reason was, but no one would voluntarily choose to do that unless they had to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is crazy is that Southwest is no longer a low cost carrier. Prices are generally on par with American, United, etc There is no excuse for this.

Prices have been crazy on SWA whenever I check for their flights out of any of the DC area airports.

If you have an airline branded credit card or the lowest tier of status, that helps replace any of the “free” baggage perks on Southwest.

I’m convinced that so many people have the Southwest Companion Pass that the company prices flights based on that model (eg, 2 for the price of 1). If you are not playing the Companion Pass game, you’re SOL on Southwest and are better off flying a legacy carrier + getting a branded credit card.

I hate Southwest but since BWI is my closest airport, it feels like they’re my only/best option almost every time I fly. I wish another airline would expand at BWI.

I actually am okay with Southwest, but am in the same situation. BWI is much more convenient to drive and park at than National, so I almost always fly out of there since an Uber home from National in the case of a delayed flight would be hundreds of dollars.

I just hope they can have a re-set of their systems. Their CEO is not helping matters by not apologizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is TIME for Congress to either approve fast speed cross country rail or make air travel a public utility. It cannot be that in the “wealthiest” nation on earth one of the six private air carriers can go down like this leaving people stranded across the country until Thursday / Friday at the earliest.

It's about 2,300 miles from DC to LA as the crow flies. The fastest high-speed trains under consideration in the US go about 130mph, so assuming no stop, no mountains, and a direct path from DC to LA, will anyone sit on a train for 18 hours?

If it was 18 hours from DC to LA by train, and if the train included cabins, I'd absolutely do that. Flying to LA direct is about 6 hours, squashed into an airline seat, and only part of that flight time can be used for working on the computer or sleeping. With an 18 hour train trip and a cabin, I could get a day's worth of work done and a night's worth of sleep.

[Anonymous]

When there was that huge storm in early 2013 (Nemo, I think). I was connecting through BWI to get to RI. I had a two year old at home and had been away at conference. My flight got cancelled at the last minute and I overhead the guy in front of me saying he was just going to drive home to RI that night because he was worried his pipes would freeze. I offered him $100 to take me along and he took me for free (and thankfully his wife walked up right after we agreed on the plan). It was a terrifying drive. On parts of 95 north there was only one lane clear with 3ft drifts on either side. But I made it home and didn't have to sit around in Baltimore for 3 extra days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is TIME for Congress to either approve fast speed cross country rail or make air travel a public utility. It cannot be that in the “wealthiest” nation on earth one of the six private air carriers can go down like this leaving people stranded across the country until Thursday / Friday at the earliest.

It's about 2,300 miles from DC to LA as the crow flies. The fastest high-speed trains under consideration in the US go about 130mph, so assuming no stop, no mountains, and a direct path from DC to LA, will anyone sit on a train for 18 hours?

If it was 18 hours from DC to LA by train, and if the train included cabins, I'd absolutely do that. Flying to LA direct is about 6 hours, squashed into an airline seat, and only part of that flight time can be used for working on the computer or sleeping. With an 18 hour train trip and a cabin, I could get a day's worth of work done and a night's worth of sleep.

Most people wouldn't want to spend 18 hours sitting on a train. I know my company wouldn't pay for that.

It's also more expensive. Let's look at Washington-Chicago on a random day in March (3/13).
On Amtrak, the direct train takes 18 hours and is $986 for a bedroom.

On United from DCA, the flight takes 2.5 hours and costs $129 in economy or $308 in first class.

Let's say Amtrak doubled their speed. That's still 9 hours to get to Chicago, and for more than the cost of flying.

Trains work well in Europe because the distances are shorter. The UK has a great rail system but the country is also 1/40 the land size of the US. Arizona has more land area than the entire UK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When there was that huge storm in early 2013 (Nemo, I think). I was connecting through BWI to get to RI. I had a two year old at home and had been away at conference. My flight got cancelled at the last minute and I overhead the guy in front of me saying he was just going to drive home to RI that night because he was worried his pipes would freeze. I offered him $100 to take me along and he took me for free (and thankfully his wife walked up right after we agreed on the plan). It was a terrifying drive. On parts of 95 north there was only one lane clear with 3ft drifts on either side. But I made it home and didn't have to sit around in Baltimore for 3 extra days.

That has literally nothing to do with this particular issue but ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is crazy is that Southwest is no longer a low cost carrier. Prices are generally on par with American, United, etc There is no excuse for this.

Prices have been crazy on SWA whenever I check for their flights out of any of the DC area airports.

If you have an airline branded credit card or the lowest tier of status, that helps replace any of the “free” baggage perks on Southwest.

I’m convinced that so many people have the Southwest Companion Pass that the company prices flights based on that model (eg, 2 for the price of 1). If you are not playing the Companion Pass game, you’re SOL on Southwest and are better off flying a legacy carrier + getting a branded credit card.

I hate Southwest but since BWI is my closest airport, it feels like they’re my only/best option almost every time I fly. I wish another airline would expand at BWI.

I actually am okay with Southwest, but am in the same situation. BWI is much more convenient to drive and park at than National, so I almost always fly out of there since an Uber home from National in the case of a delayed flight would be hundreds of dollars.

I just hope they can have a re-set of their systems. Their CEO is not helping matters by not apologizing.

Agree. While the current situation sucks, we will stick with SW unless the issues become much more frequent. We have companion pass through the end of 2023 and loads of SW points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is crazy is that Southwest is no longer a low cost carrier. Prices are generally on par with American, United, etc There is no excuse for this.

Prices have been crazy on SWA whenever I check for their flights out of any of the DC area airports.

If you have an airline branded credit card or the lowest tier of status, that helps replace any of the “free” baggage perks on Southwest.

I’m convinced that so many people have the Southwest Companion Pass that the company prices flights based on that model (eg, 2 for the price of 1). If you are not playing the Companion Pass game, you’re SOL on Southwest and are better off flying a legacy carrier + getting a branded credit card.

I hate Southwest but since BWI is my closest airport, it feels like they’re my only/best option almost every time I fly. I wish another airline would expand at BWI.

I actually am okay with Southwest, but am in the same situation. BWI is much more convenient to drive and park at than National, so I almost always fly out of there since an Uber home from National in the case of a delayed flight would be hundreds of dollars.

I just hope they can have a re-set of their systems. Their CEO is not helping matters by not apologizing.

Agree. While the current situation sucks, we will stick with SW unless the issues become much more frequent. We have companion pass through the end of 2023 and loads of SW points.

^^^meant to add that we almost exlusively use DCA and leave our car at the Crystal City Marriott.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In our situation, we just didn't return our rental car. We called and extended it to return the car in our home state, which was five states away. The rental car agency didn't blink or even charge us that much for the extra days/different return location.

We were traveling with two other families. One family did exactly the same thing we did with no issues. The other family exchanged their small rental car for a larger one so it would be more comfortable for the over 1000-mile drive home.

We had money, sure, but it didn't take THAT much more money.


Exactly. No one should be sleeping at the airport.

Well, I am sure that the people sleeping there had a reason for it. It didn't look fun, or comfortable. I don't know what their reason was, but no one would voluntarily choose to do that unless they had to.

The reason was money of course. That's my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

In our situation, we just didn't return our rental car. We called and extended it to return the car in our home state, which was five states away. The rental car agency didn't blink or even charge us that much for the extra days/different return location.

We were traveling with two other families. One family did exactly the same thing we did with no issues. The other family exchanged their small rental car for a larger one so it would be more comfortable for the over 1000-mile drive home.

We had money, sure, but it didn't take THAT much more money.


Exactly. No one should be sleeping at the airport.

Well, I am sure that the people sleeping there had a reason for it. It didn't look fun, or comfortable. I don't know what their reason was, but no one would voluntarily choose to do that unless they had to.

The reason was money of course. That's my point.

I heard about people whose flights weren't cancelled until 3am and they were trying to rebook for early in the morning so no point to leave just to return at 5am. That probably isn't everyone though.

[Anonymous]

St Louis airport Southwest ran out of vouchers for hotels. People had to pay for own hotels and take Ubers back and forth for days. And some families didn’t have the money for all this. Lots of people in wheelchairs trying to wait in line for hours. And no one could get their luggage. It was crazy time there.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure situation dependent.

Let's say you were at a hotel on vacation. You've checked out, returned the rental car and you're at the airport. Luggage is checked in and now you're stuck. I can see one family member standing in the hellacious line trying to get help from SW staff in the airport while the other parent is trying to get kids to sleep. Awful but feeling like they wanted to stay onsite in case there was any chance of getting on a flight.