Anyone else get screwed by this Southwest problem?

[purbeast0]

i had a 7:40 flight this morning and wake up at 4:30, then at 4:40 i get an email that my flight is canceled. i got on the phone immediately to call them to get a new flight since i couldn't do it online since my wife was using her companion pass.

after being on hold like 30 minutes i went to their website looking for another number and saw a link to their twitter so i clicked it.

apparently last night they had a big issue with their computer systems that shut down a ton of flights yesterday into this morning. so i told my wife lets just go to the airport and see what is up. sucks too because we had our 15 month old with us.

while im driving i keep my phone on the call. after i park it's STILL not gone through and i have now been on the phone 75 minutes. i put it in my pocket and it hung up. when i got there holy shit the line was ridiculous. and they hardly had any people working. i took a video of them having 1 register open with a huge line and was going to post it to twitter to them but didn't do that.

i waited in line from 6am until 8:15 when we luckily found a flight at another airport to fly out this evening at 5:45. the next available flight from that airport was tomorow night at 9:30pm. considering i have a fishing trip scheduled for tomorrow morning at 5am that wasn't an option.

it's also dumb that they won't just put people through on another airline. there were other flights with delta i could have taken but they said they don't work with other airlines. i told them that's not my problem but luckily we at least found something.

i saw a little boy who was there with his mom and was supposed to fly by himself, but they couldnt get him another flight and he was on the ground crying. i think he was missing something big today that he was supposed to see or something.

anyone else get fucked over by this? we did each get a $200 voucher, which is okay i guess, but considering i have a shitload of points and my wife has the companion pass until the end of 2017, i don't even konw if we'll use it. and it's not transferable. i'd rather have left early and not gotten $400 in vouchers.

 

[Exterous]

it's also dumb that they won't just put people through on another airline. there were other flights with delta i could have taken but they said they don't work with other airlines. i told them that's not my problem but luckily we at least found something.

Fortunately no more Southwest flights for me till September. This has always been one my issues with Southwest although the LCC do this too. The only upside is that WN has a big enough network that its not as catastrophic as Spirit.

Its cheaper for them as they don't have to pay for the fare on another airline but if something happens to the flight there is a higher chance you're screwed. Got stuck in Phoenix and WN said 4 days till we can confirm you on another flight. Compared to being stuck in DTW where United paid BA to fly us to London (No economy seating so we got econ+ instead of econ too)

I think United and Alaskan actually have specific language that says they will rebook you on a competitor. AA and Delta say they might.

 

[cubby1223]

It always sucks when a flight gets cancelled. But, you made the choice to save money booking with an airline which offers fewer services in the event of disruptions.

Its cheaper for them as they don't have to pay for the fare on another airline but if something happens to the flight there is a higher chance you're screwed. Got stuck in Phoenix and WN said 4 days till we can confirm you on another flight. Compared to being stuck in DTW where United paid BA to fly us to London (No economy seating so we got econ+ instead of econ too)

I think United and Alaskan actually have specific language that says they will rebook you on a competitor. AA and Delta say they might.

Interesting. I know United will book alternate flights on any Star Alliance partner, but British Airways is a part of the Oneworld Alliance. Surprised they booked you on that carrier.

Alaskan has a very large number of partnerships too, they can make many alternate accommodations.

 

[Skel]

They have issues like this more often than any airline should. It's why I refuse to fly Southwest at all anymore. The other airlines have their issues, but Southwest is nothing more than a bus service in the sky.

 

[NutBucket]

I guess I've been lucky. I typically fly SWA whenever possible as they're the main carrier at my local airport (Burbank, for those familiar with SoCal). Saves me the trouble of driving to LAX. And, it's usually easy to get on different flights when I'm finished early with work.

 

[SP33Demon]

Just had an issue with SW 2 weeks ago. We were going from LAX to NY with a layover in Denver. Due to weather, they claimed we would miss the Denver layover by 5 minutes and there were no other flights to NY. So we said wtf, give us a hotel for the night in Denver. They said nope, we don't do that since it's weather related. WTF? So they switch our flight to a 6am, and have our luggage go to Denver (instead of original route to NY). What do you know, when we get to Denver the fucking plane is being held for another 30-40 minutes and we could've made it. Assholes. So we spoke to the SW manager at Denver and he apologized and said to call customer service. He said they would reimburse us all hotel and food costs.

So in the end, SW made it right but goddam they have some morons at LAX. Also, if your layover is within 5-10mins just tell them to hold the flight and most times you will get on it. Worst case, your luggage goes somewhere else and you have to hotel it for the night til the next morning.

Told my wife next time we're flying Jet Blue. I don't mind paying a little extra to not deal with BS like that. We're ballers anyway, why fly with people who aren't in our tax bracket?

 

[Ns1]

guess I'll keep flying United...

 

[dullard]

Yes, cancellations suck. I've been on hold for 3+ hours straight before just to have the person on the phone say that they can't do anything - no transfers to another airline or anything. That day I learned that the people at the airport have WAY more power than people on the phone. I drove to the airport, saw the flight at the airline next to the counter I was using had available seats at about the same time as I would have originally left, and they just transferred me from one airline to another in about 2 minutes. You did the right thing to go in person.

Your problem, like cubby1223 said, is that Southwest won't transfer you to another airline. I fly Southwest too, but never when I have something important shortly after landing. If there is a glitch with Southwest, or the weather, or the plane, your trip is toast on Southwest but usually salvageable on other airlines.

 

[ponyo]

Never flown Southwest. I guess you do get what you pay with the budget carriers.

 

[Printer Bandit]

Southwest blames failed router, apologizes but cancels additional 300 flights Thursday

http://www.azcentral.com/story/trav...ines-computer-woes-delaying-flights/87354164/

 

[DrunkenSano]

Airlines in the US are such shit, it's really sad.

 

[RockinZ28]

I prefer Southwest. Sounds like they really screwed up and should have some kind of redundant setup for this kind of thing. Been very reliable in my experience (A-List member). Thankfully I'm flying Sun Country tonight and not SW tho.

I've had way more delays with AA, United and Delta. Refuse to fly with them, especially AA.

 

[K1052]

Airlines in the US are such shit, it's really sad.

If you expect the lowest prices you get bottom of the barrel experiences. Other parts of the world also aren't immune to this.

 

[McLovin]

So my buddy is trying to catch a flight from PHX to OKC. Original flight was supposed to be last night at 8pm.

Delayed the flight 2 hours, then cancelled it. First flight (their website listed 3 connecting flights earlier in the day, but whatever) was supposed to be at 1 PM PST.

Flight delayed another 5 hours and he is currently sitting on the tarmac in PHX because the planes engines wont start. He says he overheard other passengers from the inbound flight from San Diego say they had the same problem in San Diego and had to manually start the engines.

Lol this just keeps getting better.

 

[McLovin]

Haha he just text me and said they couldn't fix it so they are making him de-plane and go to another gate for another hour or longer wait. This is brutal.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Their booking system was down last week from 8PM to 10AM. I couldn't book or change reservations so no early checkin. I barely got a flight the next day. I find it totally unacceptable that they would have that kind of downtime for a booking system. In the 80s and 90s and maybe the early 00s I could see companies being dumb and not building resiliency, but in the modern IT era, downtime just shouldn't happen like that. I know it still does, but it shouldn't.

Redesign your app.

 

[Exterous]

Interesting. I know United will book alternate flights on any Star Alliance partner, but British Airways is a part of the Oneworld Alliance. Surprised they booked you on that carrier.

Its been my experience that United will book you on an alliance flight first but, if they can't find one, they'll go with anyone who can get you to your destination. (I expect this will changing though as everyone is sinking to the lowest common denominator). Delta did once for me as well but I think its far less likely with Delta and AA

Airlines in the US are such shit, it's really sad.

Its what the American consumer has demanded. For a number of years now Spirit has been the most complained about airline yet its growing the fastest. The big guys have noticed that people will bitch and complain about shitty service and issues with cancellation and claim to never fly an airline again. Yet, when it comes time to book, they'll go with the cheapest fair even if its that same airline

 

[OverVolt]

When the "technology is great it can never do wrong" crowd gets screwed over by technology. Gotta love it.

This type of stuff happened alot less in the 90's IMO with large system outages. There was usually a paper backup or ANY backup system at all that didn't necessarily disrupt operations like a modern day system outage does.

 

[SSSnail]

guess I'll keep flying United...

Me too, except if you're flying in or out of SFO and the fog decides to fuck with you.

 

[brianmanahan]

never flown southwest, i'm an AA man

 

[Puffnstuff]

Delta has always been the best carrier for me.

 

[McLovin]

So since my last update, my friend got on the plane they moved to and it had too much fuel. Southwest didn't have a fuel truck big enough to take the fuel off. So they moved them to another plane.

This time, the plane taxied out to the runway, sat there, and then returned to the gate. They are moving everyone to yet another plane.

When I asked what was wrong with the plane this time his response was "Fuck if I know. Then I was sitting next to a couple with a kid and the kid shit himself and it leaked. Smelled so fucking bad. So trust me, I'm ok with getting off it here lol"

 

[Ns1]

LOL what the fuck

 

[McLovin]

As of right now, they have not found another plane yet, so Im doubting they make it out tonight.

 

[Crotulus]

Family and I caught a United connecting flight in San Francisco last night. Could not figure out why there were so many people trying to get on the flight. I think there was something like 41 names on the standby list. Saw the news about Southwest this morning and everything made sense.