Anyone else worried about the Max8?

[AlohaNow]

I'm booked on a SW flight next weekend. I got an alert that we can change our flight for free but everything in the time frame that we need to fly in is booked. Also our flight was not scheduled on a Max-8 so I'm really confused by the alert. So far our flight isn't showing cancelled so I'm just crossing my fingers.

Your flight may not be on a Max8, but they have to steal from Peter to pay Paul. Our flight for next Tuesday, which still showed as available up until yesterday, was just cancelled this morning. We rebooked for the next day, and are hoping that our Saturday return will not be affected. They are probably looking at passenger load and making relatively last minute (a few days out) decisions on where to place which aircraft. 34 grounded planes is no joke!

 

[cmwade77]

That is inaccurate. Your information is quite outdated.

Not really, it is what I have witnessed first hand while waiting for my flight, not on Southwest and what I see time and time again as complaints with Southwest.

 

[DLgal]

Not really, it is what I have witnessed first hand while waiting for my flight, not on Southwest and what I see time and time again as complaints with Southwest.

Southwest doesn't overbook their flights. When you see that happening, it is because they had to accommodate travelers from other situations like delayed flights.

 

[Allison]

Not really, it is what I have witnessed first hand while waiting for my flight, not on Southwest and what I see time and time again as complaints with Southwest.

Yes, really. The change was made 2 years ago.

 

[cmwade77]

Southwest doesn't overbook their flights. When you see that happening, it is because they had to accommodate travelers from other situations like delayed flights.

They do indeed overbook their flights, I have specifically asked if they do and they responded with a resounding yes, so unless something has changed in the last 6 months or so since I asked, I would say they do.

 

[Allison]

They do indeed overbook their flights, I have specifically asked if they do and they responded with a resounding yes, so unless something has changed in the last 6 months or so since I asked, I would say they do.

Again, they do not. I fly them a lot. The flights are not overbooked. People on this board fly them a lot, they do not report that experience.

Here is the information directly from their website:
https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-FAQ


Can a change in equipment result in an issue. Yes. Just like any other airline. When I flew a few weeks ago it was on American and they sent out a message looking for people to switch their flight because they were oversold. People at the gate were getting money and flying the next day.


Please stop spreading incorrect information.

 

[cmwade77]

Again, they do not. I fly them a lot. The flights are not overbooked. People on this board fly them a lot, they do not report that experience.

Here is the information directly from their website:
https://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/faqs.html?clk=GFOOTER-CUSTOMER-FAQ


Can a change in equipment result in an issue. Yes. Just like any other airline. When I flew a few weeks ago it was on American and they sent out a message looking for people to switch their flight because they were oversold. People at the gate were getting money and flying the next day.


Please stop spreading incorrect information.

I go by what they quite literally told me when I specifically asked, so either the person replying to emails was wrong or the website is wrong. Either way doesn't show great customer service.

 

[Allison]

I go by what they quite literally told me when I specifically asked, so either the person replying to emails was wrong or the website is wrong. Either way doesn't show great customer service.

Why would you email them if you don't fly the airline? This was in the news. I am not sure why you refuse to believe this but others can make up their own mind based on facts.

 

[DLgal]

They do indeed overbook their flights, I have specifically asked if they do and they responded with a resounding yes, so unless something has changed in the last 6 months or so since I asked, I would say they do.

CEO Gary Kelly announced Thursday that Southwest (LUV) will no longer overbook its flights, ending a practice that sometimes leaves paying passengers without a seat. ... The airline said Thursday it will offer up to $10,000 to passengers who voluntarily give up their seat when too many people show up for a flight. Apr 28, 2017

 

[cmwade77]

Why would you email them if you don't fly the airline? This was in the news. I am not sure why you refuse to believe this but others can make up their own mind based on facts.

Why? To see if they night be worth giving another shot, but when they emailed back that they overbook their flights, I said they weren't and moved on.

This is a big issue that Southwest has had in our area. The other issue and this one is something that really can't be disputed is there are no nonstop flights from the Los Angeles area to MCO and the other flights are about double the cost of JetBlue, even with checked bag fees. Seriously, we booked our round trip on JetBlue for about $150 less than on Southwest and our JetBlue is a nonstop flight. So, even if Southwest stopped overbooking flights, which as I said either the email was wrong on the website is, I do have an open mind that they can change, which is why I asked in the first place, the price difference and the fact that I can't get a nonstop flight makes a huge difference.

 

[cmwade77]

CEO Gary Kelly announced Thursday that Southwest (LUV) will no longer overbook its flights, ending a practice that sometimes leaves paying passengers without a seat. ... The airline said Thursday it will offer up to $10,000 to passengers who voluntarily give up their seat when too many people show up for a flight. Apr 28, 2017

Then the person that responded to the email six months ago was wrong and needs to be retrained, how much confidence does that instill in a person about the quality of the airline?

 

[Allison]

Lots of confidence for me.

 

[Fangorn]

Not really, it is what I have witnessed first hand while waiting for my flight, not on Southwest and what I see time and time again as complaints with Southwest.

Southwest ended the practice of over-selling flights in April of 2017. JetBlue its the only other airline to do that. That doesn't mean that passengers aren't occasionally bumped off flights for other reasons - I've experienced it myself - but those situations are pretty rare and are for operational reasons. In my case, I was going from Chicago to BWI. A major storm was beginning to hit the NE and several aircraft and crews were stranded. SW need to get 46 crew members to BWI in the next 3 hours or the rest of the day's flights along the East Coast would be completely disrupted. SW chose to bump about 40 people from my flight, so as not to affect thousands of others. All of this was explained to us graciously and in great detail, special circumstances were taken into account, and we were all well compensated for the inconvenience.

Steve

 

[keishashadow]

Boeing this week announced they have the software fix completed.

I was relatively happy my June flight to MCO was cancelled due to this issue approx a month ago as it gave me the opportunity to switch to an earlier, far more expensive NS flight down vs the one I had booked.

I was not happy at all to have my flight cancelled via a text message at 1 am this past Sunday for an 8 am flight from SAN. This after a 7 hour flight from HNL. Was automatically assigned to a double connecting flight that wouldn’t have gotten us home until the next day. So glad my DH checked the phone & was able to speak to an agent & jump on a better flight.

Asked if this was an general equipment, weather or Max issue and told it was the latter. Makes no sense as all those planes were stated to have been pulled from service pending the software fix.

Found it ludicrous to be congratulated that I was able to secure an ‘equal flight’. Not quite IMO. Far too short of a notice for my liking. If my DH hadn’t glanced at his phone during the night we’d have had a 3rd day of very long flights.

 

[DebbieB]

I have a flight LAX-PIT non-stop on 8/26 after D23. It was in the local news that this route was cancelled for flights in June because of Max8. I checked the schedule, it’s now cancelled for July. My flight out is a connection into Orange Co, no non-stops available on Sundays. I chose LAX coming back because of the non-stop. I have an airport hotel booked for the night before so I don’t have to travel from Anaheim in the morning. If they are going to cancel my return, I wish they would do it soon. I’d like to switch it to Orange Co if they do.

 

[Disneypro1]

Honestly. Now I would not worry about the max 8 at all. It was a software issue. It’s fixed and the 2 accidents were pilots and airlines that doesn’t have the training that they have here or most of the rest of the free world. I wouldn’t worry. The max 8 flew thousands of times just here in the US with no issues.

 

[keishashadow]

I have a flight LAX-PIT non-stop on 8/26 after D23. It was in the local news that this route was cancelled for flights in June because of Max8. I checked the schedule, it’s now cancelled for July. My flight out is a connection into Orange Co, no non-stops available on Sundays. I chose LAX coming back because of the non-stop. I have an airport hotel booked for the night before so I don’t have to travel from Anaheim in the morning. If they are going to cancel my return, I wish they would do it soon. I’d like to switch it to Orange Co if they do.

If booking a connecting flight into LAS, SNA on SWA is a breeze vs LAX IMO. Have done Burbank too, both small & easy to navigate airports.

I wound up booking Spirit for approx same time period (end of August) PIT via LAX before SWA cancelled their NS service from PIT.

Price was 1/3rd of the what SWA had been lisiting for over a month for any of the nearby airports. Spirit is surely not my favorite airline by any means and will likely pay extra to bump up to the bigger seats in the front as well as getting dinged with a checked bag. At least it’s a red eye flight back & traffic to the airport should be much decreased.

 

[DebbieB]

If booking a connecting flight into LAS, SNA on SWA is a breeze vs LAX IMO. Have done Burbank too, both small & easy to navigate airports.

I wound up booking Spirit for approx same time period (end of August) PIT via LAX before SWA cancelled their NS service from PIT.

Price was 1/3rd of the what SWA had been lisiting for over a month for any of the nearby airports. Spirit is surely not my favorite airline by any means and will likely pay extra to bump up to the bigger seats in the front as well as getting dinged with a checked bag. At least it’s a red eye flight back & traffic to the airport should be much decreased.

I’ve been through LAX many times, it doesn’t bother me. I get a room at the Hilton down the street the night before so no traffic. I mainly wanted that non-stop, tired of connecting. I may look into Spirit if the non-stop is cancelled.