Recent Southwest Experiences

[Sweettears]

I took two trips over the last two months and had no issues with SW whatsoever. I would however echo the PP comment about reduced non-stop availability.

 

[stinkpickle]

SW just cancelled our flight for tomorrow morning and rescheduled for Tuesday night. We can't change our return flight. That's two days off of our trip, assuming they even fly out Tuesday night. Not happy.

 

[samandryanmom]

Our 5AM was cancelled this morning out of New Orleans and the only option to rebook was Tuesday. Our return was scheduled for Wednesday. Spent from 3AM this morning until 9 at the airport trying to get it sorted but finally just cancelled the whole trip. May try for May. It was due to weather so I can’t blame them for that but I don’t have enough flying experience to know how other airlines would have handled it. I just started accumulating Southwest points on their credit card but I may be rethinking that and look at other airlines.

 

[FreeTime]

I’m glad to hear there are still positive flight experiences. Unfortunately, mine continue to not be them. I posted yesterday about how one in our party struggled to get home on Thursday. Today was our turn. Our flight was delayed about 30 mins out of MCO and was an early AM flight. The one next to us to Islip was cancelled. One of my staff scheduled a last minute flight last night to OKC for this evening and it was cancelled. They are now in the middle of the long drive there. The experience keeps getting worse with SW.

 

[Sweettears]

Bummer to hear about the bad experiences. I guess I’ve been lucky

 

[JoJoGirl]

My 3:15 pm flight out of MCO yesterday was canceled at 8:26 am. By sheer luck I saw the notice right away and got rebooked on a 9:15 pm flight before all the options sold out, which was within minutes. My new flight was also delayed and didn’t take off until after 11:00 pm but at least we made it home. A lot of people didn’t.

Got an email today from Southwest apologizing and saying that they will be sending me a $100 LUV voucher for my trouble. Hope the voucher will have an expiration longer than 6 months. Anyone know what expiration term Southwest is giving recovery vouchers these days?

 

[Sweettears]

Usually it’s been a year. At least they caught up with the issue. I have found them to be pretty proactive in the past but strange times….

 

[EACarlson]

Our trip isn't until October and SWA is releasing their schedule at the end of March for our dates. I am so nervous already...it is just me and DD18 flying and I have enough SWA RR points to cover either (4) O/W tickets if we fly into TPA, or (3) O/W tickets if we fly into MCO, and then I'd pay OOP for the final O/ leg. That is simply based on the average cost of the flights they are offering now. The only issue is that the times into MCO are terrible. I hate the idea of being tied into SWA because even though the flights are fully-refundable and flexible and changeable if something happens on MY end, I am completely stuck if THEY change or cancel on me. It really does me no good if they cancel my flight at the last minute, leaving me to buy (2) last-minute, round-trip fares on Delta, American or United. Out of GRR, those fares will easily be over $1500 EACH at the last minute. (For tomorrow, Delta is currently $2108/pp, American is only $1006/pp but it is a 20-hour, overnight layover for the outbound leg, and United is $1620...and those are economy!) I don't really want to book a "backup", refundable flight on Delta or American, but I may go that route, just to ease my mind. It will involve tying up some cash for a while, but at least I can have the piece of mind knowing that I should have a flight and my trip won't be a no-go.

I would look into booking that backup flight out of Chicago rather than GRR. Many more options to get there either non-stop or one stop. My nearest airport is ATW, I'm in the same boat but don't have SW. I have to connect to get just about anywhere or take one of the ULCCs. Don't look at prices for tomorrow, look for prices on your actual travel day since all of the legacy scheduled are out that far. I just booked a Delta flight for SAN in December since I highly doubt airfares are going to get any cheaper with oil prices doing what they're doing.

I recently moved so my nearest airport doesn’t have many nonstop SWA flights. I tried Delta recently and didn’t particularly enjoy it. Might end up trying AA or JetBlue next time around.

All depends on where you're flying to and what connection options are available. From my local airport I pretty much only have two options each on United or American. But I have three with Delta in all directions.

 

[DCJ]

Southwest cancelled our flight while were at the gate about an hour before the flight was supposed to take off. We rebooked to a another airport about the 3 hours away for later in the day (about a 12 hour difference, lost a day). We went to the agent at the next airport and he gave us each a $200 voucher. Unless things get better this year, we're about done with Southwest.

 

[samandryanmom]

My 3:15 pm flight out of MCO yesterday was canceled at 8:26 am. By sheer luck I saw the notice right away and got rebooked on a 9:15 pm flight before all the options sold out, which was within minutes. My new flight was also delayed and didn’t take off until after 11:00 pm but at least we made it home. A lot of people didn’t.

Got an email today from Southwest apologizing and saying that they will be sending me a $100 LUV voucher for my trouble. Hope the voucher will have an expiration longer than 6 months. Anyone know what expiration term Southwest is giving recovery vouchers these days?

The Southwest agent gave us vouchers that expire one year from the impacted day of travel...so a year from yesterday.

 

[epuma]

We keep having the same issues with Southwest. They’ve run sales with direct flights just to change our flights to two stops a month before. In October we were en route to a very early morning flight when they canceled it for scheduling issues. We’re still booked with them for Disneyland next month, but going out a day earlier than intended due to the rebooking and I don’t trust them to be on schedule to go same day anymore.

 

[mikehn]

Baltimore is one of SW's biggest hubs. Not completely risk free, but a big foot print definitely helps.

 

[n2mm]

These reports are very scary. I was booking my family on a flight home in April. The prices are crazy.

if SW canceled a flight, do you get a full refund? I understand getting a credit if I cancel, just curious. I’m sure other airlines don’t take a SW credit if you have to rebook.

 

[mousestruck]

Looks like my concerns are legit. I’m not willing to risk losing days off my vacation to save some money on flights. I know all of the airlines have issues these days, but SWA seems to be particularly bad.

 

[Sweettears]

These reports are very scary. I was booking my family on a flight home in April. The prices are crazy.

if SW canceled a flight, do you get a full refund? I understand getting a credit if I cancel, just curious. I’m sure other airlines don’t take a SW credit if you have to rebook.

I believe that either way it is a credit

 

[EACarlson]

These reports are very scary. I was booking my family on a flight home in April. The prices are crazy.

if SW canceled a flight, do you get a full refund? I understand getting a credit if I cancel, just curious. I’m sure other airlines don’t take a SW credit if you have to rebook.

If SW cancels a flight you are entitled to a full refund back to the method of payment. This is a USDOT regulation and not just a SW policy. Now if you use a gift card or Travel Funds those become Travel Funds with the shortest expiration date of all TFs used. The same regulation covers you if there is a "substantial" change to your itinerary, including but not limited to adding a stop or changing the date.

 

[stinkpickle]

SW just sent us $100 travel vouchers for our cancelled flights.

 

[stinkpickle]

These reports are very scary. I was booking my family on a flight home in April. The prices are crazy.

if SW canceled a flight, do you get a full refund? I understand getting a credit if I cancel, just curious. I’m sure other airlines don’t take a SW credit if you have to rebook.

Yes, they will give you a full refund. I just did. I had to call them, though.

 

[Grenaldo]

Arrived at 4:50 from upstate NY

Sat waiting for a gate 15-20 minutes.

When we found a gate, my flight waited another 10 or so minutes.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

My flight to Orlando on March 11 was canceled while I was at the airport. Was able to rebook the same day going through Fort Myers.

Strangely, they had cancelled every flight that day that was going to Florida from DCA with the exception of the Fort Myers flight. No vouchers.

Yes, they have drastically cut the number of nonstops available.

I have several more and almost all of them have been changed. the only major issue is a post-cruise flight from Miami to Baltimore that was moved to 10:15 am and has no good alternatives (kind of shocking in Baltimore), so I will have to leave the ship as soon as permitted.