Horrible travel experience

[Ggaskins]

I received a message stating the flight was delayed until 10:05 pm, originally going to take off at 7:50pm.  then at 8:15 pm they text and basically say never mind, your flight will depart at 8:45pm now. Living over an hour from the airport, this wasn’t possible, but in fact I was at the airport checking baggage when they say you missed your flight. Do I had to rebook for the next day travel along with my 9 yr old son. I incurred extra fees by having to get a hotel room on top of paying $985 for the night a Disney hotel that we didn’t stay at because the flight time changed.  Southwest you have disappointed me!! I think I’m going to fly delta from now on. 

[bec102896]

Delays happen and at the same time delays can be made up (by quick turns at previous airports or aircraft swaps) many times aircraft swaps or even crew swaps will cause a flight to go from long delay to short or no delay this is why you always still arrive at the airport at your flight’s originally scheduled time. All airlines have aircraft swaps otherwise some planes may actually never make up a delay so the same thing could happen on delta or American or even spirit. 

The lesson here if your flight is originally at 7:50 but delayed still show up at say 7pm in case such change happens but check the status throughout the day as not all updates come by text or can be delayed (technology isn’t perfect). 

now with the hotel did you try contacting Disney and seeing if they can work any magic? Even if they take $200 of the $985 that’s still better than losing all that money plus regardless you should let them know you won’t make it for the first night so they don’t cancel your entire booking 

[SoCalFlyer97]

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@Ggaskins wrote:

I received a message stating the flight was delayed until 10:05 pm, originally going to take off at 7:50pm.  then at 8:15 pm they text and basically say never mind, your flight will depart at 8:45pm now. Living over an hour from the airport, this wasn’t possible, but in fact I was at the airport checking baggage when they say you missed your flight. Do I had to rebook for the next day travel along with my 9 yr old son. I incurred extra fees by having to get a hotel room on top of paying $985 for the night a Disney hotel that we didn’t stay at because the flight time changed.  Southwest you have disappointed me!! I think I’m going to fly delta from now on. 

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Hello and sorry this happened. I believe these notification alerts are required by federal law under the DOT. I believe Southwest must issue these even if the delay gets shortened later. I assume that would be the case if the same thing happened for a Delta flight. There was one case where I received such an alert for a morning flight would depart 2.5 hours late (assuming due to a plane equipment issue) but later, the delay was narrowed to 50 minutes as a different plane was flown to the airport. I still went to the airport as scheduled.

It is standard advice that if any flight is delayed for any given amount of time, the traveler should still go to the airport as originally scheduled with plenty of time ahead of the original departure time regardless of the estimated length of the notified delay. Never hold off on going to the airport for this reason regardless of the airline used. Airport staff may be able to accommodate passengers to a different flight depending on the extent of the delay or issue, especially if the airline is at fault for the delay. Also, if planning on taking the original delayed flight, the traveler should remain somewhere airside at the departure terminal within reasonable distance to the gate in case the delay gets shortened. My best friend in these cases has been tracking the flight in question via FlightAware and Flightradar24.

Since this forum is customer-to-customer, Southwest Customer service may be able to clarify this better. Not sure if they can issue any vouchers as arriving at the airport on time regardless of a delay is the standard 'rule' for travelers but it may be worth it to try anyway.

https://www.southwest.com/html/contact-us/

[DancingDavidE]

I don't know if it is written anywhere but always allow for a flight that is delayed to be moved back up.

There are a few reasons for this:

• I recommend FlightRadar24 to check "where is my plane coming from?" and you can track the inbound flight to see if the issue is a delay occurring previously on your route. Then especially if the flight continues on throughout the day it's likely to go as projected with the delays - plan to be at the gate around when the inbound flight is arriving.
• Doing the same thing you may see your plane is already there, but there isn't crew available - this could change on the fly, if crew suddenly becomes available due to some other delay or cancelation the flight time can be moved back up in an instant.
• Then also Southwest can arrange for a plane swap and leave earlier with a new plane taken from some other route and move the departure back up. Probably not if there is a big continuing group on the other flight - see if the flight number originates at your airport or if it continues throughout the day. I think this is less likely if the continuing flight will be coming within 1-2 hours. 
• In fact if the announcement was early enough, head the airport early, if your flight is delayed significantly you can maybe move up onto an earlier flight for free. 

I hope this helps!