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Time change

nathang7
Explorer C

I had an unfortunate experience on Wednesday.  I am a loyal Southwest customer, but this upset me.  I had a flight that was supposed to leave Orlando at 12:50 and arrive in Louisville at 2:50.  I was traveling with little children, so I left very early, just in case.  I put my cell phone in my bag and did not see it until we arrived at the airport around 10:00.  I had two messages, one at 8:50 saying that the departure time had changed to 1:30; and one at 9:07 saying that the departure time had now changed to 2:25.  Had I seen those emails, I probably wouldn't have left so early for the airport.  However, a while after we were at the airport, around 11:30 or so, they changed the time again, back to 12:50.  While I am glad I wasn't delayed, it was very frustrating and potentially very bad, if we had missed our flight.  The last few times I have flown Southwest, the time would change fairly frequently.  Is this common?  The person at the gate can never tell me why.

2 REPLIES 2

Re: Time change

bec102896
Aviator A

You should always arrive at the airport as if your flight is on time because there are times such as in your case where the flight goes back on time after a delay was announced. maybe they found another plane or a crew or the plane was fixed earlier than expected many different things could have happened which is why it's always best to show up as if your flight is on time especially in Orlando where they have extra crews or planes.

 

glad you showed up on time and the flight didn't end up being delayed. 

 

Blake 

Re: Time change

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@bec102896 wrote:

You should always arrive at the airport as if your flight is on time because there are times such as in your case where the flight goes back on time after a delay was announced. maybe they found another plane or a crew or the plane was fixed earlier than expected many different things could have happened which is why it's always best to show up as if your flight is on time especially in Orlando where they have extra crews or planes.

 

glad you showed up on time and the flight didn't end up being delayed. 

 

Blake 


Sometimes if I'm running behind a delay may be something that eases my mind a little, but I agree that if you were already mobilized, just keep going as if the flight were on time.

 

The other thing to check is if the flight is a continuing flight number then you can track the plane through the prior destinations. This may be one exception where you can see the chain of flights delayed for more than an hour, you are pretty reliably going to be delayed an hour.

 

Delays for other reasons can come and go though. I've also had to scramble after being at a different part of the airport and finding out that my flight was moved back up.

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.