Southwest is so much better than American Airlines

[danno7777]

My wife and I were coming back from a week in Canada and our flight with American was through Philadelphia. My wife posted the experience here. There are good lessons for American in this post, but I want to highlight why we love Southwest! She is a travel blogger, but puts her posts on Facebook first. Here is her Facebook post:

Epic Return Travel during Storms Story

TLDR: American Airlines bad, Southwest good!

After quite the saga, like so many others this summer, we are home. Arrived 30 or so hours after the originally scheduled time. Relearned a few things to keep in mind. Beware of later flights along the Atlantic during the summer. If you have to connect through any of the many airports there, try to schedule your flights early in the day. The storms are always worse in the afternoon.

We were flying on American from Halifax (which has the screwiest gate and boarding system I’ve ever seen btw) to Philadelphia with a 2 1/2 hour layover before a direct flight back to Austin. When we arrived in Philly, our return was on track for on time. Then it got pushed by 30 minutes, then an hour, then two, then three. But the arriving plane was finally en route. So we remained hopeful. Half an hour before it landed, they cancelled. We got in line with hundreds of others but I called and actually got through to someone in a few minutes. Guy initially looked and said it might be WEDNESDAY before they could rebook us. I said no and to use other airlines and get more creative…look at Houston or Dallas or San Antonio if need be.

He finally booked us for the next afternoon, with a layover at DFW. So we decided to make the best of it and got a hotel room in central Philly for the night instead of waiting easily another 2 hours in line to get a hotel voucher…maybe. The next day’s flight was already showing delays, which was a definite sign of things to come. Anyway, we enjoyed a good night’s rest and woke to a cancellation and further booking for today, Sunday. But through Tampa, then DFW. Tampa is in the middle of a tropical storm, becoming a hurricane with Debby. So we knew we’d get stranded if we went that way. And we were right. The plane to Tampa was on time but the flight to DFW has been cancelled. The AA customer service line was an hour wait at least so I started looking at options.

It was going to cost us a pretty penny but we honestly felt letting AA book and rebook us was going to get us home by the originally stated Wednesday.

Ended up booking an 8 pm Southwest flight out of BWI. And train tickets to Baltimore (just over an hour away). We secured a late check out then went out and did Philly things like Reading Market, and a walk around Declaration House, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and City Hall. Took a train at 3:40 all the way to BWI. I didn’t know there was a stop there when I originally booked but amended our tickets just before boarding. Shuttle to the terminal.

The plane was at the gate and it showed on time so things were looking up. There was a storm hitting just after we reached so we expected delays but also knew the storm would push through…as opposed to Philly which was getting hit harder. But while our plane was there the crew wasn’t and that’s where things got squirrelly again. First a 90 minute delay, then another hour, then another.

But here’s where we started to see the difference in the two airlines. I kept going to the arrivals and departure boards and while there were a lot of delays, very very few cancellations. Planes would land, crews would get off and move on to their next flight. Our flight crew, some who had been stuck in Albany, rolled onto our plane at 12:30ish and I got up to stand at my silver SW marker for A45 immediately since I’d been waiting so long, and this might be my last chance to queue up for SW.

The mood at the two airports was so different. American didn’t tell us anything and people were testy and frustrated. Southwest did a pretty dang good job at keeping us reasonably informed and people, while tired, kept in good spirits and had a we’re all in this together vibe going. And as people landed and got to our gate, fully expecting to have missed their connection to Austin, there was elation that somehow, they were getting home after being rebooked three times before landing. Southwest worked through all that and got them back on the plane. My fave was a young family with three little kids, the youngest a little baby with an uncanny resemblance to Jack Jack from the Incredibles.

So huge props to Southwest for sticking with us and getting us all home safely and cheerfully. They just seemed to give a dang.

And props to the many exhausted but cooperative children and their parents. Lot of good travelers in the making there.

[SoCalFlyer97]

Hola!

Fabulous story and glad SW was able to to get you into AUS given the weather problems. I wasn't able to locate your story on Facebook but I would check and see if the Southwest Airlines profile was tagged in the Facebook post. That would help ensure your wife's praises reaches SW staff.

If you're not sure, you can always fwd a copy of it in an email.

https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/email-us

Hopefully one day the LUV airline can enter into the Canada market but great to hear SW staff going above to address your travel disruption.

ps. I flew out of AUS earlier this summer...Nice airport!

[bec102896]

@SoCalFlyer97 

Did you get some of my delicious AUS food while you were there? 

[SoCalFlyer97]

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@bec102896 wrote:

Did you get some of my delicious AUS food while you were there? 

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@bec102896 

I enjoyed a great variety of food while in Texas! Will share more in an upcoming post in the Trains-to-Planes Series:
https://community.southwest.com/t5/Inflight-Experience/June-24-Summer-Vacation-Train-to-Planes-Serie...

Spoiler Alert: Delicious Burritos found at the ELP train depot...

[dfwskier]

Sorry to hear of your AA horror story, and glad toi hear that SW  got you home.

Every airlne has horror stories: AA, UA, DL and yes even SW. Search this forum, and you'll find some of them. Fly enough and every arline will eventually disappoint you.

I give up on an arline when I've been massively wronged three times. It;s lke baseball: three stirkes and you are out. I personally gave up on AA in 2000 - and I lve in an AA hub city.