Cancelled Flight - Stranded

[Majacali]

What is happening?? Flight canceled tonight at 10:30pm for tomorrow, with no explanation.  On hold for 2.5 hours, trying not to fall asleep. Finally got through at 1am, only to be told they couldn’t get us on flights until TUESDAY (4 days later) because everything is booked up. And said that they can only look at the Tampa and Orlando airports for departure…because we were originally out of Tampa and Orlando is the only co-service with Tampa. They fly from many other places in Florida!!! So it’s a policy. AND they CHOSE to cancel our flight…I know it wasn’t full, as there were still tickets available for it earlier today. I’m hearing that they’ve combined flights that were less than 50% occupancy. And now we have 9 people stranded, and we have to be out of our condo in 8 hours. And we’re told we can get a refund or wait four days. UNREAL. 

[tommyz33]

Same situation here. On hold for over 5 hours so far… website has been absolutely useless. Good luck!!

[adeelasad]

We are in similar situation on a return FLL to DCA. With 2 kids 1 infant. No follow-up just straight up cancelation.  Received a text for cancelation at 11:30 pm for flight 7 hours aways..stayed up all night fo customer service .. no sleep and stranded .. booked a hotel ar weekene rate ...  just booked a flight with jetblue paid over 1k . No chat , no phone no customer service on tweeter,  fb . I hope I get reimbursed.. 

[dfwskier]

Sorry to hear of your troubles. EVERY airline cancels flights. EVERY airline strands people occasionally. That is the unfortunate reality of air travel and always has been.

That being said, Southwest can't just snap it's fingers and have a plane with crew magically appear. Southwest did not want to strand you for 4 days. SW just put you on the next available plane that had availability - it just happened to be 4 days later SW can't help that.

So, since people cancel reservations all the time, you should keep checking for availability via the Southwest web site. Some more convenient flight will show up. It won't be available for long as there are other people like you doing what you would be doing. If you see something, snag it.

Also, NEVER EVER waste hours on the phone waiting to talk with SW. For better options, click on "contact us" below or use the Southwest cell app to access the chat function

Oh, it is unlikely that Southwest cancelled the flight because it was only half full. How do I know this? Well, since your next available flight was 4 days later, that tells me that all planes are full. Your original flight would have been no different.

[Majacali · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your response. However, it’s now been published on the news that it was a system-wide computer issue on their end. Not the weather excuse that they have been lying about. 

Yes, all airlines cancel flights, but with SW every single flight I’ve taken in the last year has had a delay or change. Either day of or in advance. Always to a much less desirable schedule.  Including flights that I have in 3 weeks to the west side of the country. I have zero confidence we’ll get there as currently planned. As it stands, we now have a connection on the way home and are losing the entirety of our last day because of it.

My primary issue is the lack of assistance in helping us when stranded. On my first call they refused to check other departure locations except MCO. SW flys out of RSW, SRQ, and multiple other locations that they wouldn’t even check because it was outside their “policy”.  You’ve got to be kidding me quoting policy when you have left thousands of people in a major bind. 

[dfwskier]

Well, it's worthwhile to be insistent -- at least occasionally. If you  keep pushing, "NO" is not necessarily the final answer

Example - spring break last year I was helping some people that absolutely had to get back to the east coast, but their flight was cancelled and all flights for the next 3-4 days out of Denver were full. I suggested that, due to the issue, that they INSIST that they be put on a flight out of Albuquerque instead. Southwest agreed and they flew out of ABQ instead.