This past Sunday a group of 12 we were to fly home from a long weekend golf trip in the Denver area. We were schedule to leave Denver on a direct flight to Raleigh at 6:25pm when we received an alert mid-morning that the flight was cancelled due to weather. This seemed so odd since the alert was received almost 10 hours before the flight was to depart and the weather was fine. Since the next available flights to Raleigh with availability were either late afternoon or the evening on the following day (Monday), several in our group had to find alternative flights to get home earlier due to their work requirements/responsibilities.
Interestingly, United was able to fly direct from Denver to Raleigh on Sunday at almost the exact same time as our original Southwest flight scheduled time. Did United have a different weather report? Additionally, others in our party were flying Southwest to different locations and were able to depart at about the same time as our original departure time. Did those flights have different weather patterns?
For those members in our party that did not want to pay the exorbitant amount to fly United that Sunday evening, we all had to pay for an additional hotel stay. Several, including myself, had to pay for flights on anther airline to get home earlier on Monday, again, so we could get back at a reasonable hour for work.
I find it suspicious that cancellation for weather was 1) called almost 10 hours before our flight; 2) other airlines could fly the exact same route at almost the exact same time; and 3) other Southwest flights could leave Denver at the same time. But for some reasons, our flight could not???
Could it possibly be that Southwest, by claiming the cancellation was "weather" related, would not have to compensate for overnight stays, etc.??
Very frustrating experience.
