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Notice of Cancellation for Engine Inspections

DesertSailor1
Explorer C

  During the first few days of emergency engine inspections after the tragic 4/17/18 engine explosion it was understandable that Southwest had to cancel some flights without advance warning to perform these unscheduled inspections. However, the airline has had time now to assess which planes will need inspections and has even announced that it will take about 30 days to complete all of these inspections. So, these new inspections should now be scheduled. Customers with flights booked during this time should be notified in advance if their flight will be impacted so they can reschedule their travel in advance.

  Instead, when I call to inquire, I am told that these cancellations are considered mechanical difficulties and that the impacted flights can be cancelled as little as 10 minutes before departure. This would be more than a little inconvenient if my wife and I were to miss boarding the cruise we are scheduled to take. 

  This issue applies to all Southwest customers of course, but I would appreciate any information you can provide about flight 3653 on 4/28/18.

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Notice of Cancellation for Engine Inspections

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

That's definitely a frustrating situation. As this Community is 99% customer to customer discussions you'll need to reach out to Southwest via phone or Twitter (@SouthwestAir) to get an official response from Southwest. It sounds like you have previously called and heard that cancelations could be last minute so I doubt you would hear anything different if contact them again, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

 

--TheMiddleSeat

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Re: Notice of Cancellation for Engine Inspections

DesertSailor1
Explorer C

  Just got back from our cruise. It turned out that the flights both ways were not impacted by the cancellations.

  To answer your question, yes - I had called SW customer service which told me that a cancellation due to engine inspections could take place at the last minute. I also emailed customer service and never heard back.

  I am generally a fan of SW and have been a frequent flyer for many years. I can't recall ever having the need to try to get an answer to a question like this before - which is good of course. However, I must say that I am surprised at how difficult and frustruating it has been trying to get useful information from the company in this situation.

Re: Notice of Cancellation for Engine Inspections

MJBro214
Explorer C

We were expecting our daughter and new husband to visit this weekend.  They made it all the way to the airport before receiving notice their flight was cancelled.  While this is very disappointing, at least the change of plans did not impact an extremely important event.  We are big fans of Southwest Airlines, however, it seems they could have been given some advance notice before driving to their airport.  It's been 10 days since the tragic event - it seems like the airline would have known and notified passengers in advance about which flights would be cancelled.  This flight was cancelled last minute.  Very strange.

Re: Notice of Cancellation for Engine Inspections

bec102896
Aviator A

@MJBro214

 

Was your daughter told the flight was canceled because of inspections? If not normal day to day operations could be the cause of the canceled flight such as weather or crew or a lot of other day to day operation situations that occur. 

 

if your daughter does complete travel (instead of canceling the trip) and wants to talk with southwest about this canceled flight she can reach out to southwest on Twitter or she can call customer relations at 855-234-4654.

 

hope this helps

Blake