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Southwest Airlines Community

Oddly timed flights

denno
Adventurer B

It appears from the new June, 2018 schedule that the number of oddly timed flights is increasing even more than it has been.  More 5am to 5:30am departures and more midnight to 1:45am arrivals.  I can think of precious few reasons (none of them good) why I would want to arrive somewhere at 1:45am, have to go find my car and get to where I need to be around 3am.  Are these flights more popular than I think they are?  Who gets up at 2am to be on a 5:15am flight?  Serving a market with 5 flights a day but one is before 5:30am and the last arrives at 1:30am can't be based on customers clamoring for them, can they?  Plus, this kind of shoots the "we don't want to offer red-eye flights" explanation in head.  Just curious if the community finds these flights more attractive than I do.

 

Denno

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Oddly timed flights

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Those flights are morel likely much about positioning the plane for other flights. Southwest is "plane poor" at the moment, so they are working to maximize the utilization of every plane they do have. (I realize this doesn't make having to travel at inopportune times any better, just an explanation.)

Re: Oddly timed flights

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

I understood from other posts on these boards that the redeye flight limitation was partly due to the reservation software, which with the recent upgrade may have relaxed the hours of operation for flights.

 

I've found the 5 a.m. flights to be relatively busy, but the redeye flights usually I've had plenty of room to stretch out.

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

Re: Oddly timed flights

chgoflyer
Aviator A

There was indeed a limitation in the old booking system that precluded offering red eyes, but Southwest has also stated they have no desire to fly them anytime soon.


@DancingDavidE wrote:

I understood from other posts on these boards that the redeye flight limitation was partly due to the reservation software, which with the recent upgrade may have relaxed the hours of operation for flights.

 

I've found the 5 a.m. flights to be relatively busy, but the redeye flights usually I've had plenty of room to stretch out.



Also, be aware that a very late arrival is not technically a red eye. 😉

Re: Oddly timed flights

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

I wouldn't normally call it a redeye either, although my eyes may be red at 2 a.m.!

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