Skip to main content

Southwest Airlines Community

Overbooking - Was it Fake news Flight delays?

davidslifer
Explorer C

Thusday, July 11 my wife and I had a flight #932 from Chicago to Kansas City, departing at 10:00pm.  Starting at 6pm we received texts claiming flight delayed till 10:35, then later to 11:05pm, then 11:40 pm then finally 12:20am.  At this time I was considering staying over another night then catching the 6am flight.  Earlier flights to Kansas City were unavailable when I checked earlier in the day so volume apparently was high.  As an A Lister when I checked in the night before (10:03pm) I received a B 52 Boarding Pass which was disconcerting. 

 

At 8pm we made the decision to leave the hotel and travel to the airport.  As soon as I got in the cab I received an update the flight departs now at 10:20pm on July 12 (the wrong date).  The plane was coming in from Nashville so weather was not the issue.  Although there were tropical storms coming so other cities were certainly effected.

 

After scrambling to airport and through security I saw a buddy on the same flight and asked if he got plane delay text messages, he states, "don't get me started with this flight, I checked in this morning, after forgetting to last night, and was told I was on standby even though I purchased the ticket months ago".

 

I could be "off base" but I felt like the FAKE NEWS FLIGHT DELAYS were an instrument to solve overbooking.  We're glad we made the decision to get to the airport even thought we believed we was going to be there for 4 hours before the delayed flight took off.

 

Am I correct in my jaded theory that the delays were used to have some passengers make the decision to fly the next day?    I read where Southwest doesn't overbook anymore?  Is that in fact true?

 

What a weird strange experience coupled with the drunk (or drugged) guy in front of us being escorted off the plane for being nonresponsive.

 

Like any relationship with highs and lows, my love affair with Southwest airlines is at an interesting juncture.  Or should I chalk this up to tropical storms disrupting all types of flights?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 REPLY 1

Re: Overbooking - Was it Fake news Flight delays?

dfwskier
Aviator A

Sorry you had trouble.

 

1) No airline uses "fake delays" to get people off a plane. If any airline did that and it was discovered, the airline would be crucified in the press.

 

2) I can't speak to why your flight was delayed.

 

3) No, Southwest does not intentionally overbook flights any more  .but. 

 

4) If Your original plane had issues and needed to be replaced with a different plane and the only available plane was a smaller one, that would result in an overbooked situation - not by plan but by circumstance.

 

edit add: I just checked flight aware and discovered your flight was flown with a 143 seat plane. The other days of the week the same flight was flown with a 175 seat plane. So, my guess in point 4 above might have validity.