Rerouting to avoid Houston

[erichuseby]

I got a text message notifying my flight (31) connecting throught Houston is already canceled.  Fine.  I expected that due to the hurricane.  I called trying to get rerouted through Chicago, Baltimore, Orlando, Philly ... any high volume airport I could get to from Dallas and catch another flight to Charleston.  The agent went on hold for 15-20 minutes and told me, "Sorry, there are other flights that day."  I said I understood there were no other scheduled flights from Dallas to Charleston.  I was just asking to get there through some other means, the way Southwest has done for me many times before.  THEN, she told me that flight 31 isn't actually canceled.   It's just going to skip Houston and go straight to Charleston.  That's a little suspect to me because I already got a text saying it's canceled.  Also the passenger load will be pretty small.  I'm sure most people would have deplaned in Houston. On the other hand, maybe they just need that bird in Charleston, and they'll fly nearly empty to get it there. 

So ...  Any recommendations?  I don't mind a long layover or going seriously out of the way.  I understand the hurricane is not Southwest's fault, and the agent was super polite with me.   But is there any way to learn for sure if this plane is going to fly or not, considering I got a text saying it's not going, but the agent says it is.  And if it's not going, is there a way to to get them to reroute me some other way?  Thanks! 

[TheMiddleSeat]

While I don't have definitive information, FlightAware does list the non-Houston portions of flight #31 as scheduled (not cancelled).  As the plane would most likely be needed in CHS to continue on to BWI later in the day it's not completly unreasonable to think it would go DAL-CHS, bypassing HOU.  The other posibility is a different plane is swapped in at CHS to complete flight #31.  But, on the positive side, I had also seen someone else in another post somewhere online mentioning Southwest was bypassing HOU.  So, not definitive, but a positive sign that you might actually be able to get to CHS on an unexpected non-stop flight.

Do you still have a non-cancelled reservation/boarding pass?  All good signs if you do.  Reply back and let us know what happens.

[erichuseby]

I'm still about 30 hours away from being able to get a boarding pass.  The reservation still looks normal in my Rapid Rewards account.  No indication of cancellation there.  Just the text message that says the flight has been canceled.  

One other odd thing that gives me pause is that the reservation agent was unable to access my reservation with the confirmation number.  I gave it to her three times.  We had a good connection. She repeated it back to me correctly, but couldn't access it.  She needed my Rapid Rewards number instead to find it.  Maybe their system is just glitchy because it's overwhelmed.

Appreciate your insight  I'll update with final disposition in case there are lessons here anyone else scheduled to pass through Houston can learn from.

[TheMiddleSeat]

The positive news is your reservation is still active so perhaps there is a plan to get you to Charleston. Seems like things are really day by day so it's hard to say what will be happening on Friday when you're scheduled to fly (if I did my math correctly).

Today, the plane from flight 31 went to Dallas and then changed flight numbers with a different plane resuming flight 31 in Charleston. That's not a good sign for you, but again, who knows what will happen. Good luck!