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Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

Debbo
Explorer C

Southwest delayed our flight out of Nashville which resulted in us missing our connecting flight out of BWI.  They refused to put us up in hotel last night and they booked us on flight out of BWI tomorrow.  My husband is 70 years and they expect him to sleep in airport 2 nights in a row.  They say they won’t reimburse for Amtrak or car rental home. Our luggage has been forwarded to home airport so we are without toiletries, medication, or additional clothes.  How can we get home.  Who can help us?

11 REPLIES 11

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

jksobonya
Aviator A

I'm sorry for the delays - I wouldn't want to spend 2 nights in the airport. I know it's inconvenient but I'd book a cheap hotel close to the airport so at least you have a place to stay and can shower, sleep, etc. There are plenty of hotels just a few miles from the airport. 

 

--Jessica

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

dfwskier
Aviator A

Southwest would give you a discount "coupon" that provides a discounted rate at hotels near the airport -- but you have to ask for it.

 

Sorry to hear that this is happening to you.

 

I have slept in airports. It is not fun

 

Edit add:

 

Keep checking southwest.com to see if any flights open today, or if you have the cell app, you can check there.

 

People cancel reservations all the time. When they do, seats open up. Typically new seat inventory  is not available for long as other people will be doing what I'm suggesting you do.

 

Check frequently -- like every 15 minutes.

 

If seats come open, grab them.

 

Southwest will let you make a no cost change, regardless of the price of the new seats

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

NicoleAshley
Employee
Employee

@Debbo I am so sorry for the inconvenience. As a Customer-to-Customer support forum, we are not equipped to assist you here, but I encourage you to Contact Customer Relations once your travel is complete to discuss the overall experience. 

 

Nicole
Community Manager

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

Mfcronan
Explorer C

Is there another way to contact the Support Specialist without having to sit on the phone for hours? I emailed almost 3 weeks ago and just received a generic response back from a Customer Support Specialist..  not a direct response to my questions or the receipts I sent in. 

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

NicoleAshley
Employee
Employee

I am so sorry for letting you down with our response, @Mfcronan. What were your receipts for? 

Nicole
Community Manager

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

Mfcronan
Explorer C

We were one of the many flights cancelled 6/14. We were not allowed to have our luggage due to policy/ lack of ground staff. we were put on a flight for 6/16 LATE  at night and told to sit stand by in the airport on 6/14 to try to fly standby on a earlier flight. ALL flights on 6/15 were cancelled. With no guarantee things would get better by Wed we drove from Baltimore to Augusta.  Southwest rep helped me cancel the 6/16 flight on our drive across New England. He advised me to save the receipts for the clothing and toiletries we had to purchase since we were denied our bags. We were told that the bags would fly to Portland on the next available flight and that we would be contacted when they arrived. We went 3 days without our luggage and then had to drive from Bangor to Portland because Southwest luggage refused to deliver our bags to us. So the receipts are for the clothes. Then i asked about reimbursement for fees associated to having to change our rental car, hotel cancellation and new hotel and finally the gas to drive 4 hrs for our bags.

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A

All of the flights except the first one from BNA to BWI were late yesterday. I'm guessing weather. Surely you understand that no airline (in the US at least) will provide lodging in the event of weather. 

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

Mfcronan
Explorer C

Wbags. Why shouldn't we as customers expect the airlines to assist with accomodations? As an industry they need to do better. Leaving hundreds, probably thousands of people, stranded in airports with no options is crazy. There should be support. We are so afraid of COVID but you will leave people packed in airport terminals and on planes for HOURS? They have relationships with multiple layers of the vacations industry: car rentals, hotels and dining options. Having discounts and coupons set up to assist people when you know they need it is not too much to ask or expect.

Re: Stranded at BWI and they expect us to spend another night at the airport

bwallet
Frequent Flyer A
Solution

@Mfcronan Because the weather is an act of G-d. Airlines do not and never have provided hotels in the event of a weather related delay or cancellation.  No airline in the US does. I buy my tickets with a credit card that provides insurance for such situations. If my flight is delayed or cancelled, and I need to stay overnight, I pay for a room, and Chase reimburses me.