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“Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

Travelingfamily
Explorer C

The return leg from our family vacation to CO was supposed to be SWA 4982 on March 16th from Denver to New Orleans.  While on vacation I receive a text alert on Wednesday night stating that flight 4982 had been cancelled due to weather.  This seemed plausible due to the storms but how does Southwest know 3 Days ahead of time to cancel a flight because of weather??  As I was trying to reschedule flights out of Denver I realized that other Southwest flights had not been cancelled ( of course they’re fully booked).  Upon finally reaching a customer service rep I was told the only flight they could get us on was Monday March 18th, she of course didn’t know why our flight was cancelled due to “weather” while other Southwest flights out of Denver were still operating.  So we’ve elected to drive 6 hours to New Mexico to board another Southwest flight so that we can make it home on time.  This is after the customer service rep made it very clear that Southwest would not cover any travel expenses since the flight out of NM was more expensive......

 

By the way....all of our friends flights leaving from Denver to New Orleans on other carriers on March 15 and March 16 have not been cancelled by the “weather” curiously enough.  

 

UPDATE:

After looking at flightaware.com it seems that SWA 4982 is on a 737 Max 8.  So it seems my family was straight up lied to about the reason why our flight cancelled and blamed on the “weather”.  

7 REPLIES 7

Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

dfwskier
Aviator A

Hello.

 

If I were you I would send an e-mail to the company, and wait for it to get back to you. Hopefully  the wait for a response will be shorter than it was yesterday, when it was awful.

 

Then I woud ask that the company to put you on the flight out of ABQ at no additional cost. If it refuses, ask to speak to a supervisor. Lower level employees might not have the ability to make that kind of change, but supervisors do.

 

BTW, I looked at DEN/MSY flights tfor the 16th and could not find a flight 4982., but it looked like all flights on the routing involve a connection, so maybe the weather issue was on the second plane?

 

edit add:

 

Well, this is very strange. 4982 does not show up in trying to book flights on the 16th. It does not show up when trying to when trying to check on flight status. Both via the SW web site.

 

IT DOES show up when looking at  flight aware, and flight aware confirms it was a 737 Max8 and that it was cancelled. 

 

I have to believe the txt you recieved did not intentiaonally lie to you, but it is clear that the information you were given was not correct. I go back to what I said earlier in the post. Talk with SW and demand to be put on the flight out of ABQ at no additional cost.

Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

Travelingfamily
Explorer C

Thanks for the response. Southwest did get us a flight out of ABQ with no extra charge. Since the rate was higher for that flight they would not cover any travel expenses associated with the 7 hours of travel or the extra overnight stay.   It shows up on the flight checker for me  

 

 

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Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

dfwskier
Aviator A

@Travelingfamily wrote:

Thanks for the response. Southwest did get us a flight out of ABQ with no extra charge. Since the rate was higher for that flight they would not cover any travel expenses associated with the 7 hours of travel or the extra overnight stay.   It shows up on the flight checker for me  

 

 

8E3B19C3-6106-4701-862D-8E937E060FFF.jpeg

 

I would encourage you to contact customer relations at 855-234-4654 after you get home and things (hopefully) calm down a bit.

 

I'd say nthings like

 

1) My Max 8 flight was cancelled

2) SW couldn't get us home on any kind of timely basis out of Denver

3) So we had to depart from ABQ to even get home

4) We incurred extra expenses due to your MAX8 cancellation and our need to get home

5) We paid for a rent car

6) We ask that you provide us with vouchers in the amount of (insert dollar value here)

 

Vouchers cost the airline less than dollars do although they are worth the same to you. You can use them to pay for a future flight.

 

If you ask, you might get something.

 

Good luck.


Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

basslaw2010
Frequent Flyer B

Just as an fyi, Southwest will preemptively cancel flights when there is a severe storm forecast for the area.  They would rather just cancel the flight than have passengers sitting around in hopes of the flight taking off after hours-long delays, etc.

Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

Travelingfamily
Explorer C

Well now they’ve cancelled our new flight (4991) out of ABQ and they can’t even tell me why!!!

Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

dfwskier
Aviator A

@Travelingfamily wrote:

Well now they’ve cancelled our new flight (4991) out of ABQ and they can’t even tell me why!!!


Well heck. Sometimes things just keep getting worse. I've had stuff like that happen several times and it really is not fun. Sorry.

 

It looks like DEN/MSY and ABQ/MSY are both sold out for Saturday, but there are more than 8 seats available Sunday morning on 3670/2681 out of ABQ - if that is any help.

 

 

Re: “Weather” Related Cancellation on 737 Max 8

Travelingfamily
Explorer C

Thank you for this. I have booked this flight and confirmed it’s not on an “aircraft type” that may be cancelled.  Hoping third time is a charm.