So I was finally able to reach customer relations at the number that has subsequently been removed from the link posted on page one of the thread. The flight was not cancelled directly due to weather (as I suspected), but due to air traffic control orders from Houston based on what they expected to be the weather that night, that ultimately did not occur.. So still outside of SWA control and they will not directly reimburse the hotel/rental car costs, but they are giving us vouchers to compensate for the experience. So ultimately I am happy with the outcome, but I don't think I should have had to work so hard to get to this point.
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06-23-2021
02:18 PM
06-23-2021
02:18 PM
Southwest told us the weather in Houston caused the cancellation. The flight was cancelled at least 3 hours before any of the ground holds in Houston that day, and there were flights from DAL, AUS, SAT, and others landing at the airport without schedule delays on either side of our scheduled arrival time. So the flight was cancelled because of a weather forecast, not because weather actually prevented operations of flights to or from the airport.
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06-22-2021
05:32 PM
06-22-2021
05:32 PM
They are now claiming it is weather related. However, I was able to look at their flight status for yesterday’s flights, and there were flight options from Denver landing in Houston all day long, including within 1/2 hour before our flight was scheduled to arrive and ~1/2 hour after. I checked my texts, and the decision to cancel the flight was made 11 hours before the flight would have been landing. Those claiming forecasting is an in exact science, that is great...so how were they so sure the weather would be terrible enough to stop the flights 11 hours in advance, instead of waiting until an hour or two before the flight was scheduled to depart Denver? And if it was so certain to be bad that far in advance, why did they not cancel all the flights into Houston in that time window? Why were there planes landing there when the weather was supposed to be stopping them? This was an operational cancellation due to lack of staff, just like all the cancellations American is making, and they just didn’t want a bunch of planes stranded in Houston with no crews to operate them. They used the weather as an excuse, even though they had planes landing there last night. Every time they lie and try to tell me otherwise, it just makes me furious.
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06-22-2021
09:02 AM
06-22-2021
09:02 AM
If they know such situations are not just possible, but likely, on a daily basis somewhere in their network, then that is exactly the kind of planning they should be doing. Making no attempt to plan ahead for weather issues that can be pretty accurately forecast three to five days in advance is poor management. If a plane can’t leave a city due to weather, that is obviously a weather driven delay/cancellation. But if an airline can’t overcome that cancellation caused by weather that they knew was possible 3-5 days in advance; and allows it to shut down a whole string of flights, stranding customers, and then refuses to compensate those customers, that is poor operational management and poor customer service. Two things I never would have imagined saying in the same sentence as Southwest Airlines.
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06-22-2021
12:39 AM
06-22-2021
12:39 AM
If they know 8 hrs in advance that weather is going to do that, then they have plenty of time to bring in other equipment. They can’t plan to fly an airline only when the skies are blue. If their operational plan for dealing with a weather issue in some distant city is to just cancel all flights for the day involving that plane, then it isn’t the weather that is the problem, it is their operations plan. And they should compensate their customers properly when their operational plan causes them to cancel a flight.
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#1, southwest never told us the reason for the cancellation. The fact that it happened over 8 hrs before the flight suggests to me that it was not weather related. #2, the flight cancelled was the connection to get us home, not the initial flight of the day. So while it was plenty of notice had we been sitting in the connecting airport, we were 3+ hours from the nearest airport and there was only one flight from that airport to get to where the connection was to happen. So we could either spend $500-600 buying tickets on another airline, drive to another airport farther away and pay about the same, while also racking up rental car fees for not returning to the original location, or stay overnight in a hotel. Since SWA for sure won’t reimburse the other airline ticket, they should at least cover our hotel room and rental car if they want to follow their own “commitment”.
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06-21-2021
10:37 PM
06-21-2021
10:37 PM
Doesn’t appear that anybody is answering that number, and there is no way to leave a message. It just rings and rings.
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06-21-2021
10:02 PM
06-21-2021
10:02 PM
The “Customer Service Commitment” posted here: https://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs/corporate-commitments/customer-service-commitment.pdf includes the following regarding cancelled or delayed flights: 12. Identifying the services to mitigate Customer inconveniences during irregular operations Southwest does its best to operate flights as scheduled. Sometimes, events beyond our control or situations we could not anticipate prevent us from doing so. In order to mitigate Customer inconveniences, we provide the following assistance in the event a flight is delayed, canceled, or diverted: ● Rebooking on the next available Southwest flight(s) with seats available to your ticketed destination. ● A refund of the unused portion of your Southwest ticket. We do not pay for tickets on other airlines or absorb the difference between our fares and higher fares on other airlines. If circumstances within our control, such as aircraft “swaps,” cause you to miss the last possible flight (or connection) of the day to your destination, our Customer Service personnel have the authority to arrange at no additional cost to you: ● Overnight lodging ● Ground transportation to the overnight facility If the cause of your inconvenience is not within our means of control, we will do our best to assist you by securing a discounted rate at a hotel at or near the airport. SWA cancelled our flight over 8 hours before the flight was to take place today and was unable to rebook us same day flights to get home. When asked about lodging compensation, the customer service agent on the phone said he could not help us with that. The SWA policy quoted above specifically says that he is authorized to provide both overnight lodging and transportation to get there. Why are they acting like Jet Blue? You made a commitment and posted it on your website. LIVE UP TO IT! Or stop acting like you are any different than United. We know United hates their customers...but until today I thought SWA was different.
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