Southwest Airlines Community

Can someone please explain how this can happen. My family and I booked a flight in December for a departure on 2/17.  We checked in 24 hours prior to our flight that was scheduled for 7:30 PM on 2/17. We were successful and in group A! Then 1 hour and 17 minutes later, I get a text that the flight has been canceled.  Then 17 minutes after that, I get a second text stating that we have been rebooked on an earlier flight at 4:20 PM on 2/17. That is great and all EXCEPT for my job and my family who has school and work.  Now we are scrambling to see what we can do to either keep our rebooked reservations for the 4:20 flight, or reschedule for a different day.  But we have a rental car and a paid hotel room at our destination based on our original flight.  We also were not going to miss any work or school with our original flight.  This is very inconvenient.   I tried "talking" through the app with a robot and didn't get any where.  Then we called SW.  1 hour and 51 minutes later, we finally got a human.  I explained our situation for about 5 minutes and then was put on hold again for another 10 minutes.  There was nothing they could really do but offer us spaces on different flights IF there is room.  That is convenient for SW, but not for my family. Has anyone else had a similar situation or problem like this and how was it resolved?  I am extremely upset because I have been scrambling to try to make changes to my schedule to make it work for the rebooked flight and SW doesn't seem to care.  I even asked for Luv voucher and that wasn't an option, but I could file a complaint to see if my complaint is valid.  I don't normally vent and complain, but SW says they are transparent and care about there customers and I don't feel that is accurate in my situation. Thanks for listening... ... View more