Southwest Airlines Community

Another resource is FlightAware. After being canceled 3x over the holiday when the SW was down, I found this useful because it updates in real-time and tells you if the plane is on the ground, in flight, landed, etc. Only two days out as well but it has good intel.    I just checked on a friend's non-stop flight this afternoon from SoCal to NorCal. Six of seven flights were canceled except theirs. When I checked, I saw them taking off in real time. So for them, at least, it's getting better.       ... View more

Personally, SW is fine for short trips, I haven't had any real issues with them. And they are the main carrier from LA to the Bay Area. AA and United don't have frequent flights and aren't budget airlines. The other alternative is to drive or take the train which works as well. I use other carriers if I'm traveling anywhere else.  ... View more

Try international customer service numbers:   https://mobile.southwest.com/html/contact-us/intl-customer-service.html   These aren't the only ones. Google Europe and Asia as well. They are servicing domestic US flights. Best of luck! ... View more

A similar thing happened to me but not for a layover. I was just at the airport for 2 days and went back home but on Christmas Day they canceled the entire trip, finishing on Thursday, 12/29 with no rebook. Instead, they gave a refund credit which you can dispute and request a cash refund on the contact me page. Posters on this site suggest calling the international numbers for the airlines as they are answering for domestic flights. Here's more info:   https://www.southwest.com/traveldisruption/ ... View more

Yes, under normal circumstances, I agree. I've flown SW every month for the last 15 years. My return flight was for Thursday 12/29. Never have I ever had a whole trip canceled, just the flight in question. However, the trip was completely canceled on the 3rd re-book on Christmas Day, initiated by SW. I didn't contact them. It just happened. The credit was refunded to my account. I couldn't log in on the website or app at that point to alter anything. I didn't bother to try further as I didn't have huge plans or needed the hassle. Hanging out in the airport on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was enough. Things might be better as the week goes on but from what I've heard, they are canceling all flights this week until things are resolved.  ... View more

My outbound flight from LAX was rebooked 3x on 12/24 & 12/25. On the 3rd reservation, they canceled my entire trip with an email and then refunded me flight credits. I emailed them with a request to refund me the cash here:   https://www.southwest.com/traveldisruption/   If you need to contact them, it's reported on the SW discussion forum that SW international numbers are working for domestic flights. You can call South Africa or Japan and they will answer within 5-10 minutes. They speak English. Good luck!   ... View more

I've been flying SW for 30 years, the last time on 12/1. Something is very wrong. I saw dozens of staff rolling off of other flights at LAX and no one volunteered to help stranded flights. Here's my complaint to corporate:   To whoever is working here today: I spent 10 hours in LAX Christmas Eve this weekend waiting for a plane that never arrived. My 4:45 pm flight to SJC was canceled. I rebooked on a 7:45 pm flight to SFO. That was delayed until midnight when 175+ tired people were told that the pilot was on the ground in Vegas and would be there in 45 minutes. So we waited, only to find out that a flight attendant had ended her shift and was unable to fly so this flight was canceled at 1 a.m. I was then rebooked on the last flight 1602 to SJC for Christmas Day at 8:00 pm. Mind you, on Christmas Eve I received text messages regarding the flight delays but they were all inaccurate. On Christmas Day I only received one, saying the flight was delayed to 9:47 pm. Rather than trust the text messages, I relied on the SW website and a flight-tracking app for guidance. The flight app was the most accurate. It showed that only a handful of flights left the LAX SW terminal yesterday. My flight on the SW website showed delays beginning at 11 a.m. I didn't even bother to go to the airport because guess what? It was not only canceled but deleted from the SW website later in the day as if it never existed. The flight app also showed that other airlines were in flight so the weather couldn't be the only issue since my flight was literally less than an hour in California. I've got friends who were in NYC who made it home for Christmas. What gives? The Customer Service numbers don't work, I can't log on to the website because it says "Please try again later". Your napkins say Southwest is all about transparency. Well, I didn't see any of that this weekend. All I saw were a lot of sad faces when you ruined passengers' holidays.  ... View more

I fly SW every month and have done for almost 2 decades. I had a holiday cancellation back in the 90s due to a flight attendant strike. I last flew on 12/1. My only complaint was no drink service. I booked and rebooked 3x this weekend (a flight reserved a month in advance) and all were canceled, one at 1 a.m. They were missing a pilot. He got there and then a flight attendant bailed. The website is down, the phones are down. The text messages are late and inaccurate. People are walking off the job at SW. In droves apparently. LAX Terminal 1 was a ghost town this weekend after flight after flight was canceled. Something is definitely, terribly wrong because they are a very reliable airline.  ... View more

I love 3-10's comments. Spot on. I sent a complaint because in 30 years of flying SW I have never seen this kind of behavior from the airline. I fly regularly from LA to the Bay Area once a month and can't recall many issues, including my last trip on 12/1. I think I was canceled once on Christmas Eve years ago because of a strike. This year was a whole other level and no it wasn't the weather. My friends in NYC got back to California just fine on Saturday. I was rebooked 3x for what was essentially an hour-long flight. I could have driven but the rental cars in my area were sold out. I was rebooked 2x and waited ten hours until 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve when we were told the pilot was on the way. When he arrived, a flight attendant bailed. The clerks whispered the news to us over the mics. I was rebooked for Christmas Day and the website posted a delay for an 8 pm flight at 11:00 am. Of course, the phone didn't work and the app login didn't work. Crash and burn all weekend. I didn't even bother going to the airport. I checked a flight tracking app and only a handful of flights out of LAX made it in the air yesterday. They were all delayed indefinitely or canceled. It's a shame because so many people missed out on being with their families. Back in the day, when a flight was canceled, the airline did everything to make it up to you. What I saw this weekend at LAX T1 was unacceptable. Stringing people along during the holiday season is just wrong and unnecessary. We could have made other choices if SW had shown some transparency.  ... View more

Here's what I wrote to them this morning: To whoever is working today: I spent 10 hours in LAX Christmas Eve this weekend waiting for a plane that never arrived. My 4:45 pm flight to SJC was canceled. I rebooked on a 7:45 pm flight to SFO. That was delayed until midnight when 175+ tired people were told that the pilot was on the ground in Vegas and would be there in 45 minutes. So we waited, only to find out that a flight attendant had ended her shift and was unable to fly so this flight was canceled at 1 a.m. I was then rebooked on the last flight 1602 to SJC for Christmas Day at 8:00 pm. Mind you, on Christmas Eve I received text messages regarding the flight delays but they were all inaccurate. On Christmas Day I only received one, saying the flight was delayed to 9:47 pm. Rather than trust the text messages, I relied on the SW website and a flight-tracking app for guidance. The flight app was the most accurate. It showed that only a handful of flights left the LAX SW terminal yesterday. My flight on the SW website showed delays beginning at 11 a.m. I didn't even bother to go to the airport because guess what? It was not only canceled but deleted from the SW website later in the day as if it never existed. The flight app also showed that other airlines were in flight so the weather couldn't be the only issue since my flight was literally less than an hour in California. I've got friends who were in NYC who made it home for Christmas. What gives? The Customer Service numbers don't work, I can't log on to the website because it says "Please try again later". Your napkins say Southwest is all about transparency. Well, I didn't see any of that this weekend. All I saw were a lot of sad faces when you ruined passengers' holidays.  ... View more

I sent a complaint on their website.  I've been flying SW for years but this is unacceptable. Here's what I wrote - I did get a refund but they didn't bother to notify me that the 3rd and final flight I tried to board was canceled:   To whoever is working here today: I spent 10 hours in LAX Christmas Eve this weekend waiting for a plane that never arrived. My 4:45 pm flight to SJC was canceled. I rebooked on a 7:45 pm flight to SFO. That was delayed until midnight when 175+ tired people were told that the pilot was on the ground in Vegas and would be there in 45 minutes. So we waited, only to find out that a flight attendant had ended her shift and was unable to fly so this flight was canceled at 1 a.m. I was then rebooked on the last flight 1602 to SJC for Christmas Day at 8:00 pm. Mind you, on Christmas Eve I received text messages regarding the flight delays but they were all inaccurate. On Christmas Day I only received one, saying the flight was delayed to 9:47 pm. Rather than trust the text messages, I relied on the SW website and a flight-tracking app for guidance. The flight app was the most accurate. It showed that only a handful of flights left the LAX SW terminal yesterday. My flight on the SW website showed delays beginning at 11 a.m. I didn't even bother to go to the airport because guess what? It was not only canceled but deleted from the SW website later in the day as if it never existed. The flight app also showed that other airlines were in flight so the weather couldn't be the only issue since my flight was literally less than an hour in California. I've got friends who were in NYC who made it home for Christmas. What gives? The Customer Service numbers don't work, I can't log on to the website because it says "Please try again later". Your napkins say Southwest is all about transparency. Well, I didn't see any of that this weekend. All I saw were a lot of sad faces when you ruined passengers' holidays.  ... View more

I was booked and rebooked on three flights this weekend from LAX to SJC. An hour's flight, two on Christmas Eve and the last one on Christmas Day. Spent ten hours in the airport until 1 am. All were canceled. I didn't even get a notification that yesterday's rebooked flight was canceled. I had to rely on a flight tracking app to see what was going on. When I went online SW refunded my money. No notice, no nothing. Completely wasted my holiday.  ... View more