Stuck at airport - flight under airport control?

[sjain01]

I am posting on behalf of my family friend who is stuck at the airport. His flight today was from Boston to Kansas City (through St. Louis). He got routed to Louisville, KY. He is now stuck at the airport. I called SWA on the phone and they cannot help because the "flight is under airport control"? Never heard anything like this before. They will not reroute him on the phone. The SWA counter at the airport will not help him either. First time I have heard something like this. He is supposed to come visit us in Kansas City and at this point we have no idea what will happen. There is a flight tonight at 8:30pm eastern but nobody at Southwest will tell him anything at this point. Strange.

[TheMiddleSeat]

Two Southwest and one American flight from BOS to STL today were diverted to alternate airports.  This usually happens during storms and is pretty standard practice when a storm is expected to be in the area for a longer period of time which would result in a plane circling for hours and eventually running out of fuel.  When the weather clears the planes take off again and resume towards their destination.  There's nothing Southwest can do, you'll just need to be patient while the weather clears and the plane will eventually land where it is supposed to be.  Passengers do not typically disembark while at the diverted airport so there is no opportunity to "reroute".  If the passenger misses their connection Southwest will do their best to get them on the next flight, but that is dependent on space being available and it is possible an overnight stay would be required in STL and that will not be paid for by an airline because weather was the reason for the delay.

--TheMiddleSeat

[robynne]

What others said is probably true, have had to pick someone up several hours late (at 2AM!) due to storms on east coast, and he was lucky to make it to West Coast. 

[DancingDavidE]

---

@sjain01 wrote:

I am posting on behalf of my family friend who is stuck at the airport. His flight today was from Boston to Kansas City (through St. Louis). He got routed to Louisville, KY. He is now stuck at the airport. I called SWA on the phone and they cannot help because the "flight is under airport control"? Never heard anything like this before. They will not reroute him on the phone. The SWA counter at the airport will not help him either. First time I have heard something like this. He is supposed to come visit us in Kansas City and at this point we have no idea what will happen. There is a flight tonight at 8:30pm eastern but nobody at Southwest will tell him anything at this point. Strange.

---

There was a very intense storm coming through Illinois that they probably couldn't get around and decided to wait it out on the ground. I hope they ended up catching that 8:30 p.m. flight.