Southwest: Check your flights, more cancellations and shenanigans.

[perditax]

I’ve been on hold for 45 minutes. A post-cruise flight of mine from MSY on April 12th mysteriously was changed to ... today.

I got the email with the change confirmation while the “new” flight was literally already in the air.

[graphicguy]

No one can board a plane on your ticket without your ID.   Should be easy enough to get straightened out.

[erdoran]

LOL British Airways cancelled one of my legs of a flight and didn’t notify me.  When I called them to ask about a change on my return and why I wasn’t seeing my outbound I was. Told “YOU cancelled the outbound!”  Yeah, right!  30 mins on the phone or more to get it straightened out and to get BA to reroute me - THEY had cancelled my outbound flight entirely and “we thought you wouldn’t want an 11 hour layover so we cancellled your reservation” - strangely enough, they were able to slightly change my routing but - horrors - they had to put me on American Airlines for a leg out and a leg back, instead of just BA - you could tell it killed them to have to use another carrier!

 

Let us know how it comes out.  Whoever rebooked you and never bothered to tell you should be fired for stupidity!

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, perditax said:

I’ve been on hold for 45 minutes. A post-cruise flight of mine from MSY on April 12th mysteriously was changed to ... today.

I got the email with the change confirmation while the “new” flight was literally already in the air.

Maybe an airline forum would be of more help. 

[trex-de]

I just can’t see how this promotion will be a good thing. 

[perditax]

SW just ditched a whole flight due to the flight not being full.

 

Whoever did the “reallocation” flights made a huge error when changing our itinerary (made the date today, rather than the 12th). 

 

Because of the 45 minute hold time and more news of groundings of the Max, I thought there might be much larger issues, and was just providing a heads up. 

 

I posted here because I’d seen a previous thread here about the Max groundings. I also don’t read a lot of other travel forums. 

Edited March 30, 2019 by perditax

[PhillyTravelBug]

This is from a flight through the NCL promo? I’m so glad I did not opt for this.

[perditax]

21 minutes ago, Joeghartman said:

This is from a flight through the NCL promo? I’m so glad I did not opt for this.

 

No, and I apologize for any confusion. That said, the grounding of the Max is going to continue to affect flights.

 

From yesterday:

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2019/03/29/southwest-airlines-removes-boeing-max-8-s-from-flight-schedule-through-may-cancellations-continue/3316922002/

 

(My situation has been handled. This thread was not a request for help or a complaint about NCL, so cheerleaders can stand down. It was only a heads up. Mods can delete as needed.)

Edited March 31, 2019 by perditax

[DaCruiseBug]

5 hours ago, erdoran said:

LOL British Airways cancelled one of my legs of a flight and didn’t notify me.  When I called them to ask about a change on my return and why I wasn’t seeing my outbound I was. Told “YOU cancelled the outbound!”  Yeah, right!  30 mins on the phone or more to get it straightened out and to get BA to reroute me - THEY had cancelled my outbound flight entirely and “we thought you wouldn’t want an 11 hour layover so we cancellled your reservation” - strangely enough, they were able to slightly change my routing but - horrors - they had to put me on American Airlines for a leg out and a leg back, instead of just BA - you could tell it killed them to have to use another carrier!

 

Let us know how it comes out.  Whoever rebooked you and never bothered to tell you should be fired for stupidity!

 

American Airlines and British Airways are both part of the One World Alliance and operate a Joint Venture across the Atlantic. This means that it doesn't matter which airline you fly on because both carriers share revenue and expenses on those flights. So...I doubt they really cared that you were rebooked on American Airlines since it didn't cost them a penny more and they still got your money.

[DaCruiseBug]

1 hour ago, perditax said:

SW just ditched a whole flight due to the flight not being full.

 

Whoever did the “reallocation” flights made a huge error when changing our itinerary (made the date today, rather than the 12th). 

 

Because of the 45 minute hold time and more news of groundings of the Max, I thought there might be much larger issues, and was just providing a heads up. 

 

I posted here because I’d seen a previous thread here about the Max groundings. I also don’t read a lot of other travel forums. 

 

It is illegal for an airline to cancel a flight just because it's full. I've been on many flights that were maybe 25-30% full. One flight 2 years ago actually had 12 people out of almost 200 seats. Airlines don't cancel flights just because they aren't full. That airplane and that crew is flying somewhere and then flying somewhere else. Canceling a flight has a cascade effect. SW didn't "ditch a whole flight due to the flight not being full". It may be your opinion...but it's as far from the truth as possible.

[perditax]

9 minutes ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

It is illegal for an airline to cancel a flight just because it's full. I've been on many flights that were maybe 25-30% full. One flight 2 years ago actually had 12 people out of almost 200 seats. Airlines don't cancel flights just because they aren't full. That airplane and that crew is flying somewhere and then flying somewhere else. Canceling a flight has a cascade effect. SW didn't "ditch a whole flight due to the flight not being full". It may be your opinion...but it's as far from the truth as possible.

 

It’s not an opinion. It’s literally what the SW rep told me on the phone. You can ease off on the hostility.

 

The flight as it formerly existed is no longer bookable. It was also not on one of the grounded max planes. Don’t know what else to tell you.

 

I assume you’re now going to say that the rep was wrong, so go ahead and do that part, and we can all move on. 

[DaCruiseBug]

Just now, perditax said:

 

It’s not an opinion. It’s literally what the SW rep told me on the phone. You can ease off on the hostility.

 

The flight as it formerly existed is no longer bookable. It was also not on one of the grounded max planes. Don’t know what else to tell you.

 

I assume you’re now going to say that the rep was wrong, so go ahead and do that part, and we can all move on. 

 

If that's what the rep told you then the rep was making something up. I work in the industry and have first hand experience with flight scheduling etc. This is something that just doesn't happen. Southwest has 34 airplanes grounded. They have been reshuffling their schedules to reduce the number of cancellations. Sometimes you can cancel 1 flight and avoid canceling 2-3 flights. I will however repeat that flights are NOT cancelled because they aren't full. Especially when these days 20-30% of airplane tickets are booked under 2 weeks out.

[SandyAtSea]

8 hours ago, perditax said:

I’ve been on hold for 45 minutes. A post-cruise flight of mine from MSY on April 12th mysteriously was changed to ... today.

I got the email with the change confirmation while the “new” flight was literally already in the air.

What flight please? We are on southwest on the 12th well. MSY to Dallas and ONT at noon. 

[Dagent145]

My parents had issues when their travel agent started messing with things on their cruise last summer. Thankfully it was only an upgraded seat (I got my dad one of those upcharge seats with more legroom) as the travel agent figured they'd want to sit together (quite the opposite). Without a travel agent involved, I have no idea how that could happen. 

[Jachred]

14 hours ago, DaCruiseBug said:

 

If that's what the rep told you then the rep was making something up. I work in the industry and have first hand experience with flight scheduling etc. This is something that just doesn't happen. Southwest has 34 airplanes grounded. They have been reshuffling their schedules to reduce the number of cancellations. Sometimes you can cancel 1 flight and avoid canceling 2-3 flights. I will however repeat that flights are NOT cancelled because they aren't full. Especially when these days 20-30% of airplane tickets are booked under 2 weeks out.

I agree. The rep has no idea why the flight was canceled..  there are less aircraft available so flights have to be canceled.  Do they take into consideration how many passengers are affected by a cancelation or cascade effect of the cancellation... I hope so.. but again there is no way to know the reasoning behind why it was canceled beyond speculating for the average phone rep.  

I can certainly tell you they dont cancel flights for the sole reason of lack of people on them..