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Ongoing Southwest scheduling disruptions


hapster85
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Note that I have not (yet) been contacted by Southwest. I was making a weekly check of my reservation and there was an alert, as noted below.

 

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I'm assuming this is MAX related.

 

Saturday outbound flight for Sunday sailing. Following Sunday return flight. While I would love to fly out on Friday, or even sooner, it won't be possible for my wife to get additional time off before fall break. Nor after really, for that matter. #TeacherLife

 

So do I just leave it alone, cross my fingers, and hope for the best?

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55 minutes ago, hapster85 said:

I'm assuming this is MAX related.

 

It's possible, but earlier today Southwest announced MAX-related cancellations only up to 2 September 2019 - so it would seem unlikely.

 

How different are these times from your original times?

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10 hours ago, hapster85 said:

Those are the times as booked. Nothing has changed as far as I can tell.

 

6 hours ago, hapster85 said:

Just trying to figure out why, if nothing has changed, this alert was placed on my flight.

 

Have the flight numbers changed, even if the times haven't? On some airlines, that can cause a "flight change" alert. Other things can happen, too, that are less visible.

 

But it is possible, then, that this is visible preparatory work in case WN has to take the MAX out of the schedules for another month or two. Nevertheless, as you don't know what schedule changes might actually happen if WN does that, then making any change now on that basis is simply flying blind. I can't see that any of your flights is scheduled to be operated by a MAX, although this may be a limitation of the coding that WN uses and if schedules do change, non-MAX flights are likely be cancelled as well as MAX flights as it will be an overall adjustment of the flying plan.

 

Having a look at your flights, though, I wonder whether this might be an opportunity to improve your flight selection.

 

For example, on your inbound you're on:-

WN5106 SJU-FLL 1155-1445

WN2749 FLL-MCO 1550-1655

WN2749 MCO-CVG 1735-1950

 

You could in theory change to:-

WN5130 SJU-MCO 1245-1545

WN2749 MCO-CVG 1735-1950

 

This would cut out one stop, allow you more margin for getting to the airport after disembarkation, and give you more margin for connecting (1:50 at MCO rather than 1:05 at FLL). I don't know why the latter wasn't an option when you first booked; but if it's more appealing to you now, I wonder whether the current alert would allow you to make this change.

 

On the outbound, you probably know that WN4047 is the only flight of the day from MDW to SJU. You only have 1:10 to connect to it, so if you miss it then you're in for a one-stop re-route. It may be that there are no better alternatives for a primary booking, given your time constraints, but again it's something worth thinking about.

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Have the flight numbers changed, even if the times haven't? On some airlines, that can cause a "flight change" alert. Other things can happen, too, that are less visible.

...


No, nothing visible has changed. For now, I'm going to leave it alone, and continue to monitor.

Thanks for your input.
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Southwest may just now be sending out emails for flight changes for later this summer and this fall.  I got an email yesterday from Southwest that the time for our flight to Orlando for our September Harmony cruise had changed.  Fortunately we are going in a day early and fortunately the time changed to 30 minutes earlier so we'll be fine.  My heart did skip a beat though when I saw the subject of the email was "Change to your Southwest trip."

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I had the same red notice on my reservations for August and September. I called to ask the same questions you had. I found out I was not affected by the MAX 8 issue. The agent informed me that Southwest was giving EVERYONE with reservations made prior to a certain date a chance to change their flights for free. It is a goodwill gesture. I wish they would have explained it better on their website. It caused me a few anxious moments and time making a call that was unnecessary. I’m probably not going to change my flights, btw. Lol!

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Yes, that definitely would have been more helpful than what I've gotten from them so far. I was more curious than anything, at this point, since my reservation looked unchanged. But it did leave me with a bit it uncertainty.

Definitely thanks for the info!

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15 hours ago, indy71 said:

The agent informed me that Southwest was giving EVERYONE with reservations made prior to a certain date a chance to change their flights for free. It is a goodwill gesture.

 

15 hours ago, hapster85 said:

I was more curious than anything, at this point, since my reservation looked unchanged. But it did leave me with a bit it uncertainty.

 

In your shoes, I would now definitely be looking to change that inbound journey. On the basis purely of the times and flights, it seems to make more sense. You still end up at CVG at the same time and on the same flight as the original booking.

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In your shoes, I would now definitely be looking to change that inbound journey. On the basis purely of the times and flights, it seems to make more sense. You still end up at CVG at the same time and on the same flight as the original booking.


There was a method to my madness in choosing that particular flight, despite it having two stops. The later flight, connects at MCO, to flight 2749, which is the earlier flight coming from FLL. Guessing not too many will deplane at MCO. It would be a different story if Southwest had assigned seats.

The earlier flight does leave less room for error should the ship arrive late. I've been in that situation before, but if the delay is more than an hour or two, neither flight would work anyway.

So after thinking over possible changes, we decided to stick with what we have for the same reasons as before. Hopefully Southwest doesn't make drastic changes.

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On 6/15/2019 at 1:32 PM, hapster85 said:

There was a method to my madness in choosing that particular flight, despite it having two stops. The later flight, connects at MCO, to flight 2749, which is the earlier flight coming from FLL. Guessing not too many will deplane at MCO. It would be a different story if Southwest had assigned seats.

 

I can understand the reasoning behind that - good luck!

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Southwest is one of the most generous airlines out there with free bags and no Basic Economy or Change fees.  I have changed to an earlier flight for no additional cost.  


Returning from our B2B Trans Atlantic Cruise in Tampa I booked SW for $206 per person when AA Basic Economy was going for $20 less this includes all our bags and we have  2 full days in Tampa.  We leave at 5:35 PM arriving San Jose at 10:50 PM  so perfect timings via PHX.

 

Southwest had a sale going on and  I took advantage of it.

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Keep your eyes open still for those WN changes.   FAA just announced today that their test pilots also put the MAX in a fatal crash *using the fixed software in the simulator* as happened in the two actual crashes.  There is another flaw, apparently.  FAA has put the recertification process on hold indefinitely.  Not sure if it is a software fix or an actual hardware fix that needs to be done this time.   

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Keep your eyes open still for those WN changes.   FAA just announced today that their test pilots also put the MAX in a fatal crash *using the fixed software in the simulator* as happened in the two actual crashes.  There is another flaw, apparently.  FAA has put the recertification process on hold indefinitely.  Not sure if it is a software fix or an actual hardware fix that needs to be done this time.   
Saw a headline about that earlier, but hadn't read anything yet. The generic alert from the first post, which disappeared a few days after it appeared, is back again today. Still nothing specific to my flight. I'll keep a closer eye on it going forward.
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Problem is that WN can't just fly any 737-800 they have on the Hawaii routes.  The aircraft/engine pair must have it's ETOPS certification (has to to with what would happen to a 2-engine plane hours away from a landing spot if an engine goes out).  WN was banking on those new MAX planes to service the existing Hawaii and soon-to-be-offered other Hawaii flights.  Since those planes may not be back for a while (one service said maybe if all goes well from no on, maybe the end of the year, they have to keep those special ETOPS planes out of the regular loop.  I don't know if Puerto Rico flights require ETOPS.  

 

I know I'm missing some stuff here, but trying to say that, even though a plane COULD fly that route, it legally CAN'T if it doesn't have ETOPS certification.  

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Problem is that WN can't just fly any 737-800 they have on the Hawaii routes.  The aircraft/engine pair must have it's ETOPS certification (has to to with what would happen to a 2-engine plane hours away from a landing spot if an engine goes out).  WN was banking on those new MAX planes to service the existing Hawaii and soon-to-be-offered other Hawaii flights.  Since those planes may not be back for a while (one service said maybe if all goes well from no on, maybe the end of the year, they have to keep those special ETOPS planes out of the regular loop.  I don't know if Puerto Rico flights require ETOPS.  
 
I know I'm missing some stuff here, but trying to say that, even though a plane COULD fly that route, it legally CAN'T if it doesn't have ETOPS certification.  
I don't think flights to San Juan require ETOPS certification, as diversion airports within the 60 minute window are available. I could certainly be wrong, but that's my understanding of that requirement.
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On 6/26/2019 at 11:42 PM, hapster85 said:

I don't think flights to San Juan require ETOPS certification

That's correct, the only routes that Southwest flies that require ETOPS certification are to Hawaii.

 

This article touches on some of the requirements:

 

"Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards (ETOPS) certification from the FAA...allows for 'extended operations' over open ocean, something Southwest Airlines has not previously needed."

 

"Flight 6808 was operated on a Boeing 737-800, one of about a half-dozen Southwest aircraft that are ETOPS certified with extra life rafts and additional communication devices."

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