For those flying Southwest in 2022

[FlyerTalker]

By now, you know of the massive implosion happening at Southwest.

 

This is from a private source within Southwest, but is NOT officially confirmed by Southwest.  Then again, they have only made one or two official announcements of any kind.  Take it FWIW:

 

"Crews have been calling to fly anyone, anywhere, but the company says the system needs a reset.  They have effectively shut down the operations for the rest of the year, running 1/3 of the flights so they can let the computer find and locate crews and aircraft.....Pilot lounges are packed with pilots ready to fly and nowhere to go...Rumors on media are floating that there is a lack of crews and pilots are staging sick calls.  Absolutely not true at all.  This is a computer system meltdown, with thousands of crew sitting in hotels and airports with nowhere to go"

 

The upshot:  WN will not be back to "normal" for the next week - or maybe longer.  Time for your contingency planning to kick in, though probably too late.  Flights on WN routes are almost completely zeroed out on other carriers.  Time to re-read the fine print on your travel insurance (you did read it when you bought it, right?)  And time to consider cancelling your trip altogether.

 

Wish I was more positive, but this info has come to me in several forms from multiple sources.

Edited December 27, 2022 by FlyerTalker

[klfrodo]

Thanks for the insight

[FlyerTalker]

Now confirmed via an internal memo from the COO:

 

And, FWIW, Southwest has stopped selling new tickets through December 31.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2022 by FlyerTalker

[FlyerTalker]

[aungrl]

10 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

By now, you know of the massive implosion happening at Southwest.

 

This is from a private source within Southwest, but is NOT officially confirmed by Southwest.  Then again, they have only made one or two official announcements of any kind.  Take it FWIW:

 

"Crews have been calling to fly anyone, anywhere, but the company says the system needs a reset.  They have effectively shut down the operations for the rest of the year, running 1/3 of the flights so they can let the computer find and locate crews and aircraft.....Pilot lounges are packed with pilots ready to fly and nowhere to go...Rumors on media are floating that there is a lack of crews and pilots are staging sick calls.  Absolutely not true at all.  This is a computer system meltdown, with thousands of crew sitting in hotels and airports with nowhere to go"

 

The upshot:  WN will not be back to "normal" for the next week - or maybe longer.  Time for your contingency planning to kick in, though probably too late.  Flights on WN routes are almost completely zeroed out on other carriers.  Time to re-read the fine print on your travel insurance (you did read it when you bought it, right?)  And time to consider cancelling your trip altogether.

 

Wish I was more positive, but this info has come to me in several forms from multiple sources.

Thank you for this.  Helpful background to understand what's happening.  

[kelkel2]

I have to say, southwest isn’t our favorite airline, but they had the best flight times available for this trip. So we booked.. our trip is 1/21. Do you think I should be worried that far out? It gives them a few weeks to work things out. But I am anxious about it to say the least. 

[FlyerTalker]

47 minutes ago, kelkel2 said:

I have to say, southwest isn’t our favorite airline, but they had the best flight times available for this trip. So we booked.. our trip is 1/21. Do you think I should be worried that far out? It gives them a few weeks to work things out. But I am anxious about it to say the least. 

 

If, and it is a big if, they can properly reset their internal systems, they should be back in full operation by the middle of January for your flight.

 

Aircraft and crews are all parts of a gigantic, complex machine where the "parts" need to be both timed and positioned properly to operate flights.  To put it bluntly, WN crew scheduling is using outdated software systems that require manual adjustments when flights don't operate, or operate on delayed schedules.  And when large numbers of flights have weather issues, it spills over into scheduling.

 

Hypothetical example:  Pilots Dick and Jane are supposed to fly from BWI to MDW with flight attendants Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice.  But the flight is cancelled because of weather.  Unfortunately, the crew scheduling system believes that they are now in Chicago, and requires a manual adjustment to reflect that they are still in Baltimore.  And that they also didn't fly their next segment to Dallas.  Those manual adjustments did not happen soon enough for the system to avoid spinning out of control when combined with weather cancellations and disruptions.

 

Right now, WN is trying to lay out just where each of their aircraft are, where all of their pilots are, where all of their FAs are, and still try to move some aircraft and crews to fly a skeleton schedule.  Crew scheduling phone lines are jammed.

[GeezerCouple]

FlyerTalker,  

 

The names of the flight attendants are terrific!

Blast from the past, etc.

😄

GC

 

[ericosmith]

As I recall this is not the first time that Southwest has had this issue.  I find it hard to believe that given the huge losses that must result from something like this, that their schedule system wouldn't have been first on the list to upgrade a long ago.  There's also got to be an impact on future business.  I know I'm no longer going to consider Southwest if I need to be someplace in a timely manner.  

[kelkel2]

8 hours ago, ericosmith said:

As I recall this is not the first time that Southwest has had this issue.  I find it hard to believe that given the huge losses that must result from something like this, that their schedule system wouldn't have been first on the list to upgrade a long ago.  There's also got to be an impact on future business.  I know I'm no longer going to consider Southwest if I need to be someplace in a timely manner.  

I’m not going to consider them again unless I have to. I have to drive to Chicago midway to make a flight on southwest so although it is cheaper, it’s more work for me. I regret not booking Delta, but Southwest had much nicer flight times so we went with them. My sister also lives by midway so we park for free. So we used to always at least consider southwest when booking. 

[CruiserBruce]

People will go running back to Southwest. They will offer discounted fares...saving money always trumps past problems.

[kelkel2]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

People will go running back to Southwest. They will offer discounted fares...saving money always trumps past problems.

Oh they absolutely will. This isn’t the first time this has happened with southwest. People are suckers for cheap flights.

[FlyerTalker]

This could now be redone with WN:

 

 

[Willwils]

We are scheduled on SW 1/28/23 for RCL from FLL. Their flight time was good + price & free bags. Took precaution that's a day early, but now wonder if that should have been several  days early . But, then the. FLL hotels are pricey about $300/night. Now we wonder if SW will straight things out by then and what if more horrible storms? We do have travel insurance, but don't  know what that will do for us if can't make it to board  ship because  of airline? 

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, Willwils said:

We do have travel insurance, but don't know what that will do for us if can't make it to board  ship because  of airline? 

 

Which is why you, and others, need to know what the coverage is BEFORE you buy your policy.

 

And if you haven't, now might be a good time to find out just what is and is not covered.

 

All "travel insurance" is not the same.

 

 

[Fairgarth]

On 12/27/2022 at 8:05 PM, FlyerTalker said:

Right now, WN is trying to lay out just where each of their aircraft are,where all of their pilots are, where all of their FAs are, and still try to move some aircraft and crews to fly a skeleton schedule.  Crew scheduling phone lines are jammed.

 

Very interesting, thank you.  It seems like the airline is much bigger and more complex than twenty years ago but management has avoided spending on IT systems to keep up.  Which, of course, would boost their own bonuses along the way.  Or am I being a bit too cynical?  How about all their other IT systems?  Are they able to support today's operation?  If they can't even track their own crews, can payrolls pay them correctly, for example?

[Mike07]

Watching this Southwest debacle and chuckling at all the people that smugly comment in other threads about arranging their own airfare to save a few bucks on a several thousand dollar cruise.

 

Well, hope none of y'all were hoping to get to FLL or MIA for a Christmas or NYE cruise on Southwest!!!

[Mike07]

22 hours ago, Willwils said:

 We do have travel insurance, but don't  know what that will do for us if can't make it to board  ship because  of airline? 

 

 

What does your policy state? Pretty sure it'll state that. You can also call the customer service line for the policy issuer.

[NMTraveller]

On 12/28/2022 at 7:10 AM, FlyerTalker said:

This could now be redone with WN:

 

 

Ah yes, Southwest is the new Spirit.  Sad, but true.

Edited December 30, 2022 by NMTraveller

[NMTraveller]

On 12/28/2022 at 2:41 PM, Willwils said:

We are scheduled on SW 1/28/23 for RCL from FLL. Their flight time was good + price & free bags. Took precaution that's a day early, but now wonder if that should have been several  days early . But, then the. FLL hotels are pricey about $300/night. Now we wonder if SW will straight things out by then and what if more horrible storms? We do have travel insurance, but don't  know what that will do for us if can't make it to board  ship because  of airline? 

Make sure you are going at least a day early,  especially if flying with Southwest.  Insurance?  Be proactive and not reactive.

[Willwils]

17 hours ago, NMTraveller said:

Make sure you are going at least a day early,  especially if flying with Southwest.  Insurance?  Be proactive and not reactive.

Well, we are going a day early. Except for being  worried if it could happens to us,, so far we are unaffected since we 're a month  away for our cruise & flying  SOUTHWEST. Travel insurance  agent says that our Nationwide policy would NOT have covered us for cruise losses had we missed the cruise due to the Sothwest screw-up. That's  because it wasn't a plane's mechanical failure. But, they don't care that it was in part a SYSTEM FAILURE. Except for a CFAR policy, I wonder if any other brand insurance would cover any cruise loss from  SOUTHWEST.  Agent wouldn't  answer that question. 

[eileeshb]

this sounds like an insane IT meltdown. I used to work in IT as did my late father. He actually installed and maintained the 90s generation (upgrade to avoid Y2K) of the air traffic control system at our local airport. I then worked at an Intel site next door to the air traffic controller's training HQ for Ireland.

I've seen a few of the airline and airport IT breakdowns over here over the years. Local radar station in the west of Ireland goes down = all north atlantic flights have to be re-routed, south of england radar station goes down = no flights crossing british airspace, network card connection ATC dublin to radar goes down = Dublin airport closes, then there was the British Airways HQ IT meltdown in 2017 the day I was flying home from Miami that one had the check-in desk people taking 30mins+ to move passengers to alternative flights because they could only intermittently get peoples booking info and then gave up on trying to print new details and had to hand write them for us to bring to the other airlines.   I think it took something like a week for BA to catchup on the impacts of their IT meltdown, the network card in dublin took a couple of days to identify as the point of failure. Thankfully the radar station failures usually only lasted a few hours. 

[Shorex]

On 12/30/2022 at 3:07 PM, Willwils said:

Well, we are going a day early. Except for being  worried if it could happens to us,, so far we are unaffected since we 're a month  away for our cruise & flying  SOUTHWEST. Travel insurance  agent says that our Nationwide policy would NOT have covered us for cruise losses had we missed the cruise due to the Sothwest screw-up. That's  because it wasn't a plane's mechanical failure. But, they don't care that it was in part a SYSTEM FAILURE. Except for a CFAR policy, I wonder if any other brand insurance would cover any cruise loss from  SOUTHWEST.  Agent wouldn't  answer that question. 

 

There is a CC forum dedicated to cruise/travel insurance. See: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/499-cruisetravel-insurance/

 

We purchase our travel insurance through Trip Insurance Store. See: https://tripinsurancestore.com/

Steve and his staff will answer any travel insurance questions and will clarify how various policies vary in coverage. He is a broker, but if you purchase through his website, it will cost the same as dealing directly with the insurance company. Our travel insurance for our upcoming cruise covers "trip disruption." Ask if that coverage would apply to your situation.

 

Another resource is Insure My Trip. See: https://www.insuremytrip.com/

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

[hallux]

I was counting on Southwest for my next cruise (in March) as I can get direct flights from home to MCO (one of the FEW direct flights unless I'm going to a hub).  Yes, I was still planning to go a day early.  I have a business trip planned in 2 weeks for which I'm flying on SWA (booked prior to the meltdown), if all goes well for that I'll probably book my flights for my cruise with them as well.

[texasstar]

Just want to give Southwest Kudos for being speedy about reimbursing expenses from the fiasco over the holidays.  They had a problem, and they are working diligently to rectify the extra expenses that people incurred.  I turned in my receipts a little over a week ago.  I received the reimbursement today,  plus 50,000 miles for the two of us.