Check your near-term flight status, especially on Southwest Airlines

[SueMo]

We are in Pennsylvania right now, visiting kids for the holidays.  We were supposed to fly home to Fort Myers, FL today, and then drive to Fort Lauderdale to take a Celebrity cruise Jan 3rd.  But like the OP, our Southwest flight was cancelled.  We got on SWA's website to rebook, but there was only one seat available on a Jan 1 flight and one on Jan 2.  By the time we tried to book them, they were gone.  We were thankfully able to get a Delta flight (for more $) on Dec. 31.  If that falls through, we'll be taking the 20 hour drive--yuk!

[Heartgrove]

Back in April when SWA had their first (?) meltdown this year, our flight was canceled to FLL two days before going on our cruise aboard the Rotterdam. DSIL was traveling with us so we were a party of three. We were treating DSIL for her birthday. Tried and tried different scenarios with flying as it is a 15+ hour drive. We would have needed to leave right then if driving. Ending up canceling the cruise; luckily we had Platinum insurance so loss was still a loss but not as bad. Thankfully our dogsitter only charged us half because it was less than their 48 hour cancellation policy. Next day DW found a 9-day Nieuw Statendam cruise leaving that Friday. I offered to stay home with the dog while they both went. Guess what happened!!!

 

SWA cancelled that flight as well!! Final outcome was their flying UAL with airfare costing $3K Economy. Then to top it off NSDM had mechanical issues with an azipod seal which they planned on  replacing during  the turnaround. It didn't go as planned so actually didn't leave until midday the following day. They missed one port call as well.

 

Bottom line for us going forward is never SWA for getting to a cruise.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by Heartgrove

[dchip]

9 hours ago, oldbluff said:

Thanks Nancy. Forgot about Tule fog.

 

Once upon a time I lived in Coarsegold and descended into the fog each morning enroute to my job in Fresno.

We haven’t had much tule fog in a couple of years. This year it’s BACK! Safe travels. 

Edited December 28, 2022 by dchip

[spleenstomper]

I’m hearing that If you have a southwest flight through next week you should probably look into other plans. This isn’t going to be fixed soon. Their Antiquated IT program fried. 

[spleenstomper]

19 hours ago, oldbluff said:

We think alike. I did check those Bay Area airports as well. Nothing in time for less than $1000/person.

 

Our son had driven up from Napa for Christmas and was going to drive back tomorrow. Instead, he is driving us today to Sacramento where we will stay overnight. We have a car rental (thru Costco! 😁) from Sac airport to SD airport for tomorrow. The treat awaiting us is staying at the Westgate in SD tomorrow night before the cruise, thanks to the recommendation from @kazu.

 

I expect our Southwest flight back to Portland after disembarking on the 7th will hold.

TBH, I wouldn’t be so sure about the 7th

Edited December 28, 2022 by spleenstomper

[oldbluff]

44 minutes ago, spleenstomper said:

I’m hearing that If you have a southwest flight through next week you should probably look into other plans. This isn’t going to be fixed soon. Their Antiquated IT program fried. 

I do business software for a living and would happily sign on to a project to rewrite their crew scheduling software.

[oldbluff]

42 minutes ago, spleenstomper said:

TBH, I wouldn’t be so sure about the 7th

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion last night and reserved a car from SD to Portland for the 7th. Always wanna have a Plan B. With us arriving Saturday morning, we will have two days to get back if needed. My DW and I try to minimize night driving.

[Destiny0315]

Between disgruntled passengers and employees, terrible media publicity and future government investigations, and not to mention lonely luggage abandoned in strange airports, I don't see how SWA will survive all this turbulence! 

[spleenstomper]

I found this: they are supposedly willing to reimburse reasonable expenses. 

 

[spleenstomper]

24 minutes ago, Destiny0315 said:

Between disgruntled passengers and employees, terrible media publicity and future government investigations, and not to mention lonely luggage abandoned in strange airports, I don't see how SWA will survive all this turbulence! 

I have to be super careful how I word this. My sibling worked for WN and resigned in 2022. According to my sibling, the lack of employees was causing issues that my sibling felt could impact safety. For instance, one plane was on push back but was still tethered to the actual airport so there was some kind of bouncing around until ground crew realized what happened. 
 

The meltdown of IT and the assumed restart that should happen soon per government regulations might be the best thing that happens for the customers in the end. Nobody wants to get injured or die because of lack of employees and oversight. 
 

YMMV and probably WN isn’t the only one experiencing lack of employees. 
 

 

Edited December 28, 2022 by spleenstomper

[oldbluff]

43 minutes ago, Destiny0315 said:

Between disgruntled passengers and employees, terrible media publicity and future government investigations, and not to mention lonely luggage abandoned in strange airports, I don't see how SWA will survive all this turbulence! 

I have no doubt they will survive. But this will have a major impact on future business until they can rebuild credibility. 

[Guest ldtr]

55 minutes ago, oldbluff said:

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion last night and reserved a car from SD to Portland for the 7th. Always wanna have a Plan B. With us arriving Saturday morning, we will have two days to get back if needed. My DW and I try to minimize night driving.

There is always Amtrak

[spleenstomper]

I just saw on Reddit that a person’s flight was cancelled today and WN can’t rebook them until 1/13/23 That is crazy, 

[Destiny0315]

7 minutes ago, oldbluff said:

I have no doubt they will survive.

Well your right they have the $ to survive but just like some of our favorite cruise lines will they just end up sitting on the bench as backups in the world of travel.

[Mary229]

American has said they will be capping fares to help out this situation.   Forget trying to book SWA , try another airline. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

17 hours ago, oldbluff said:

Having been in a jam before, I booked separate flights. So at least the return is disconnected from the cancelled outbound. 

 

I do the same thing with Amtrak. Making changes is so much easier that way. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, spleenstomper said:

I found this: they are supposedly willing to reimburse reasonable expenses. 

 

 

I wonder what their idea of "reasonable" is.

 

[Shadow66]

We are supposed to board in SD tomorrow, but given the great SWA cancellation of 2022, we will be flying to Cabo and boarding at the 1st port on Saturday.  Anyone ever done this?

[spleenstomper]

29 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I wonder what their idea of "reasonable" is.

 

I would assume (or try) the point of view of can you justify it. 

[Mary229]

24 minutes ago, Shadow66 said:

We are supposed to board in SD tomorrow, but given the great SWA cancellation of 2022, we will be flying to Cabo and boarding at the 1st port on Saturday.  Anyone ever done this?

Did you get permission from the cruise line?

[oakridger]

7 hours ago, spleenstomper said:

I just saw on Reddit that a person’s flight was cancelled today and WN can’t rebook them until 1/13/23 That is crazy, 

 

What is WN please?

 

 

[spleenstomper]

It’s airline code for southwest 

[mightycruisequeen]

On 12/27/2022 at 9:50 AM, oldbluff said:

I was notified just after midnight that our Southwest flight tomorrow from Portland to San Diego has been cancelled. There are no flights from Portland or Seattle on any airline that will get us to SD in time to board the Koningsdam Thursday. We will rent a car and drive, leaving today. That may not be an option for others, if they are traveling too far to a cruise port and their flight is cancelled. The sooner you verify flights scheduled thru this weekend, the more time you will have to deal with unexpected changes.

Thank you for this post.  It was my wake up call to check to see if my Southwest flight from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale the day before we were to board Nieuw Amsterdam for 16 days had also been canceled.  My booking showed that our flight was still scheduled, but if I looked on Southwest's booking page, my flight didn't even appear.  By the time I knew that our flight was indeed canceled, the only flight I could find to get us at or near FLL in time was a United first class for $2200 a person (YEOWCH!!)  Luckily, we were still three days out from the cruise, so we threw our bags in the car and drove to FLL.  It was a wonderful 16 days.