I think I might have a unique perspective on this topic. I am a very frequent flier on Southwest for more than 20 years, an 'A' lister and have a companion pass that allows my wife to travel free with me wherever and whenever I fly Southwest-Which is quite a bit.
I was booked to fly from Manchester, NH to Orlando to return home to TV on the 26th. Drove 2 hours from Mount Washington to the airport on the day after Xmas to catch our flight home.
No text or status update was sent to me (which happens all the time on SW to me)-no emails-no notification-just had to show up at the airport to find my flight cancelled. Not typically the way SW operates.
To those of you who are 'blubbering' on about the weather and why didn't we know or understand-that's 'smallmindedness' at it's best. The weather was cleared by the 26th in most parts of the country-with some exceptions like Denver and Buffalo-And I WILL always travel to see family at Xmas-no matter what the weather-so factoring in a delay or disruption here and there is normal. But NEVER have I been exposed to SW Air not being able to give me ANY alternatives for 4 days to get back to Florida. Nothing till the 30th they told me. Not from Manchester or Boston, or Providence or even New York. Finally after about an hour of continually asking different questions, my wife and I were booked on a plane from Baltimore to Orlando the next evening. NO flight from Manchester to Baltimore existed with availability, so we rented a car and DROVE 9 hours to the Baltimore airport-stopping at a hotel to grab a few hours of midday sleep. Quite a taxing ordeal, to say the least. AND we are one of the lucky ones who were able to take matters into our own hands and come up with a viable solution-Even if it did mean an all night drive down the East Coast (The Vince Lombardi Turnpike near NYC on the NJ Turnpike at 2 AM is an amazingly scary experience).
To say I am disappointed with my airline of choice is an understatement. To say I was let down is mild. I am beyond belief at the way they handled the whole fiasco. I believed in their culture-the fun aspect of their company-the philanthropy-THIS WAS NOT A WEATHER issue-As many have stated prior-It was a failure of SWA to invest in technology that was sorely needed to update their scheduling process. People scheduling, flight scheduling, crew scheduling and plane location scheduling. SWA bought back over $5 billion of their own stock in the recent years, rather than reinvesting in their business, according to reports. They will now pay DEARLY for that. They have lost my confidence-They owe me money-and my $500 will only a drop in the bucket compared to what Buttigieg will go after them for in total. I'm not even sure they will survive this period in their company's history. My only hope is that they survive till the end of 2023,which is when my companion pass will expire, because I'm not spending another dime of real money with them!
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