[gpower52]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

Southwest Airlines has cancelled about 3,000 flights during the post-Christmas travel rush. This included a Thursday flight family members were on leaving out of Orlando. A check of the SWA website showed ZERO flights leaving Orlando until Saturday, December 31st. Of all airline cancellations, Southwest is accounting for nearly 75% of the total.

Calls to Southwest "customer service" number were met with either busy signals, or immediate disconnection. We could not even get the privilege of being placed on hold for hours. Fortunately, we were able to book our family members on an American Airlines flight before the inevitable price gouging kicked in. The same flight we booked our kids on 3 hours ago is now showing fares SIX TIMES what we booked for.

Southwest has made press comments with a wide variety of excuses for these mass cancellations. However, I have not seen "bad management" mentioned a single time by the airline. I feel bad for the thousands of travelers stuck around the country who are trying to get home. Southwest Airlines truly is the Grinch who stole Christmas.

I didn't check ALL SW flights out of Orlando, but we're going to Aruba on 8 Jan so have checked both yesterday and today to see "how they were doing" getting these flights out of Orlando (There is only 1 flight per day) and BOTH flights yesterday and today were on time....so SOME flights apparently are still getting out....just FYI.

[Larchap49]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

Southwest Airlines has cancelled about 3,000 flights during the post-Christmas travel rush. This included a Thursday flight family members were on leaving out of Orlando. A check of the SWA website showed ZERO flights leaving Orlando until Saturday, December 31st. Of all airline cancellations, Southwest is accounting for nearly 75% of the total.

Calls to Southwest "customer service" number were met with either busy signals, or immediate disconnection. We could not even get the privilege of being placed on hold for hours. Fortunately, we were able to book our family members on an American Airlines flight before the inevitable price gouging kicked in. The same flight we booked our kids on 3 hours ago is now showing fares SIX TIMES what we booked for.

Southwest has made press comments with a wide variety of excuses for these mass cancellations. However, I have not seen "bad management" mentioned a single time by the airline. I feel bad for the thousands of travelers stuck around the country who are trying to get home. Southwest Airlines truly is the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Same with us. Rebooked for Sunday but a real inconvenience for them and their ride on the other end. This also happened to us in the summer when two non stops were cancelled and replaced with flights with stops and lay overs. Southwest definitely has some problems.

[Larchap49]

Originally Posted by NewtoFL

I understand weather plays a big part in the problems with flying but it’s more than that. Two of my kids had two flights cancelled trying to fly home from here. Then Delta put them on a flight with two stops when the original flight was non stop. I spent 2.5 hours on hold with Delta on Christmas Eve. I finally hung up. We went in to the airport in Orlando to try to get a ticket agent to help. They had no flights available in the next four days. They threw their hands up. Nothing they could do. Told me to call for a refund as they can’t issue them. My kids are flying home today on Spirit. I never thought I would see the days when Spirit did a better job than Delta. All airlines need to quite overselling their flights. There is no option when flights get cancelled. I wish the Transportation Secretary would do his job and hold these airlines accountable.

Until the government stops subsidizing the airlines they have no incentive to correct the problems

[DPWM21]

C’mon train service.

[talonip]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

While management of communications is a big problem they need to fix, I have heard "reasons" rather than "excuses."

Logistics is a huge deal.

In order for planes to leave out of Orlando, there has to be planes IN Orlando. Those planes were coming from the north - where airports have been shut down. No planes = no flights out. Some planes went out of Orlando, but some were supposed to go to airports that were shut down due to the "climate change that doesn't exist" - not existing again in the north. So those planes couldn't leave Orlando.

You have planes NOT coming from shut-down airports, and planes NOT going to shut-down airports, and you have an entire airline that is blocked from travel.

I am an ex airline pilot and your summation is excellent. Most people think every airline has extra airplanes just sitting around. Weather is the culprit here not the airlines. Flight crews are scattered around the system at closed airports and airplanes are too. Airlines are part of one of the most complicated businesses in the world

[NotGolfer]

I guess the folks who think this could have been remedied didn't pay attention to the news re: the blizzard. The winds were high with the snow and white-out conditions were happening. Whole interstate systems (in the midwest at least were closed to traffic) with people dying who didn't believe the fore-cast and ventured out anyway then got stuck. THAT was on the ground. Factor in that air-travel and I guess I'd be happy they cancelled rather than to "try" to fly. We're "enjoying" the cold here because of that Artic blast that enveloped the rest of the country. IF people are making it out and to their destinations, then I'd say they're fortunate---if not, lucky. We're from the upper midwest and the storm there was pretty significant. Drifts were measured in feet as were the snow depths....rather than inches. There were power outages throughout the states as well. Couple ALL of this with the holiday---then you have what this discussion is about!!

[dnobles]

We got canceled 2xs from Albany NY. There were several families trying to get to Disney sad. Kids crying. We at least could go back to our sons. We can’t get home until Monday.

[talonip]

I am an ex American airline pilot. Retired after 33 years. Those of you that think SWA is the problem are wrong. Some of you have commented that American and all the other other airlines are on time and doing a great job. Nothing could be more false. I m in STL trying to get back to mco. on any airline including American. Everything is either cancelled or overbooked. I finally found a ticket on Frontier Friday. You have no idea of the complexity of the airline business the airlines don’t just have extra airplanes sitting around and air crews. They are scattered around the system. Schedulers are pulling their hair out trying to rebuild the system. Folks it is the weather, closed airports and many other factors that have created this. It’s not Southwest and it’s baggage policy. I fly SWA all the time. Love them.

[Conniehar]

There is a post going around social media from a SWA pilot. Blaming this on their antiquated system going down. I believe this. There is no reason why most of the planes and crew could not be back in place on Monday. Cancel all the flights and get everything back in place. I am A list and have companion pass. Once my points and pass expire, I will probably look elsewhere. Have already stopped using my credit card. I definitely will never book them around a busy holiday.

[dnobles]

He’s lucky in Albany Ny there are no one way rentals

[Whitley]

Originally Posted by Larchap49

Until the government stops subsidizing the airlines they have no incentive to correct the problems

Spirit provides live in flight entertainment.

[Singerlady]

Originally Posted by NoMo50

Southwest Airlines has cancelled about 3,000 flights during the post-Christmas travel rush. This included a Thursday flight family members were on leaving out of Orlando. A check of the SWA website showed ZERO flights leaving Orlando until Saturday, December 31st. Of all airline cancellations, Southwest is accounting for nearly 75% of the total.

Calls to Southwest "customer service" number were met with either busy signals, or immediate disconnection. We could not even get the privilege of being placed on hold for hours. Fortunately, we were able to book our family members on an American Airlines flight before the inevitable price gouging kicked in. The same flight we booked our kids on 3 hours ago is now showing fares SIX TIMES what we booked for.

Southwest has made press comments with a wide variety of excuses for these mass cancellations. However, I have not seen "bad management" mentioned a single time by the airline. I feel bad for the thousands of travelers stuck around the country who are trying to get home. Southwest Airlines truly is the Grinch who stole Christmas.

Logistics, logistics, logistics. After big storms, etc..it takes AT LEAST 48 hours to get the planes and personnel back in place to resume normal operations. The airlines can only do so much. Frankly, people traveling over this holiday should have EXPECTED not to GET to their destination or BACK to their home without some glitches. Those that had no glitches were lucky. It’s called Mother Nature =weather.

[Boffin]

Software glitch.

[Tvflguy]

Love SWA.

But yikes. Especially them, but all airlines. This storm was forecast even tho its strength up northeast was worse than that. Of course airline logistics is a science and art. One would think that pre-positioning aircraft and staff may have lessened the issue. But still days after it’s a clusterF.

Just so thankful that we stayed home but all those impacted, still - awful.

Nice to know that our gvt is handling the issues so well. Typical blabber and yada.

[NoMo50]

I believe everyone gets that weather was the impetus that pushed this snowball down the hill. But...I ask again, why is it only Southwest that has been devastated to the current extent? Southwest accounted for 80% of all airline cancellations on Monday, and an unbelievable 99% of all cancellations for today, Wednesday. If all airlines were equally affected, the weather bogeyman would not be pointing its finger at just one carrier.

The current president of Southwest's pilot union blamed the company's antiquated scheduling software for the meltdown. Their system, apparently a relic from the 90's, relies on technology based on phone lines, and once the first domino fell, the system was doomed to fail. The failure of their scheduling system affected everything from customer service calls, to crew scheduling, and everything in between. I'm sure this event will trigger a response from the company to update their system, but a rebuild like that will not happen overnight. In the meantime, there are other air carrier choices.