A LOT of unhappy travelers at SW counter in OIA today

[pamjb]

Philly just got 2 runways opened. A LOT of travelers made the Philly airport their home last night. The news showed some guy from Phoenix who was trapped in Philly....Apparently the cabs weren't even running. There was a 2 hour wait for a cab. USAir baggage was all screwed up. But I think that is the exception rather than the norm. Philly got more ice and sleet than snow. I would prefer the snow over the ice. Yuck

 

[Disneyhappy]

Last January, my uncle died and I had to book my parents a flight from Tampa to PHL so my dad could attend his brother's funeral. A major snow storm came to Phila and it was not clear if it was going to be worse Friday night or Saturday AM. Luckily, a SW Ding was available so I booked them on both the Friday night and Saturday AM flight and we would chose which flight they should take depending on the weather. As it turned out, both flights were cancelled and they could not get another flight until after the funeral services on Monday. SW was great. My parents just expected to get a credit for the three flights (2 to PHL and 1 return flight). SW refunded their credit card in full. I think they went beyond their duty to my parents. While I wish SW had assigned seating, I do love the ability to change flights without penalty.

Being delayed at an airport is the "pits" and for some people, no matter what the airline does, it will not be good enough. I had to fly from PHL to Chicago a week an a half a go on the day Phila got a couple of inches of snow. I was standing in line next to someone who was complaining that their flight was cancelled and he was placed on an earlier flight that had been delayed (same as me). Our flight was actually getting in 20 minutes earlier than our original flight so I finally asked what was the problem. The passenger was upset that SW did not post the delay and cancellation on their website before he left for the airport. I wanted to scream "Are you kidding me!?!" His flight was getting in 20 minutes earlier than his original cancelled flight and he was still complaining. I was considering myself lucky that the prior flight was delayed otherwise, I would have had to ake a later flight and get to Chicago 4 hours later than planned. I decided not to waste my breath or energy in responding as he was one of those people who felt their way of thinking was the only way to think. We all know the type! People were turning their back to him as they were tired of hearing him gripe. I let him go ahead of me as I did not want to be stuck sitting anywhere near him!

 

[rwodonnell]

To all the airline defenders...

There are some things they ought to be doing a lot better. As I write this, I am currently on hold with Delta, have been on hold for over an hour, received busy signals all day yesterday, finally drove to the airport, even though I already knew our flight to Boston was canceled. After waiting through an enormous line, I was told they rebooked me already in the earliest flight possible - next Tuesday. That's 4 days later.

So, yes, there are worse places to be stuck, to be sure, but please try to have a little compassion on those of us who are spending our entire time here trying to find hotels, extend car rentals, and rework our flights through different routes and different carriers so we can get back to our jobs while we still have them. And going through money like water when you can't even enjoy it is not as much fun as it sounds.

Two questions for the airline apologists:
1. How long on hold is acceptable? Shouldn't they be able to handle this situation better? I have either been on hold or busy signals since yesterday at 3.
2. How many days later is it acceptable for an airline to push you back before they are no longer fulfilling the contract in good faith? By the way, they won't refund my flight so I can rent a car and get home in time for my job on Monday.

 

[CarolA]

The problem is that the airlines can't staff for this. (What do you have folks do the rest of the year?) I agree an hour is too long, but.... I also think we (the flying public) are victims of our own success. In order to try to make money at $59 each way fares the airlines have cut service to the BONE! When something like this happens there is just NO extra cushion.

By the way, from www.delta.com

Rescheduling Flights
If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you are entitled to a refund. Even if your flight is not canceled, you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee if you are scheduled to travel to, from, or through the following states on Delta, Delta Connection®, or Delta-coded flights during the specified time periods listed below.

So ask for the refund. However, you are probably only going to get half of what you paid if you already flew out on the ticket. (That probably won't be enough for a one way rental home)

Also, I am not sure why you are on hold if you were already re-ticketed unless you want the refund?

 

[seashoreCM]

>>> Two questions for the apologist:
1. Impossible to answer. There is no choice other than hold or busy.
2. If you cannot get through while waiting at the airport a significant time after the departure time and the flight has not left yet, try to cancel the reservation at another ticket counter and then telephone from home or work to ask for your refund after using alternate transportation.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

>>> No extra cushion
Alas that is true. There aren't enough planes to carry everybody the day after the storm. Just as there aren't enough planes so everyone at WDW over Thanksgiving can leave on Sunday afternoon or evening.

 

[debster812]

Hmm, I don't know if I am an airline apologist or not, maybe someone can tell me.

This was us in February. We had the misfortune to be booked to fly out on Feb 14th. That was the day it rained, snowed, sleeted and ice pelleted all up and down the east coast.

We were boarded and deplaned 3x for our flight. It was originally scheduled to depart at 8am. They finally cancelled it at 3pm. In hindsight, the first time they deplaned us, I should have been on the phone to Delta, trying to get rescheduled. But they kept telling us it was going look good after 2. Unfortunately, the weather turned later than they expected, and I think our flight crew was going to time out, before they could get us de-iced and in the air. And because of the weather situation everywhere, they had no way to get a new crew to us.

This was on a Weds. We did not fly out until Saturday night, and at that, we could only get to Tampa. We arrived at TPA at midnight, rented a car, and drove to Bonita Springs, sneaking into my parents house at 3am.

I've written a letter to Delta explaining that while I understand that the weather is totally beyond their control, there were a lot of other things that could have been handled better. No response yet, but we'll see.

All this being said, I'll be booking tonight at midnight for our flight to FL for NEXT February, on Delta.

 

[rwodonnell]

Well I'm not sure why I dredging it all up again, but we're back home now. We had a great time, the extra days were a lot of fun, to be sure, but they did also put us more behind in work and in school than we had planned.

The problem is that the airlines can't staff for this. (What do you have folks do the rest of the year?) I agree an hour is too long, but.... I also think we (the flying public) are victims of our own success. In order to try to make money at $59 each way fares the airlines have cut service to the BONE! When something like this happens there is just NO extra cushion.

I agree that we may have brought this on ourselves, but man, it surely seems it could have been quicker. I ended up on hold that Saturday for over 2.5 hours. I called at 9:15am, and at 11:50, someone came on. At that point, the person on the other end was very polite, at least, which was a pleasant change from the rude treatment we received at the airport. By the way, this hold time cost us a late departure from our hotel, which we thought we got allowance for, but now there is a mysterious charge on our credit cards from same hotel.

By the way, from www.delta.com

Rescheduling Flights
If your flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you are entitled to a refund. Even if your flight is not canceled, you may make a one-time change to your ticket without fee if you are scheduled to travel to, from, or through the following states on Delta, Delta Connection®, or Delta-coded flights during the specified time periods listed below.

So ask for the refund. However, you are probably only going to get half of what you paid if you already flew out on the ticket. (That probably won't be enough for a one way rental home)

Yes, we saw that too, but that is not what we were told at the airport. We were told about 100 times that they can't control the weather (it gets old hearing it over and over) and there would be no refund. When I finally did get through on the phone after the 2.5 hours on Saturday, the agent told us the opposite, but that it would require a transfer to another number. I couldn't afford another 2 hours on hold, and we had pretty much already ruled out driving home due to back problems for someone in our party. The refund would definitely not come close to covering another airline ticket (and there were flights from other airlines that had availability the day before we got home).

Also, I am not sure why you are on hold if you were already re-ticketed unless you want the refund?

I was on hold to see if there was any other way we could get home more quickly! There were many options they did not try at the airport, nor did the automated re-ticketing put some airport options into place. 4 days would cut into my work schedule severely, and also the kids had state testing that started before we would get back. In the end, my work situation worked out okay, but the kids did miss more school than they really should have.

In the end, we had a great time during our "Extra Magic Days" as we called them, and the Disney ticketing scheme of adding on days for $2 definitely kept us spending our other money there rather than going to Universal or something else. But the airlines have a lot of work to do in the area of customer service. They book flights at such a high capacity that a relatively normal winter storm now strands passengers for 4 days. That seems extreme to me.

 

[mabenoab]

One time I was flying out of my local airport to Tampa and there was a rash of storms all along the eastern seaboard. EVERY other airline cancelled their flights, so I assumed ours would be also. Then the attendant got on the mike and said, "The pilot is mapping out another route, and he THINKS he can make it." He THINKS!?! I know she was just making light, but we did take off...the flight wasn't too bad, either.

My sympathies to everyone who got held up in the airports though, but I'd rather stay put and be safe than take a chance with bad weather (so said the reluctant flyer).

 

[clkelley]

During a weather crises 2.5 hours + on hold with Delta is about right.

We were at Disney during hurricane Jeane. We arrived Friday evening. (Jeane was on Sunday). My son was due to fly home for school on Sunday evening. Once we got checked in and settled Friday night, I grabbed a table and chair at All-Stars Mighty Ducks pool (the cell phones didn't work inside a 1st floor room) with 3 cell phones and called. Put all three of them on speaker and had hubby bring me a drink and I had a book. I sat there and enjoyed a pleasant evening by the pool. Finally about 3 hours later, the 2nd call I made got through and I rebooked him home for Monday night.

We then enjoyed Saturday at the parks till they started shutting things down, then spent Sunday afternoon after the worst passed by walking around all three All-Stars looking at the tree damage.

 

[CarolA]

I agree the wait is too long, but I am not sure what can be done. It just doesn't make sense to hire folks and have them sit around doing nothing for 360 days a year so you will be ready when you get the five days of bad weather..... (And I have been on hold with SW in the past for several hours so it's not just the "old" carriers)


I wonder how much the folks complaining paid for thier tickets. I routinely pay LOTS for mine (I work for a place that thinks buying a ticket in advance is a bad idea so you routinely see me on full fare tickets) I doubt that many folks going to Orlando are paying full fare however. Back when I was a young child airlines did make lots of money and I remember that my Grandfather would say that DL would roll out extra planes for things like this. Now, there just aren't that many extra planes.
The other problem is that the newer airlines don't have a lot of interline agreements. That means that DL or AA doesn't have one with them either. So if DL has to cancel and your only other option is JetBlue or SW... no go.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

Back when I was a young child airlines did make lots of money and I remember that my Grandfather would say that DL would roll out extra planes for things like this. Now, there just aren't that many extra planes.

Actually, there aren't ANY extra planes. In order to remain profitable each plane needs to carry a certain number of paying passengers and cargo per every 24 hours. It's not feasible for most airlines to be paying a lease and insurance for idle craft if they want to make enough money to eventually decrease the age of their fleet and get newer, more fuel efficient craft. Some legacy carriers have enough redundancy in their schedules to come out of a weather episode in good shape, while others (jet blue comes to mind) are not so fortunate. You are right that discount fares have played a role in how air carriers are equipped and prepared to deal with such delays.