Big Thumbs Down to Southwest (Weather Related)

[luvmarypoppins]

This actually has to do with ds18 who was suppose and I repeat suppose to arrive home last night from Disney. We live on Long Island and the weather was foggy, stormy etc. Well I am sure the pilots knew this well ahead of time. Why didnt they just stay in Orlando etc. The major airports were reporting 2 hour delays. I still dont know the whole story but ds told me they circled around NY for over 45 minutes, while doing this some stupid mom tells one of the kids on my ds class trip that her grandfather died, talk about timing. Well they decide to fly into Hartford, Ct. Then they tell them that they will give them a ticket to fly to Baltimore, what, hello, there are 40 kids, 6 chaperones and we live in NY. No food, no hotel, no nothing. It ended up that they rented hotel rooms, in Ct. a charter bus and ferry tickets to get back to NY. DS said the one poor teacher had over $3,000 charged on her credit card. Oh nice southwest did somehow manage to have all their luggage at the airport here in NY, another trip ds had to make when he got home exhausted etc. I dont know what will become of this, if the teacher will complain as a group etc. I dont even have ds ticket she has everything. Anyone else have something similar happen or something that was positive. DS says he hates southwest and they didnt even care about them etc.

 

[jimmiej]

Southwest can't do anything about the weather. It's a chance you take when you fly.

 

[all4disney98]

I'm not a pilot nor a weatherman but I think they take off when the weather is good at the departing airport in hopes that the weather will break long enough to land at their destination.

 

[seashoreCM]

Sounds like many of you including at least one teacher overreacted.

With 40 odd kids certainly everyone should have been able to get a few hours of sleep each at the airport and just for kicks have a few awake taking turns standing guard. Even if none of them were Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts (having gone camping), one night at the airport won't kill anyone.

The airline is still responsible for eventually getting everyone and their baggage to their final destinations. If the airline has to fly them all to Baltimore the next day and change planes for New York, so be it. The airline may not charge any more let alone unaccompanied minor fees if it has to split up the group. Had it been a crowded time of year it is likely the airline would have been doing a lot of volunteer asking (field day for those who covet bumps) of other pax to get the kids (actually on standby) home as quickly as possible.

If y'all had stayed in Orlando one more night would the teacher have gotten hotel rooms down there or camped out at MCO?

With everyone stranded in Hartford, parents (e.g. the one whose parent died) would have had the choice of going up to fetch their kids or not doing so. With everyone stranded in Orlando, parents would not have had the choice.

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

Make as much progress as you can. One time I was standing by using a frequent flyer award (back when that was allowed) and trying to get from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Snowstorms elsewhere had many other delayed incoming passengers making the same connection. I was offered a flight to one of the other islands with a short hop connection to Honolulu which I took rather than go into the standby pool with everyone else for a direct flight from LA.

(Chorus of forty kids Woo hoo! We want to go on the ferry! (Bridgeport CT to Long Island NY)

 

[April]

Don't you think that this was probably more of a decision made by the airport for Southwest not to land? Maybe a little inconvenient, but at least the kids landed safely.

 

[Allison]

Flights get delayed enough, imagine if they waited at the departing airport every time it was raining or foggy at another destination.

 

[lindalinda]

Unless there is a posted ground stop...in other words the airport has reported that they can accept no flights due to conditions...the departing southwest would definitely leave orlando. Weather patterns , esp fog, easily change over the number of hours it takes to get from florida to new york. Circling is standard for such a situation. Pilots are just waiting for their required "numbers" to land. (in the case of fog, visibilty and ceiling). At a certain point they have to divert to an airport with better conditions due to fuel requirements. There a very strict regulations on this. Unfortuantely, the field trip issue makes it much more complicated than it would be for the average flyer.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

No food, no hotel, no nothing.

Airlines usually don't give any compensation for weather delays. And this could have happened (and does happen) on EVERY airline. If they had taken a train, there could have been delays (such as AMTRAK had last week with the power outage). If they had driven, there could have been accident delays on the freeway or they may have had car trouble. These problems happen no matter what your mode of transport.

It was a poor decision to rent a bus and hotel rooms. They should have waited at the airport, as SWA would have gotten them home as soon as the weather cleared at no additional cost.

What do you expect to happen? SWA owes no one compensation. They all got home safely and that is what matters.

 

[Pinnie]

Sounds like many of you including at least one teacher overreacted.

I agree. There are procedures in place to assist in a situation like this.

pinnie