I Can't Believe Southwest Did This!!

[HeatherC]

My sister and her family were scheduled to leave from Providence to Ft. Myers yesterday at 6:40 am. Well because of the Northeast blizzard, all the flights from the previous day were cancelled as well as theirs. Understandable.

But...when they called Southwest to find out when they could get a flight...to anywhere in FLorida....Orlando, West Palm, Tampa, etc., Southwest told them they couldn't!!!! Not until February 20th!!!! They even said they would drive to Hartford to get a flight. But they were told nothing was available. Yet...when I checked their website they were still selling seats on various flights to different places in Florida.

To make a long story short....Southwest said they would just give them a credit. Not very helpful when you have a vacation booked and paid for. So...they fought to get their money refunded and booked another flight leaving this a.m. on USAIR...for a lot more money.

They were also told that Southwest has no agreement with any other airlines. So if the flight is cancelled you are basically out of luck!!!

Now if they were standing at the ticket counter, I have to think they would have been offered some compensation. We totally understand you can't control the weather. But man...what horrible customer service.

We've always had great luck with Southwest, but this is unbelievable. Any time we have had a flight cancelled or delayed a really long time, the airline will usually try to accomodate you somehow.

Just a heads up for everyone!


We fly out of Logan on JetBlue today, so we'll see how that goes!!

HeatherC

P.S. They will try and still take it up with customer service when they get back. But you don't want to ruin your vacation either.

 

[indigoxtreme]

So sorry for your sisters family. Boy that is called "Customer No Service". I guess since everything is such a low price they think they don't have to offer customer service.

 

[CarolynNC]

Customers holding reservations for travel to/from ALB, BWI, BDL, ISP, MHT, PVD, PHL, LGA, and DCA on Friday, February 10 through Monday, February 13 may rebook their travel in the original class of service (between the original city pairs) or travel stand by without paying any additional charge. Additionally, Customers holding reservations for a flight that was cancelled to/from the aforementioned cities for Saturday, February 11 through Monday, February 13 may rebook or request refund.

This was posted on Southwest's web site. Looks like they'll allow rebooking between the original city pairs without additional charge. They were right about no flights until Feb 20th between PVD and Ft Myers. Could they have cancelled their flight and used ticketless travel funds to book another city pair? Of course all those folks are looking to rebook too. I guess it would have been more expensive. It must be stressful when a major snow storm messes up everybody's plans. I guess it's a logistical nightmare trying to accommodate all the people with cancelled flights. I hope they don't let the problems at the start of their vacation ruin their entire trip.

And have a good trip yourself!

 

[bicker]

They were also told that Southwest has no agreement with any other airlines. So if the flight is cancelled you are basically out of luck!!!

This is the key distinction between Southwest and other airlines, and as you pointed out, it is a great shock to folks when they find out. It's not something that folks need very often, but when you need it, not having it is a very big problem. However, that bit of poor service is one of the reasons why you get such good fares from Southwest.

Now if they were standing at the ticket counter, I have to think they would have been offered some compensation.

I wouldn't think that. The Contract of Carriage very clearly outlines what you're entitled to in case of something that is beyond Southwest's control. Remember, your trip was disrupted, true -- but the airline lost a full day's revenue from Boston -- so both sides got hit by this storm.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I understand your sister's disappointment, but what else do you expect SWA to do? Flight delays and cancellations due to the weather happen all the time and are not under the control of any airline.

Now if they were standing at the ticket counter, I have to think they would have been offered some compensation. We totally understand you can't control the weather. But man...what horrible customer service.

I completely disagree. Apparently your sister was offered a flight for later in the month and when she did not accept that, was given a refund. SWA can't pull seats out of thin air.

Your sister got all the compensation that she is entitled to.

 

[1000th happy haunt]

Southwest is historically not the only airline that does not (did not) have agreements with other airlines.

Many years ago I was scheduled to fly to Hawaii on United. Shortly before our trip United went on strike. Because United did not have an agreement with any other airline, we had to rebook our flights completely. Of course, on such short notice we weren't able to get anything convenient, and even had to switch airlines for each portion of our trip.

 

[seashoreCM]

Could you have booked any acceptable alternate flight or combination of flights (not necessarily to/from the same cities) on Southwest on line yourself?

If you can do this you should be able to pay for those flights using your cancelled flight itinerary so to speak. This part can be taken up more easily (but still not perfectly) with customer service compared with flying another airline.

Actually going to the airport and trying to stand by for one or more later flights would have been better.

Being able to be put on another airline does not necessarily help. Other airlines have their own backlogs of passengers.

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

 

[bicker]

Because United did not have an agreement with any other airline...

United has always had interline agreements with American, Delta, Northwest, US Airways, Continental and (back in the day) TWA. However, an interline agreement doesn't guarantee that other airlines will have open space available.

 

[Lewisc]

I'm not sure why they had to argue to get a refund, they're entitled to one. Just because the website shows that SW is taking reservations for a flight doesn't mean they have 4 (or how many seats your sisters family needs) available. One of the flights tomorrow from Providence to Ft Meyers show as available but it becomes unavailable if you try to reserve 4 tickets.

She might have asked if they could fly standby. SW might have allowed that, the negative is the family might be split on different flights.

SW can't control the weather.

 

[safetymom]

I flew back from Boston yesterday. I was supposed to leave on Sunday. I had to make 3 different arrangements because of the weather. Many many flights at Charlotte and Boston had lots of standby passengers that probably waited quite a while to get a seat yesterday if at all.

My boss had to wait until today to get a flight out.

When you see a storm approaching you should start calling the airline and making other arrangements. If you wait until flight time the seats will be gone.

 

[NotUrsula]

I'm sure that the 20th was the earliest date that they could give her confirmed seats on that route; there are thousands and thousands of people that have to be re-acccomodated because of that storm, and lots of them called a day before their originally scheduled departure. If she had been willing to wait at the airport and fly standby, they probably could have flown today, but no guarantees of 4 seats on the same flight, and it might have required some VERY creative routing, with several connections which also might have been standby.

After a storm like this, all bets are off on interline agreements. Those work great when there is a mechanical failure or a connection that doesn't get in for one airline, but not when every airline on the route is forced to shut down. Those other airlines have to accomodate their own passengers before they accomodate interline standbys.

One thing that SWA *will* do in a weather situation like this, that I have *never* seen a traditional carrier do, is give you a straight refund on an outbound and let you book it with someone else (or drive, train, whatever), but not cancel your return flight. With any other airline, if you don't fly on the outbound leg of a r/t itinerary, you will be automatically removed from the manifest for the return leg, and it usually doesn't matter if you tell the airline that you plan to do it; they will still cancel your return reservation unless you formally change the reservation. AA once charged me over $2K to hold the remainder of my itinerary when I told them I would have to drive to my outbound connecting city because of a weather-related ground stop. My employer wasn't too happy about it, but they paid up.

 

[NancyIL]

AirTran also doesn't have agreements with other airlines - at least not with American. I was flying from Dallas via Atlanta to Bloomington, IL the day Hurricane Katrina hit. The Atlanta airport had many delays, and at several points stopped all air traffic in or out. American was still flying to Chicago, so I asked if AirTran would put me on a flight there (and then to BMI), and they said they didn't have an agreement with American. I did eventually make it to Atlanta on AirTran that day, but my connecting flight was cancelled, so spent the night at an Atlanta airport hotel.

 

[bicker]

I believe the only airlines with interline agreements (and they're between all of each other) are the ones I mentioned earlier: United, American, Delta, Northwest, US Airways, and Continental. Other airlines may or may not have individual agreements with one of these airlines, but no other airlines have interline agreements with all of them.

 

[CPer'sMom]

My daughter had a flight Saturday morning out of BWI to Nashville. Friday noon (when we knew the weather was going to turn bad) I called SW to see what our options might be. The original flight was booked with a DING fare of $34 so I wasn't sure what she'd be offered, if anything. The agent looked at the Friday night flights (which were then $143 one way) and got her re-booked onto the 7:30pm flight with no extra charge. So she was able to fly out before any of the snow.

I was very impressed with the great CS I got on the phone with them. But, then again, I may have called early enough so that there was still something they could do.
Changing a flight ahead of time is always easier than waiting & then trying to change a cancelled one along with everyone else!!

 

[magsmom]

Also consider that SWA's flights are totally booked due to winter vacation. There are no seats. Believe me. We are flying from BDL to MCO next Wednesday and DH last weekend wanted me to "look into the possibility of flying earlier". Yeah, right. NOTHING on SWA - Delta did have a seat or 2 if I wanted to pay $1000 per ticket.

 

[bavaria]

One thing that SWA *will* do in a weather situation like this, that I have *never* seen a traditional carrier do, is give you a straight refund on an outbound and let you book it with someone else (or drive, train, whatever), but not cancel your return flight. With any other airline, if you don't fly on the outbound leg of a r/t itinerary, you will be automatically removed from the manifest for the return leg, and it usually doesn't matter if you tell the airline that you plan to do it; they will still cancel your return reservation unless you formally change the reservation. AA once charged me over $2K to hold the remainder of my itinerary when I told them I would have to drive to my outbound connecting city because of a weather-related ground stop. My employer wasn't too happy about it, but they paid up.

United DID let me drop the 2nd leg of an outbound flight and kept me on the return.

This may sound harsh, and some of the responses may not be what you wanted to hear, but here goes...

The tradeoff for $39/49/69/79 etc fares are things like this. The lack of interline becomes a challenge when a flight is cancelled. For anyone who watches 'Airline' on AandE, which features SW, there is often frustration when passengers can't rebook on another airline without paying a high same day charge.

Charters have similar constraints. They can change schedule at will, sometimes stranding passengers. Two major charter airlines went bankrupt in Canada over the past few years, stranding passengers all over the world with no interline capability. Those pasengers had to pay a legacy carrier or find another charter airline to get them home, at their own cost.

There is room for both types of carriers, if they are done right - low fare carriers like SW which don't offer interline and are often fully booked; and the carriers like United which have realized that there is still a market for thsoe willing to pay a little more for things like pillows/blankets on the flight, frequent flyer miles and bonuses, etc etc.

I know that many will disagree with me, but I am pleased to see that United has it somewhat figured out and they have my business. I don't see myself flying a charter or discount carrier in the future unless it would make a significant difference in route etc.

 

[Disneyhappy]

I made arrangements for my parents to fly in from Tampa on a Ding fare for my dad's brother's funeral scheduled for this past Monday. They were to return Wednesday (tomorrow). When I realized the snow storm was big and heading our way, I booked a second Ding fare that became available for Sunday morning. (The storm was to be over by then). We already planned to bag the Sat. night flight. Roads were too dangerous for the long drive to the airport. Their first flight on Sunday was cancelled. Then the second flight they were added to was cancelled. Then the airport was closed and no alternate flights were available to make it up here in time for the services with any airline! My mom went to the Southwest desk at the airport and she received a refund (not credit) for the Saturday night and Sunday morning flights I booked as well as the Wednesday return flight. I was amazed as I thought only credit would be received. I was most surprised that they refund ed both Sat & Sun booked flights! If my dad didn't have an important doctor appointment on Saturday AM, they would have flown that AM and things would have worked out. At least my uncle knows they tired!

 

[DebbieB]

Sorry to hear about the situation, but I'm not sure what you expected them to do. It's not like the next day they can fly twice the number of flights to make up for it to get everyone where they need to go. I'm sure the other airlines are booked up too with the airports closed. For them to put them on another airline, they would have to pay the difference (x thousands of passengers). This wasn't their fault, it's not like a mechanical cancellation.

 

[NotUrsula]

United DID let me drop the 2nd leg of an outbound flight and kept me on the return.

Nice that they did. Surprising, but nice. Just out of curiousity, Bavaria, do you by any chance have elite status on UAL?

 

[bavaria]

Nice that they did. Surprising, but nice. Just out of curiousity, Bavaria, do you by any chance have elite status on UAL?

I was Star Alliance silver at the time; REALLY bad day at O'Hare for cancelled flights - I managed to snag one of the last rental cars and drove 5 hours to my destination.

I think that UA customer service was relieved to have one less passenger to deal with, and they were happy to see me drive away and shorten the line a little!!

Ironically on Airline tongiht passengers were disgruntled when their flight was cxled due to weather.....