'Mom' is home...finally, a day late....

[deej696]

Sorry to hear of this "adventure." I had almost the exact same scenerio happen to me last year on a flight to New York...

Oh and I can shed some light on the issues with your hotel reservation, because I ran into it all the time when I worked for Westin. When a reservation is booked through Hotels.com, Priceline, etc the info for the guest is faxed or emailed to the reservations department at the hotel, because the booking systems arent linked. We ran into your situation quite often with same day bookings because the reservation had come in during the evening after the res. manger left, or it was a holiday and he was gone all day. It seems like the later may have been the situation in your case... A $100 rate difference though? I'm stumped by that one...

 

[crashbb]

Oh, and you should all be proud - I didn't visit the ER at all this trip. There was a string of about 5 years where I visited the nearby hospital on every single Christmas holiday - by year 3, the clerk would laugh when they pulled by e-chart.

Good thing my dad had good insurance!

 

[seashoreCM]

Would getting home (as far as Providence) from Philly have been quicker than getting home from Ft. Lauderdale the second time?

Then for homebound passengers, it may not have been that big a deal to just let the airline deliver the baggage to wherever was home (Mass.?, NH?, Maine?) when it arrived.

We'll have to wait and see how Hotels dot com handles reservations that don't work but there are enough horror stories about others that it is better to look on Travelocity or Orbitz or Expedia but book directly with the airline or rental car agency, etc.

 

[dburg30]

Diane,

Sorry you had these issues, if the whole 'wanted the flight crew back in FtL is true, that is just plain horrible.'

But as others have said, bottom line, glad you are home safe and sound even though it was a little more of an adventure then you were planning on. Happy New Year!

 

[goofy4tink]

Would getting home (as far as Providence) from Philly have been quicker than getting home from Ft. Lauderdale the second time?

Then for homebound passengers, it may not have been that big a deal to just let the airline deliver the baggage to wherever was home (Mass.?, NH?, Maine?) when it arrived.

We'll have to wait and see how Hotels dot com handles reservations that don't work but there are enough horror stories about others that it is better to look on Travelocity or Orbitz or Expedia but book directly with the airline or rental car agency, etc.

Because we had no bags, no toiletries, no clean clothes, nothing (headed home so wasn't all that worried about having stuff in my carryon...idiot), and we had to get a room anyway, we figured we may as well be with our checked luggage at Ft Lauderdale. We would have spent the time in a hotel room in Philly or on a plane back to Florida. And there was no way of knowing what time our luggage would have made it back to Green the next day...didn't want to get a flight out, and then have to go back to Green to get the luggage later in the day or the next day...it's an hour's drive.
SW wasn't offering to deliver the luggage to our homes...just to get it back to Green.

Because it was my dh making the hotel reservations, I had no control over how he booked it. I would have looked for a Holiday Inn Express to begin with. No way would I have used hotels.com or expedia or such...way too much room for error. The rep he talked to tried to book us for 12/29...go figure, that was two days prior!!! The rep just couldn't figure out that dh was on a plane, trying to book one room for that night. So, who knows where we were booked. But alls well that ends well.
My big issue is that SW's attitude was just not all that helpful. In fact, one of our FA's the next day just couldn't believe what had happened to us. He kept apologizing to my dh on behalf of SW...said that it wasn't handled the way it normally was.
And we knew that other flights were landing at Green because another passenger has his laptop up and running as we sat at the gate in Philly. It would have put SW about 2 hrs behind schedule to get us to Providence but they chose to go to Ft. Lauderdale again.
I'm home, somewhat well rested...so all's well that end's well. I have learned some valuable lessons here....have hotel phone numbers handy, for many various locations. Be sure to always have your carryon packed well, even if heading home!!!

 

[seashoreCM]

(OT for those who frequent Flyertalk and who are eavesdropping)

I would not consider the failure to get your baggage to you at Philly weather related. They got the baggage there!

With that in mind, I do believe that they have the obligation to get your baggage to you or home for you. But we won't find out unless/until someone decides(decided) to turn push into shove.

By the way, Southwest may announce prior to boarding that a plane might be diverted and/or they might take you "only as far as they could go." (Maybe some other airlines do this too.)Thus giving you the chance to reschedule rather than risk being left somewhere.

Usually I will try to go as far as I can go provided it does not cost extra. Once I was standing by (from the west coast) to Hawaii and grabbed a seat to a different island when they included a shuttle flight to my actual destination airport.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

And Diane's story is one of the reasons I try to go "carryon only".

 

[goofy4tink]

(OT for those who frequent Flyertalk and who are eavesdropping)

I would not consider the failure to get your baggage to you at Philly weather related. They got the baggage there!

With that in mind, I do believe that they have the obligation to get your baggage to you or home for you. But we won't find out unless/until someone decides(decided) to turn push into shove.

By the way, Southwest may announce prior to boarding that a plane might be diverted and/or they might take you "only as far as they could go." (Maybe some other airlines do this too.)Thus giving you the chance to reschedule rather than risk being left somewhere.

Usually I will try to go as far as I can go provided it does not cost extra. Once I was standing by (from the west coast) to Hawaii and grabbed a seat to a different island when they included a shuttle flight to my actual destination airport.

I truly believe that they refused to unload our checked bags simply because they had no personel there to do it..it was NYE day...perhaps fewer baggage handlers on duty...don't know. Not my problem. Evidently, SW thought it would be fine flying into TF Green. Of course, dh kept saying, 'We're going to Philly' after 15 mins of circling the Providence area.

And Diane's story is one of the reasons I try to go "carryon only".

You got that right. There was a couple who were at the Holiday Inn Express with us...they routinely travel with just carryon. My dh was flabberghasted when they told him that. He just can't imagine being able to do that. Not me...I've done it several times. But, he seems to need three pair of shoes...loafers, Crocs, sneakers on his feet. Not to mention the khaki's that he 'might' need. Drives me crazy. When the other woman said she washes her undies in the sink at night if need be, he just rolled his eyes. Of course, that couple could have stayed the night in Philly, and been home much sooner than us!!! Lesson learned.

 

[CarolA]

Diane, you are right. SW will do what they have to get that plane BACK on schedule if they get a weather delay. So they "pick up" where the plane is, they don't go back and do the stops they missed.

Their theory is that while it disrupts you, doing this actually has LESS of an impact on thier overall schedule and disrputs fewer people overall.

The fact that you circled for an hour pretty much proves it's "weather" even if it's not a full shut down. If they just started delaying due to visibilty, runway etc it counts!

Glad you made it home. And maybe you should get DH away from Hotels.com LOL!

 

[seashoreCM]

My big issue is that SW's attitude was just not all that helpful. In fact, one of our FA's the next day just couldn't believe what had happened to us. He kept apologizing to my dh on behalf of SW...said that it wasn't handled the way it normally was.

On making it right...

I may be contradicting myself or stating inconsistencies but,
I do not say the passenger is entitled to a free hotel room but I do think the airline should reroute the passengers as best as possible and deliver their baggage.

Pray, what happens (should happen) when the plane full of other people's baggage loads up the next day with different passengers (in Ft Lauderdale)? (hypothetical question only.)

 

[goofy4tink]

Strangely enough.....when our bags came out, at TF Green yesterday morning, all the bags from our first flight, came out as well. Our original flight number was 1373, our rebooked flight was 697. When the bags for flight 697 appeared, there were all the bags for 1373 as well. SW just stuck all those bags, from 1373, on the first flight out of Ft. Lauderdale, flight 697, our flight.
As long as they get the luggage to TF Green, I guess they figure they're good to go. The passengers can get the luggage there. It isn't as if the airline lost the luggage, just rerouted it, sort of.

 

[crashbb]

Friends from Halifax were up here for Christmas. They were scheduled to fly home on a few days before Christmas on a flight that went Toronto-Halifax-St. Johns. Newfoundland and the Maritime (heck Toronto as well) had lots of nasty weather. They were unable to land at Halifax and continued on to St. Johns - wouldn't have been such a huge issue if the airline hadn't left all the Halifax luggage in Toronto! They knew that that there was a chance that they'd not be able to land in Halifax, so they kept all the Halifax luggage in Toronto, on the theory that it would be easier to get it from there to Halifax than from St. Johns to Halifax (many, many more flights). Good theory, but it meant that people were stuck in St. Johns (which wasn't their destination) with no luggage.

I haven't yet heard how long it took them to get to Halifax (as I said, the weather was nasty, so it may have been a while).

 

[bavaria]

And YHZ isn't exactly in or even anywhere near the city, if they live actually IN Halifax. The drive to/from the airport can be almost as bad as the flight during bad weather, especially fog and snow. Hope that they get home okay!!

 

[goofy4tink]

We had a woman on our flight, 1373, that was flying home. She was recently married (about 6 months). Because SW kept showing us as 'ontime', right up to our original arrival time of 11:45, her dh drove to TF Green to pick her up. Well, the poor guy got into a car accident on the way. He's fine but it was needless for him to be there. If SW had shown us as 'late' he may not have started out in order to be there for 11:45. At 11:45, we were headed to Philly!!! Even my dd, sitting at home, watching for our arrival online, said we were ontime, right up to the time she got the phone call from me in Philly...and that was about 20 mins after we should have landed in Providence!!

 

[NancyIL]

Diane, I'm sorry you had such a nightmare getting home from Florida! But I have to ask - did you stay in FL after MouseFest, or did you go home between trips?

 

[kaytieeldr]

No, she went home. I swear, she should just BUY her own Massachusetts-to-Florida airline. Do you know how many times she's been down there in the last few months? If only she'd use the same airline every time, she'd probably have a free trip by now - but noooooooooooooo.

 

[bavaria]

If only she'd use the same airline every time, she'd probably have a free trip by now - but noooooooooooooo.

I have a very vivid memory of standing in the cold and snow with Mom after we left a certain very smart poster, talking about airline prices and loyalty and 'free' tickets'.....

Do I have to come back and finish that conversation?! (oh, yeah, I am coming back, but this time I am waiting until it is warmer!)

 

[debster812]

I have a very vivid memory of standing in the cold and snow with Mom after we left a certain very smart poster, talking about airline prices and loyalty and 'free' tickets'.....

Do I have to come back and finish that conversation?! (oh, yeah, I am coming back, but this time I am waiting until it is warmer!)

Better make sure I'm not flying on that day, you know what happens.....