Southwest airlines on time??

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

Is there any way of finding out how often your flight is on time? We have a really early departure (6:30am) and figure it should be on time...but also want to be prepared. Any experiences? thanks.

 

[Lewisc]

Is there any way of finding out how often your flight is on time? We have a really early departure (6:30am) and figure it should be on time...but also want to be prepared. Any experiences? thanks.

Unless there is bad weather, or was bad weather the day before, your flight should take off on time.

Just a warning, I don't know what airport you're taking off from, you may be in line, waiting to board, before the food court opens. Double check if you're planning on getting something like an egg sandwich.

A food court restaurant that opens at 6a may mean the employees get there at 6a. It may take 10 minutes before the grill is working and there may be a line of customers waiting for it to open. SW may start boarding 20 minutes before your flight.

 

[Tink10]

We always take the first SW flight at about 6:30am & normally get in to MCO about 15 minutes early

We've only had bad weather once on our flight in to MCO and still arrived on time. Coming home has been a different story, but then again, we always take one of the last 2 SW flights out of MCO.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Being a 6:30 AM flight, your plane will probably already be at the gate for the first flight of the day. Therefore, you don't have to wait for passangers to disembark and the plane will be empty allowing for the best seat selections. Don't forget to check in at 24 hours and get your "A" boarding pass. Barring any mechanical problems or bad weather, I have never been late on a Southwest flight.

 

[Blessed_wth_Triplets]

This is great to hear! Hopefully all goes well and we get in a full day our first day!

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

If you go to www.flightaware.com they have flight time histories.

 

[MrMarv]

Southwest's on-time arrival record is about the best in the industry.

The six legacy carriers are handicapped because their airline partners/subsidiaries within the US (Comair for Delta as one example) have much poorer on-time records than their legacy partners, but those late flights do not go against the on-time record of the originating, major carrier, such as Delta in this case.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Southwest's on-time arrival record is about the best in the industry.

Not true, which you can see checking the official statistics from the Department of Transportation.

 

[stormi65]

Call the Southwest Airlines Reservation Center and ask for DOT statistics for that particular flight. They are required to disclose that information- Federal Regulations.

 

[ro80]

Same thing with us as Tink10 - we too take the first flight out and always get to our destination early. Even coming home, we take a late afternoon/early evening flight out to come home and have never experienced SW not being on time, and arriving home early as well. Bad weather, though, may throw it off a bit....

 

[MrMarv]

Those stats from the DOT are horrendously inaccurate, and my previous post explains the 'dirty little secret' about those on-time reports from the feds.

I'd recommend that you start reading Scott McCartney's outstanding 'The Middle Seat' column, which appears every Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal.

You can also find exceptional travel-related columns on Tuesdays in both the NY Times & USA TODAY.