Southwest and Erika

[nkereina]

I've got friends traveling from Buffalo to MCO on Tuesday morning on Southwest. Just wondering what the typical process is for the airlines if conditions around MCO are impacted. Will they delay the flight and just keep delaying it, forcing people to sit at the airport? Will they flat out cancel the flight early on? What if they want to switch airlines - just pay OOP for the airfare and receive a credit with Southwest?

I know it will vary depending on the weather, but just curious what other's experiences have been.

Thanks!

 

[nacho113]

Current track on Erika has her hitting the Orlando area Tuesday morning, meaning Monday will start to be stormy, Tuesday will be bad and then Wednesday will be the fall off from the trailing edge.
If she stays on track and picks up force on the way in across the warm caribbean waters then there will be many delays and cancellations.
I would suspect that your friends flight will be delayed or even cancelled out of Buffalo if the conditions are bad in Orlando.

Cancelling and switching to another airline won't help as none are going to fly into a hurricane. If you mean change to a different airline for a flight later in the week, then this is a possibility. I would look to Southwest first if you are looking to change the flight. You may also find that Southwest gives this as an option if Erika becomes a certainty closer to next week.

We were in Tampa a few years ago when Tropical Storm Debbie made landfall along the gulf coast. The airport was shut down as were the bridges, causeways and beaches in the area. It was a miserable couple of days with torrential rain, high winds, tornadoes and lightning. We stayed hunkered down in the hotel, venturing out briefly for meals. Funnily enough, the locals were just taking it all in stride (kind of a "nothing we haven't seen before" attitude) Scared the cr@p out of us.

 

[mb187143]

I've got friends traveling from Buffalo to MCO on Tuesday morning on Southwest. Just wondering what the typical process is for the airlines if conditions around MCO are impacted. Will they delay the flight and just keep delaying it, forcing people to sit at the airport? Will they flat out cancel the flight early on? What if they want to switch airlines - just pay OOP for the airfare and receive a credit with Southwest?

I know it will vary depending on the weather, but just curious what other's experiences have been.

Thanks!

Our experience with SW with this kind of situation was in 2012 during hurricane Sandy. We had a flight from PHL to MCO scheduled for 10/31 and Sandy hit PHL Monday. We were notified on Sunday before the storm that our flight was going to be cancelled and we got a full refund. Since we were going down for our wedding, we had already made alternate plans to drive but SW did a good job notifying us early. With other storms it may not be possible to make such an early call but their customer service was top notch for us.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Your friends need to keep checking Southwest's web site for notices of delays and cancellations. If they decide to cancel the flight, they will post the information there. Usually you have an option to be rescheduled on another flight (which could take days) or you can get a refund and pay for a ticket on another airline. Keep in mind that if Erika causes a lot of flight delays and cancellations, it could be many days before they can get a new flight on any airline. It's hurricane season; anything can happen.

 

[nkereina]

Thanks all for the responses. What are your thoughts on them changing their flights and flying from Buffalo to Tampa and driving to Orlando from Tampa? Is it likely Tampa could be impacted? Possibly too dangerous to drive in that?

 

[PlutoPony]

What are your thoughts on them changing their flights and flying from Buffalo to Tampa and driving to Orlando from Tampa? Is it likely Tampa could be impacted? Possibly too dangerous to drive in that?

Honestly, it's a guess right now which airports, if any, would be impacted - the hurricane track is not at all set. Today's 11am update pushed the track a little further west, which puts Tampa in play. It will change several more times..... Airlines don't like to have / leave their planes in airports that are in a hurricane's path, too much risk for damage to a valuable asset. So they will often preemptively cancel flights into those airports some hours in advance of when the storm would be expected to hit and/or the airport is expected to shut down. This doesn't look to be a particularly strong or dangerous storm AT THIS POINT so would't expect any airport closures to be lengthy, after the storm goes through. When and where the storm goes is the key and it's just too early to for the airlines to make a call on that. And it's entirely possible that this will turn out to be a low level tropical storm by the time it hits FL (assuming it even goes that way) or miss FL entirely, which could mean no cancellations or just delays and a lot of rain.

Watch SW's website. As the projected path and timing becomes better known (closer to the time of landfall) airlines will likely put out alerts for affected airline/airport combinations letting passengers make changes for no cost or doing a blanket cancellation of flights. At that point be ready to act on your preferred Plan B, knowing that others are trying to make the same fall back plans. And realize that in general, airlines handle disruptions like this in a very similar manner.

 

[ErinInCT]

Southwest is so far the only airline that has offered a penalty free change for those flying into FL. The other airlines show policies for the lower islands but so far nothing for FL flights. So you can change your flight for free on SWA and go early!! Wish I would have gone thru SWA. I am stuck waiting to see if Spirit Air will do anything. I am all ready to leave Sun if they offer free changes. I, too, am coming in on Tues morning and am concerned about delays or cancellations. I had a flight in April cancelled and Spirit couldn't get us home until 3 days later. We had to pay $2500 for a last minute one way ticket on another airline to get home. If they can't get us to WDW on Wed then we'd have to just cancel our whole trip.

 

[bumbershoot]

OP, they need to keep on top of it. Check SW's site and check their airport's site. The moment delays/changes are mentioned, the moment free changes are allowed, they should get on it. They should be packed so they can go early; check with bosses to see if they can leave early, etc. They need to be prepared. Now, going down early and possibly being there for a storm if the storm hits is a bit, um, adventurous, but it's hard to say what any storm WILL do.


Erin, I wish you luck! That's one problem with going with an airline with so relatively few flights in a day.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Southwest is so far the only airline that has offered a penalty free change for those flying into FL. The other airlines show policies for the lower islands but so far nothing for FL flights. So you can change your flight for free on SWA and go early!! Wish I would have gone thru SWA. I am stuck waiting to see if Spirit Air will do anything. I am all ready to leave Sun if they offer free changes. I, too, am coming in on Tues morning and am concerned about delays or cancellations. I had a flight in April cancelled and Spirit couldn't get us home until 3 days later. We had to pay $2500 for a last minute one way ticket on another airline to get home. If they can't get us to WDW on Wed then we'd have to just cancel our whole trip.

After such a bad experience, why fly Spirit again?

 

[ErinInCT]

After such a bad experience, why fly Spirit again?

LOL, it was BY FAR the cheapest flight and I've flown them on other occasions with no problems whatsoever. But they only have one flight out a day so I think I'm finding it is worth it to go with one of the major carriers that have a lot of flights so if mine is cancelled I have lots of other choices. You get what you pay for!!!

 

[DebbieB]

If there's going to be an airport closed or long delays, they will most likely cancel the flights. Planes sitting on the ground don't make money. They need to get the plane to the next destination or there will be a domino effect across the country.

 

[Carriemel]

At this point, it's a moot point, because this bad girl Erika has completely dissipated. She may leave some rain on Monday/Tuesday, but that's about it. The National Weather Service has discontinued watching it entirely.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Yes, excellent news for travelers.

 

[bumbershoot]

At this point, it's a moot point, because this bad girl Erika has completely dissipated. She may leave some rain on Monday/Tuesday, but that's about it. The National Weather Service has discontinued watching it entirely.

Isn't that amazing? Ah, mother nature...

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Southwest is so far the only airline that has offered a penalty free change for those flying into FL. The other airlines show policies for the lower islands but so far nothing for FL flights. So you can change your flight for free on SWA and go early!! Wish I would have gone thru SWA. I am stuck waiting to see if Spirit Air will do anything. I am all ready to leave Sun if they offer free changes. I, too, am coming in on Tues morning and am concerned about delays or cancellations. I had a flight in April cancelled and Spirit couldn't get us home until 3 days later. We had to pay $2500 for a last minute one way ticket on another airline to get home. If they can't get us to WDW on Wed then we'd have to just cancel our whole trip.

After such a bad experience, why fly Spirit again?

LOL, it was BY FAR the cheapest flight and I've flown them on other occasions with no problems whatsoever. But they only have one flight out a day so I think I'm finding it is worth it to go with one of the major carriers that have a lot of flights so if mine is cancelled I have lots of other choices. You get what you pay for!!!

And they have no interline agreements with other airlines and a customer service model that says "you only picked us because we are cheap" And you are PROOF it works. This is why the CEO says they don't do customer service. Regardless of what they do (see $2,500 to fly home) you still went "gee it's cheap lets' do it again" Seriously? It cost you $2,500 to get home and you still think they are cheaper? Add up the price of the flights (including that $2,500 flight) and I bet ti would have been cheaper in the long term to go with SWA

 

[MillauFr]

And they have no interline agreements with other airlines and a customer service model that says "you only picked us because we are cheap" And you are PROOF it works. This is why the CEO says they don't do customer service. Regardless of what they do (see $2,500 to fly home) you still went "gee it's cheap lets' do it again" Seriously? It cost you $2,500 to get home and you still think they are cheaper? Add up the price of the flights (including that $2,500 flight) and I bet ti would have been cheaper in the long term to go with SWA

Agreed. I really don't understand why Spirit has a high level of complaints???? Don't all of their customers expect to be treated like garbage??? Spirit's CEO has even bragged about their poor customer service and told customers that if you want a good experience you should pay more and book with another airline.