When we flew StL to MCO last March/April (week leading up to Easter, Sat to Sat) I had booked our flights MONTHS in advance, just because I knew we could get credit when flights went down in cost and (more importantly) I didn't want to risk losing out on the Wanna Get Away fares available when I initially booked. To save a few extra bucks I'd made a reservation for myself independently of my hubby and three kiddos. SWA changed our flights no less than 4 times, once changing the day entirely, and on the second change, my flights were completely different than the rest of the family's. I was able to get everything straightened out and our reservations linked so we didn't get split again, but as I stated, our flights still got moved two more times.
Day of departure our flight is delayed nearly an hour. Normally I'd be irritated, but not think a lot of it -- delays happen here and there. But my stepmom's flight out of Louisville was also delayed almost an hour at the same time as ours. It was just ....odd... and certainly was frustrating as it, in combination with the EXTENSIVE line for DME resulted in a nearly missed but thankfully rescheduled ADR at The Boathouse for my daughter's bday dinner.
Hubby and I have already discussed a few times that although we will have significant credit for SW flights (assuming I pay to extend the use window
), we will likely select another airline to fly for our trip in June. It just isn't worth the stress/worry/headache many are dealing with now when we have advance knowledge enough to choose otherwise. I've flown SWA almost exclusively for the last 30 years at minimum flying every other year, sometimes more. I LOVE not having to worry about paying for my luggage such that I'm willing to deal with the chaos that is boarding groups, but not so much that I'm risking a potential huge delay eating into my Disney fix.
ETA: I don't recall ever having had my flights changed at all, but certainly never to this degree. Also, though one of the flights I called and had us switched to at one point (don't recall if it was the final flight or not) cost more, we were not required to pay the difference.
