Southwest and their issues

Pilots and air traffic controllers have always had restrictions on what they can and cannot take. Even taking DayQuil will disqualify you for 50 or so hours. NyQuil? Forget it. See you in 4 days. It’s part of maintaining your medical clearance.
 
I've heard of people checking history on flights - i don't know how to do that.. i tried poking around for SAT to MCO yesterday and today. None seem to be cancelled. We're also on a direct flight which SWA advertise as 1 daily for this route. Crossing all my fingers and toes.
 
Sorry, cant afford a back up. I am traveling the week before Thanksgiving for only 4 days midweek. The only thing I can do is keep my fingers crossed.

Booking a backup flight is a bit overkill IMHO. You could pick up a travel insurance plan if you're really concerned; they don't generally cost too much. Granted it wouldn't help you immediately but I believe after 24 hours they'll cover alternate transportation (i.e. flight on different airline). I don't have too much experience in this area but it might be worth looking into. They'll definitely cover whatever you need if you get stuck and can't get home.

I've heard of people checking history on flights - i don't know how to do that.. i tried poking around for SAT to MCO yesterday and today. None seem to be cancelled. We're also on a direct flight which SWA advertise as 1 daily for this route. Crossing all my fingers and toes.

These are anomalies, so flight history is about as useful as the roulette wheel history they like to show at the casino. In other words, it's useless.
 
We fly out Nashville Saturday morning. Our back up is just to keep driving.
Our home airport is Nashville too and we always struggle with the fly/drive decision. It's just that gray area where technically we are close enough to drive and save money, but yet flying is so much more convenient time-wise most of the time. I have a trip planned next June (originally planned for June 2020) and have points to fly on SWA, but if this mess still exists then, we'll hit the road and head south.
 


Our home airport is Nashville too and we always struggle with the fly/drive decision. It's just that gray area where technically we are close enough to drive and save money, but yet flying is so much more convenient time-wise most of the time. I have a trip planned next June (originally planned for June 2020) and have points to fly on SWA, but if this mess still exists then, we'll hit the road and head south.

I'd probably book the flight. Then if they cancel your flight you can get always just get a refund and hit the road. Maybe book one night off site just in case or get travel insurance to cover a lost night at a Disney hotel in case that happens. There are ways to plan to fly and keep driving as a backup option.
 
Normally, we would never take travel insurance for domestic air travel. But with the Southwest issues, I'm now wondering if we should.

We are flying from Cincinnati to Houston on November 20th on Southwest. We are flying home from Houston to Cincinnati on November 28th on Allegiant. Under the circumstances, is travel insurance advisable or overkill?
 
Normally, we would never take travel insurance for domestic air travel. But with the Southwest issues, I'm now wondering if we should.

We are flying from Cincinnati to Houston on November 20th on Southwest. We are flying home from Houston to Cincinnati on November 28th on Allegiant. Under the circumstances, is travel insurance advisable or overkill?

I think it depends on how travel insurance will characterize your cancelled flights. Not all are equal. I think it’s worth investigating given the airlines you have choosen - it can pay for hotel stays, rental cars, and new flights!
 


t I believe after 24 hours they'll cover alternate transportation (i.e. flight on different airline). I don't have too much experience in this area but it might be worth looking into. They'll definitely cover whatever you need if you get stuck and can't get home.
People need to carefully read the terms of any travel policy they're considering purchasing. Paying for flights on another airline if your airline cancels your flight isn't generally covered. Giving you a specified dollar amount to pay for lodging, meals and other expenses might be covered under some circumstances.

Posters on internet boards generally think travel insurance covers more then it does. A policy lists exactly what benefits are offered and under what circumstances. A medical claim will generally require a doctors note. Your personal physician isn't generally going to lie for you.
 
Biggest issue with SW is they do not have a partner airline. Other major airlines partner with each other (IE Delta may partner with American) if something like this happens you can be put on a differnt carrier. Not saying this would pick up all the slack in SW case but it would certainly ease the pain and wait times if flights are cancelled.
 
Biggest issue with SW is they do not have a partner airline. Other major airlines partner with each other (IE Delta may partner with American) if something like this happens you can be put on a differnt carrier. Not saying this would pick up all the slack in SW case but it would certainly ease the pain and wait times if flights are cancelled.
Exactly. Southwest doesn't have
interline agreements with other carriers. Other airlines like United, Delta and American do. That allows them to get passengers on their way quicker when the unexpected happens.
 
American also had significant delays and cancellations this weekend. Definitely staffing issues all around. We can speculate on the cause, but staffing is definitely up there with the main reason.

I would say this trend will continue throughout holidays as demand to travel increases.
 
Exactly. Southwest doesn't have
interline agreements with other carriers. Other airlines like United, Delta and American do. That allows them to get passengers on their way quicker when the unexpected happens.
Jet Blue, Spirit and Frontier don't have interline agreements.

There may not be capacity on other airlines to accommodate displaced pax. Elite flyers may be the pax getting their txt endorsed over to another carrier. Some pax may be willing to book direct and pay $$. This may wind up being an illusionary feature as relatively few pax will.get accommodated
 
Jet Blue, Spirit and Frontier don't have interline agreements.

There may not be capacity on other airlines to accommodate displaced pax. Elite flyers may be the pax getting their txt endorsed over to another carrier. Some pax may be willing to book direct and pay $$. This may wind up being an illusionary feature as relatively few pax will.get accommodated
I would like to have some chance vs no chance when a flight has been cancelled. If needed, I'm the passenger who's willing to overfly my destination and then fly back. Being polite and positive (vs lots of negativity) has helped get me on my way.
 
Normally, we would never take travel insurance for domestic air travel. But with the Southwest issues, I'm now wondering if we should.

We are flying from Cincinnati to Houston on November 20th on Southwest. We are flying home from Houston to Cincinnati on November 28th on Allegiant. Under the circumstances, is travel insurance advisable or overkill?

If you're just worried about a canceled flight I wouldn't bother. If they cancel your flight you're entitled to a refund.

Here's what happened to us:

Southwest canceled flights due to weather - as did almost every other airline as there was severe weather all up and down the east coast. We had travel insurance (we were going on a cruise). I had to rebook on a different airline as Southwest didn't have any available flights until 2 days after the cruise was due to leave. Two one way tickets on JetBlue (and I was lucky to get them) to Ft. Lauderdale were $1,350. Southwest refunded our flight - $300 ($150/pp). I tried turning the remaining $1,050 into the travel insurance but it wasn't covered. Southwest canceled a flight and made us "whole" by refunding the money we paid them. That was what was insured, not the price difference for the new flights.
 
I tried turning the remaining $1,050 into the travel insurance but it wasn't covered. Southwest canceled a flight and made us "whole" by refunding the money we paid them. That was what was insured, not the price difference for the new
Many people think travel insurance covers more then it does
There was a company call freebird which not only covered the cost of tickets on a different airline but actually made, and paid for, the reservation. The company didn't survive covid
 
Many people think travel insurance covers more then it does
There was a company call freebird which not only covered the cost of tickets on a different airline but actually made, and paid for, the reservation. The company didn't survive covid

I'm not surprised! We ended up making out ok. Due to a hurricane our western Caribbean cruise turned into an eastern Caribbean cruise. The insurance I bought covered port changes for each person - there were 10 of us (this was a number of years ago - I don't think it's offered anymore) and was per port. Our 4 original ports changed into 3 new ports.
 
We flew last weekend during all the SW woes. We got to PWM (Portland, ME) at 8:30am for a 10am flight to be told that the flight was delayed enough to leave us only 20min to make the connection at BWI. They rebooked us on a 1:20pm flight (PWM-MDW-MCO-MSY) that was basically "direct;" there was no plane change in Chicago, and we'd get into MCO about an hour later than we'd originally planned. THAT flight was delayed until 2:40. Landed at MCO and sat on the tarmac for over 30 minutes, waiting for a gate. By the time we got to the rental car, they were out of our car class so charged us for the upgrade to an available vehicle (wouldn't let us have a smaller car, can only Upgrade). My $200 reservation ended up costing $650. When SW sent us the customary "customer satisfaction" email we complained about the late arrivals because it cost us much more for the car than was budgeted or planned. This was NOT an issue that SW had any control over, but as their late flight is what triggered this, they sent both DH and me a $150 LUV voucher, good for a year. I like that they tried to help us out, unlike the car rental company (no names, but it rhymes with Collar) who has acknowledged this shouldn't have happened but haven't actually replied/addressed the issue yet.

Our return flight was on Tuesday. Flights were full, but I didn't see any delays posted or anything like that. Considering that SW doesn't code share with other airlines, I took that as a sign that the issue is straightening out.

SO... I'll keep flying SW for as long as I can. This was a huge snafu, most of the airlines have had them happen, and until staffing issues, fleet availability, availability of repair parts, etc., improve, I think we just have to realize the travel disruption is going to happen for awhile longer.
 
[snip]
By the time we got to the rental car, they were out of our car class so charged us for the upgrade to an available vehicle (wouldn't let us have a smaller car, can only Upgrade). My $200 reservation ended up costing $650. When SW sent us the customary "customer satisfaction" email we complained about the late arrivals because it cost us much more for the car than was budgeted or planned.
[snip]

It won't help you with getting any money back if you accepted an upsell offer for that rental, but for future reference, know that if the rental agency has indeed run out of the car class you booked and they choose to offer an upgrade to a larger vehicle, they have to let you have the larger-class vehicle at no additional charge. Unscrupulous station managers will instruct agents to try to talk you into voluntarily accepting an upcharge for a larger vehicle before admitting to the reason, and only granting the no-charge upgrade if you refuse to pay the extra cost.

It can be a real PITA to keep refusing when they give you a hard sell when you're dog-tired, but it's worth it to stand firm. I think my record on this was about 35 minutes of saying "no" to upsells, with a large queue building behind me, until the agent finally caved and admitted that I'd be getting a larger car because the only vehicles he had left were a 3-class upgrade from what I'd paid for.[/QUOTE]
 
I flew SW from Orlando to Midway after a cruise on Monday, October 11. I saw the issues online when I was on the bus to the airport and was pretty nervous. When I got to the airport I saw very few flights delayed or cancelled on the board. Our flight was full and there were a lot of SW staff onboard to get to Chicago. We left on time. The flight attendant was one of the funniest I have ever had on the airline. Everyone was laughing and happy on the flight. I felt very lucky to have the experience I did.
 
Southwest today told its employees that it will delay a plan to place workers who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 on unpaid leave if they haven’t yet obtained a medical or religious exemption.
 

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