Southwest disappointment

[maxiesmom]

First let me say I know airlines are having problem with staffing, and making many cuts. I get it.

But I'm still really disappointed and miffed that my 7 pm non stop flight home has been changed to a 3:10 pm with a 4 hour layover. So we loose almost a whole park day.

Just needed to whine a bit.

 

[Best Aunt]

There's already a thread on this issue:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/southwest-cancelled-flight-phl-to-mco.3846101/page-2#post-63202748

 

[maxiesmom]

Sorry my whine is not in the proper place. Geeze.

 

[The Mayor]

Sorry my whine is not in the proper place. Geeze.

Its perfectly fine to start your own whining thread. Have you checked for other flight times that are better for you? If so, call SW and have them change you to a different flight. Because SW made the change there won’t be any additional charges.

 

[JimMIA]

All of the airlines are probably using the non-stop bait-and-switch scam. It's nothing new -- we had it happen several times 3-4 years ago.

They get you booked, knowing full well that they will be radically changing the flights to connecting later. Some customers will switch to other flights, but not many will change airlines.

@The Mayor's suggestion to rebook above is a good one. You can usually find flights that will work better.

 

[starry_solo]

Never a non stop from my location on the west coast

 

[Lewisc]

Legacy airlines book flights up to a year in advance. They book a projected or hypothetical schedule. SW books a few months in advance. Historically SW didn't change the schedule after bookings were accepted. Grounding the MAX caused an exception.

Covid changed SW. What used to be extraordinary rare is now common

 

[maxiesmom]

All of the airlines are probably using the non-stop bait-and-switch scam. It's nothing new -- we had it happen several times 3-4 years ago.

They get you booked, knowing full well that they will be radically changing the flights to connecting later. Some customers will switch to other flights, but not many will change airlines.

@The Mayor's suggestion to rebook above is a good one. You can usually find flights that will work better.

Unfortunately all of the flights that day leave even earlier. Our home airport is Grand Rapids, MI. I have been checking Detroit and Flint, and other airlines. Delta has a flight to Detroit that leaves at 2ph, but even adding on the drive home we would get back 3 hours earlier.

 

[slyster]

Both of my flights were changed for late Aug, early Sept. Thankfully instead of a 9:45am arrival time, they moved it to 8:30am. I guess earlier is better though we will need to be at airport super early now. Coming back they moved our departure time a little earlier too. Both weren't perfect, but I would be a lot more frustrated being in your shoes. Whine away!

 

[mamamelody2]

Unfortunately all of the flights that day leave even earlier. Our home airport is Grand Rapids, MI. I have been checking Detroit and Flint, and other airlines. Delta has a flight to Detroit that leaves at 2ph, but even adding on the drive home we would get back 3 hours earlier.

Our home airport is Grand Rapids, too! For our trip last month we booked a lovely nonstop flight at 10 AM. Perfect! We would get some nice time in the parks our first evening. NOPE. They changed it to 5 PM, arrival at 8 PM. BAH. We changed to a delightful (not) 5 AM flight with a three hour layover to arrive at 11:50 AM so we could have some park time on that first day.
Luckily the new flight was much cheaper, so we got many points back. But I was not impressed at all with the change!

 

[maxiesmom]

Our home airport is Grand Rapids, too! For our trip last month we booked a lovely nonstop flight at 10 AM. Perfect! We would get some nice time in the parks our first evening. NOPE. They changed it to 5 PM, arrival at 8 PM. BAH. We changed to a delightful (not) 5 AM flight with a three hour layover to arrive at 11:50 AM so we could have some park time on that first day.
Luckily the new flight was much cheaper, so we got many points back. But I was not impressed at all with the change!

Our flight to Orlando is on Delta. That one started out at 8:30 am. Slowly that one has moved a few times until now it is 6:30 am. Fine by me, but my sister, who is NOT an early bird, is not too happy.

 

[boop0524]

I’m sorry to hear this! Since covid we have had to most issues with Southwest, and we are (maybe were) loyal SW flyers. It’s extremely frustrating

 

[mamamelody2]

The really dumb thing was when they cancelled our 10 AM nonstop flight and added a 5 PM nonstop flight, instead of putting us in that one, they put us in a 5 PM flight with 2 layovers arriving like 11 PM. Gee, thanks, Southwest!

 

[FCDub]

The really dumb thing was when they cancelled our 10 AM nonstop flight and added a 5 PM nonstop flight, instead of putting us in that one, they put us in a 5 PM flight with 2 layovers arriving like 11 PM. Gee, thanks, Southwest!

"They" have no clue of WHY someone picked a specific flight. Could be total duration, price, because you wanted a layover in a specific airport to get your favorite food, something else. The computer is the one making the decision on where you're rebooked based on ... whatever computery stuff it uses.

 

[Tiggerish]

Can I join the list of whining about SW and Grand Rapids?

We are going the last full week of September and booked within an hour of the schedule opening many months ago. Our beautiful, non-stop mid-morning moved to late afternoon. All of the other choices for that day require one or two stops and getting to the airport for 5 AM. But even worse was the flight home which went from a one stop with a two hour layover to a two stop (making a side trip to New Orleans then Chicago and finally back to Grand Rapids) that gets us at 11:50 PM. We did switch to a one stop but all the flights were using the 11:50 PM flight to make the last leg home.

 

[EACarlson]

Southwest had been moving over the last few years away from their traditional distributed network to much more of a hub and spoke. The pandemic certainly seems to have hastened that move. What were the options to get from GRR to MCO before SW entered the market? What are your other options now? Maybe it gets better next year if they ever get all of their pilots re-certified and can run everything they did in 2019. Right now it's all about getting flights full.

 

[maxiesmom]

Southwest had been moving over the last few years away from their traditional distributed network to much more of a hub and spoke. The pandemic certainly seems to have hastened that move. What were the options to get from GRR to MCO before SW entered the market? What are your other options now? Maybe it gets better next year if they ever get all of their pilots re-certified and can run everything they did in 2019. Right now it's all about getting flights full.

The main option from GRR is/was Delta. I'm checking using them to come back as we could do either Detroit or Chicago. Or even Flint.

 

[cjsmom5]

"They" have no clue of WHY someone picked a specific flight. Could be total duration, price, because you wanted a layover in a specific airport to get your favorite food, something else. The computer is the one making the decision on where you're rebooked based on ... whatever computery stuff it uses.

I have been changed to flights that make no sense. They change to whatever flight you want, if available, if you don't like the selection. The computer is simply trying to get you from point A to point B on the same day as your current reservation. It doesn't look at stops, layovers, etc. You can handle the change online, too. If you have a companion you have to call to get it changed.

 

[cjsmom5]

First let me say I know airlines are having problem with staffing, and making many cuts. I get it.

But I'm still really disappointed and miffed that my 7 pm non stop flight home has been changed to a 3:10 pm with a 4 hour layover. So we loose almost a whole park day.

Just needed to whine a bit.

I have been monitoring late/early for my connecting flights that were booked. I discovered that the one flight was almost 1 hour late - always - which meant we would not have time to get to our flight to board in the A group (since I am A List). So I changed the flight to a direct. Not as good of a time but at least I knew I would be comfortable and get to my destination.

 

[cjsmom5]

Legacy airlines book flights up to a year in advance. They book a projected or hypothetical schedule. SW books a few months in advance. Historically SW didn't change the schedule after bookings were accepted. Grounding the MAX caused an exception.

Covid changed SW. What used to be extraordinary rare is now common

Agree 100%!!