Southwest Screwed Up....Trying Now to Resolve it

[maxiesmom]

Always know your options and have a backup

The other couple that switched with us called a family member in GR who drove all the way to Flint to pick them up. They didn't realize that a one-way rental was only $40. I booked it through the Budget app on my phone in less than 2 minutes.

I hate flying with a connection for this exact reason, but it helps to know ahead of time what can go wrong and plan for the worst.

I have twice had a family member drive to Flint to get me to a flight, as it can be a lot cheaper than flying out of Grand Rapids. It is under 2 hours, so while a bit of a pain, it isn't a horrible drive.

 

[kristenrice]

I have twice had a family member drive to Flint to get me to a flight, as it can be a lot cheaper than flying out of Grand Rapids. It is under 2 hours, so while a bit of a pain, it isn't a horrible drive.

We have found that it is very convenient to fly out of Flint. Since the nonstop flights are usually so early in the morning, we book a hotel in the area for the night before. We've used the "Hot Rate" hotels on Hotwire and got the Wingate hotel twice for under $75. I've also booked one-way car rentals for as low as $25 each way, which is almost equal to the cost of long-term/economy parking. Even with those added costs figured in, it's usually still about $300 cheaper for my family to fly out of FNT than GRR.

 

[Sandi]

They should compensate you for the rental car. One time our flight from MCO was delayed about 3 hours, they automatically gave each of us a $100 voucher for future travel.

I don't believe airlines will compensate for rental cars -- I've tried with a few legacy airlines over the years. They claim liability issues.

 

[cmarsh31]

Baltimore seems to be the place that SW planes go to die. That's all we could figure out over the summer, attempting to fly from Seattle to Upstate NY (via Baltimore). Our plane left Baltimore for Seattle 6 hours late, therefore we actually missed our connecting flight in Baltimore before we even left Seattle - we ended up arriving home at 11am on Wed instead of 11pm on Tuesday. What a nightmare, especially with two kids.

When I saw Baltimore for you, I figured you ended up having to drive to Michigan! Glad you were only a few hours delayed!

 

[disneyeveryyear]

I had something similar happen with our flights in December '14, except I had purchased EBCI for both legs of the flight. Between the time I purchased and we flew, SWA changed our flight time or number (I don't exactly remember) which made it impossible for me to view the flight online. We all got A boarding passes outbound, and when I checked for the return (after attending Candlelight Processional), my DH, DS and DD all had A boarding passes and I was C2?. Apparently SWA used my return EBCI for my outbound flight and then when the outbound EBCI wasn't used, it was cancelled. There was nothing they could do at that time, and my family just went to the back of the plane where I joined them. I was able to finally get my $12.50 refunded after speaking with a specific CS department.

So when I had to change flights this week, and couldn't do it online due to changing the destination, I had to call in. I made sure that the EBCI stayed with our outbound flight before I hung up the phone since I now can't look online for this reservation either.

That is my only beef with SWA. Once they "take over" your reservation to make a change, you can no longer access it online.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I hate connections while flying for a reason...always pressure for get to the next airport on time and on the next plane and then delays can happens ugh. We def. go with nonstop if possible (although sometimes monitarily speaking it isn't feasible).

Luckily we now have 3 carriers that fly from our airport (KCI-although technically MCI) to MCO nonstope: Southwest, Delta and new is Frontier.

Also Allegiant now flys from KCI to Sanford (SFB) nonstop altough when checking their prices they weren't as competitive as advertised when compared to Southwest.

Sorry you had all that trouble although I'm glad when all was said and done it worked out.