Southwest Travel Advisory

[Bowen9475]

So, Southwest's website has a winter weather advisory posted. When it lists cities that are eligible for accomodations on certain dates, it means that only if you have a flight on that day you can try changing your flight, right? How does it work? It says you can make changes online. Does that mean once you log in with your confirmation number, available flights will show up. We are scheduled to fly Saturday from Providence to Fort Lauderdale. Right now when I look for flights to Fort Lauderdale, almost none are showing out of the northeast for the next several days. Would there be some available if I was looking for a city and a date that are listed under the advisory? What about if we booked on points? Does that work any differently? Thanks for any information

 

[NotUrsula]

Usually what the airlines are hoping that you will do is to leave sooner if you are scheduled to leave within the next 48-72 hours. As a general rule, if the flight is further out than that, it won't be included in the deal, unless they are expecting multiple-day cancellations, in which case they may include more passengers so that they can accomodate folks who get stranded away from home. However, if you wait to try the change until after the airports have already closed, then the only option that you are probably going to be offered if that is your home airport is to postpone the trip until the weather clears. (If the closed airport is a connection for you, then you can try for creative routing. For instance, if you were supposed to fly from Boston to Orlando with a connection at BWI this evening, but BWI is closed, then you could ask to do something like change planes in Chicago instead. That routing would take longer, but at least it would actually fly.)

SWA will allow you to change to another flight without paying a change fee, but you still have to pay the difference in the flight cost. However, when they call a weather situation that you are eligible for, they will usually let you go on a different flight for what you have already paid. The airport in question needs to be an airport where you will have your shoes on the ground.

At this point, Saturday flights are not on the list, which means that they expect to be back to normal operations by then. So if your flight is scheduled on Saturday and your airport is on the list, then no, you are not normally eligible. However, if your airport is one where there are lots of connecting flights, and your airport is still open right now but expected to be closed tomorrow, they may be open to letting you fly TODAY so that the people who were scheduled for tomorrow can be accomodated on Saturday.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

So, Southwest's website has a winter weather advisory posted. When it lists cities that are eligible for accomodations on certain dates, it means that only if you have a flight on that day you can try changing your flight, right? How does it work? It says you can make changes online. Does that mean once you log in with your confirmation number, available flights will show up. We are scheduled to fly Saturday from Providence to Fort Lauderdale. Right now when I look for flights to Fort Lauderdale, almost none are showing out of the northeast for the next several days. Would there be some available if I was looking for a city and a date that are listed under the advisory? What about if we booked on points? Does that work any differently? Thanks for any information

OK it's not a "free for all" Reading the advisory it applies to Providence on Thursday and Friday right now. So you aren't eligible for any changes.

As for booking, the early bird gets the worm. At this point between the cancellations and the number of rebookings the reason you probably aren't seeing flights is they are FULL. My flight home on Friday went from having lots of tickets to none in just a few hours yesterday (I use ExpertFlyer to track so it's not just seats, Delta is not selling any more tickets on those flights) If you were on a day with a waiver I would suggest getting on the phone and waiting. SW would probably work with you on routing and maybe even alternate airports.

But with a Saturday fight my suggestion is don't be late. All of those folks who have been stuck earlier in the week are trying to get on that flight

 

[Bowen9475]

Our flight is a nonstop at 1:25 Saturday. We can't leave today. What time would you suggest we get to the airport? I will be checking in online Friday afternoon. Hoping that by Saturday, Providence will be running pretty normally (fingers crossed)

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

There is really no reason to adjust your arrival time at the airport. Arriving 2 hours before your flight is the recommend time. No reason to get there any earlier. You can look on SWA status page to see the status of your flight that morning

 

[NotUrsula]

Our flight is a nonstop at 1:25 Saturday. We can't leave today. What time would you suggest we get to the airport? I will be checking in online Friday afternoon. Hoping that by Saturday, Providence will be running pretty normally (fingers crossed)

When the PP said don't be late to the gate; that is exactly what was meant; If you are not at the gate at least 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure time, your seats will be given away, and there will be plenty of folks there to want them if the airport closes tomorrow. It doesn't mean that you need to show up earlier than the standard advance time; it just means don't show up late.

FWIW, the way that weather-threat policies work, pretty much the only choices you really get are "leave as soon as humanly possible" or "cancel the trip at this time and go at some other time". So, if saying, "well, if the airport will be closed tomorrow, we will go in June instead" isn't the kind of option you are interested in, then the expectation outbound is that you'll take the first thing available that is leaving town sometime before the original flight would. The presumption always is that if you don't intend to cancel, then you will need to leave AHEAD of the storm.