What if SW cancels an evening flight? (phl->mco)

[Seabean]

A few years back we flew from PHL -> MCO midweek at about 7pm and stayed overnight offsite in Orlando before taking the DME to the park hotel the next morning. No problem.

Last year we did the same thing, leaving PHL midweek at about 5pm. Also no problem.

However, last year we noticed that the later 8pm SW flight was cancelled and they moved folks from that flight onto our 5pm flight.

Turns out, this year we're leaving on that 8pm flight. Is it common for a midweek 8pm flight to get cancelled? If they decided to do so, will they at least know hours ahead of time and will they make it known to us to take the earlier flight? (obviously I should watch the SW board the day of our flight) How do these things work?

.

 

[gmeh1]

A few years back we flew from PHL -> MCO midweek at about 7pm and stayed overnight offsite in Orlando before taking the DME to the park hotel the next morning. No problem.

Last year we did the same thing, leaving PHL midweek at about 5pm. Also no problem.

However, last year we noticed that the later 8pm SW flight was cancelled and they moved folks from that flight onto our 5pm flight.

Turns out, this year we're leaving on that 8pm flight. Is it common for a midweek 8pm flight to get cancelled? If they decided to do so, will they at least know hours ahead of time and will they make it known to us to take the earlier flight? (obviously I should watch the SW board the day of our flight) How do these things work?


.

It is very unusual for SWA to cancel a flight, so, I would not worry

 

[Jestocost]

A few years back we flew from PHL -> MCO midweek at about 7pm and stayed overnight offsite in Orlando before taking the DME to the park hotel the next morning. No problem.

Last year we did the same thing, leaving PHL midweek at about 5pm. Also no problem.

However, last year we noticed that the later 8pm SW flight was cancelled and they moved folks from that flight onto our 5pm flight.

Turns out, this year we're leaving on that 8pm flight. Is it common for a midweek 8pm flight to get cancelled? If they decided to do so, will they at least know hours ahead of time and will they make it known to us to take the earlier flight? (obviously I should watch the SW board the day of our flight) How do these things work?

.

It depends.

If they have enough notice they will try to get you on an earlier flight provided space is available (and many flights are quite full today). It they don't have much advance notice, that obviously gets trickier. If they have very little advance notice, you probably are out of luck and they will try to get you on the next available flight. In situations where there are weather issues and multiple flight cancellations, that could be a few days later.

As noted, flat-out cancellations aren't all that common, however.

 

[kt_mom]

I was wondering this same thing. Right now we are scheduled on an early morning flight on a tuesday morning. I'm not considering taking an evening flight the night before.

Last year we took a 5pm flight that was delayed. We were concerned about missing our connecting flight because the agents told us the later flight had been canceled and if we didn't make our connecting flight we would be stuck in Charlotte for the night. That was on US Air. They said it was common for the later flights to get canceled because they didn't have many people booked or something.

I wasn't sure how SW was about this.