When would SW cancel flights?

[Missyma919]

Like everyone going during free dining I'm concerned about Hurricanes. Mainly Ike right now. How far in advance does SW decide if they are canceling flights?

 

[jkcyoung]

We were in Disney Feb 2007 and the day we were departing from Orlando there was a horrible ice storm back home (Philadelphia). We had been watching the weather channel so we were aware of the possibility of delays. We had a 10:00ish flight so EARLY that morning I got up and called Southwest. I couldn't get through so I called my BIL back home and he checked online for us and it stated that the flight was on time, but he said he didn't think that was possible because it was really bad out. So before we left for the airport I called Southwest again, got through and they said the flight was on time. We got to the airport and the signs read on time so we got in a huge line to check our luggage. The woman in front of us overheard us talking and said that she heard that our flight was cancelled . Sure enough when we got to the counter they offeren us a 3:00 flight that may or may not take off or reschedule for the next day. We opted for the latter, called Disney got 1 night at Movies hopped back on ME and spent one last day at MK . It all worked out in the end but if they had updated things a little quicker we may have avoided going to the airport.

 

[DebbieB]

For a major hurricane, the airport will shutdown at least 12 hours prior to it entering the area. I think New Orleans closed at 6:00pm last Sunday night, the hurricane hit on Monday morning.

 

[bookwormde]

Generally SW opens up their weather change policy long before any flights are cancelled so when that happens it is best to try to judge if you flight has a possibility of being cancelled and move it ahead or later avoid any problems. SW is usually good about avoiding last minute cancellations. For our flight back our original flight showed cancelled 12 hours before flight time, early morning flights can be a little shorter notice

bookwormde

 

[puffkin]

We travelled SW from PHL to MCO during TS Fay the other week. We had a Thursday evening flight (9pm). I think on Sunday or Monday SW issued their Travel Alert and allowed changes to be made on flight trhough the end of day Wednesday.

Well, as everyone knows, Fay just kept on hanging around and we were prepared to push our trip back a day if SW pushed the alert into Thursday. Checked late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning and nothing......finally around mid-morning Thursday they extended the alert til Saturday. However, by that time Disney didn't have any availability at the values to add on Monday night (SHORT trip). So, we just went with our original plan.

With a usual hurricane/TS, SW's alert would have given you plenty of opportunity to change your plans, but Fay just was stubborn and stuck around much longer than they originally thought.