Would you be frustrated with SW response to cancelled flights?

[sdoll]

We recently traveled to Florida, we were a group of 8 my DH, my 2 DS's and 4 of their friends. Our return flight home on Sunday got cancelled and the soonest they could fly us home was Wednesday morning. After doing the math we decided finding a place to stay, extending our rental car, 3 days of missed work and feeding and entertaining 6 teenagers was going to cost us a small fortune. So we decided to cancel our flights, rent 2 cars and drive home. The added adventure was about $1700 and an extra vacation day for my DH, me and 3 of the boys traveling with us. While I did receive my points back, when I contacted Southwest I received a $150 luv certificate. I feel a bit guilty for being a bit underwhelmed by the gesture. I know how much the industry is struggling. I have been a loyal SW fan for years and I want to chalk this up to a 1 off situation but truly I am a bit put off by the response. Is this the new norm? I hope I don't come off as greedy. Last year when we flew SW and had a delay they had a better response than this.

 

[SteveH]

@sdoll - it's the new norm for the time being and going forward. You took the right avenue to get home, sadly now we need to plan for such alternatives. We leave for Hawaii in a couple weeks and have made plans (and budget) for a delay getting home and even inter-island hoping. Sadly this is one of the hangovers from Covid-19 and the reactions businesses had to take at the time.

 

[BadPinkTink]

You cancelled the flights, you got your points back and you got compensated, yes you are being greedy.

https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/flight-delays-cancellations

There are no federal laws requiring airlines to provide passengers with money or other compensation when their flights are delayed. Each airline has its own policies about what it will do for delayed passengers

 

[Narcoossee11]

As you learned , the public has no POWER.
We are at the mercy of the airlines. Flying is a crap shot.
What you book is just a 'suggest' of what the flights will be.
You always have to have a plan B and a plan C

 

[k5xs]

We recently traveled to Florida, we were a group of 8 my DH, my 2 DS's and 4 of their friends. Our return flight home on Sunday got cancelled and the soonest they could fly us home was Wednesday morning. After doing the math we decided finding a place to stay, extending our rental car, 3 days of missed work and feeding and entertaining 6 teenagers was going to cost us a small fortune. So we decided to cancel our flights, rent 2 cars and drive home. The added adventure was about $1700 and an extra vacation day for my DH, me and 3 of the boys traveling with us. While I did receive my points back, when I contacted Southwest I received a $150 luv certificate. I feel a bit guilty for being a bit underwhelmed by the gesture. I know how much the industry is struggling. I have been a loyal SW fan for years and I want to chalk this up to a 1 off situation but truly I am a bit put off by the response. Is this the new norm? I hope I don't come off as greedy. Last year when we flew SW and had a delay they had a better response than this.

You don't come across as greedy to me, but yes, I think this is the new normal for a while it seems. Between Covid hits, supply chain issues, and the long-developing pilot shortage, this will linger, I think.

My guess is $150 multiplied by all who complained is a lot of money. But your tone sounds very objective to me, so if you retain that tone, I see nothing wrong with a respectful follow-up saying "I appreciate the gesture, but there were eight of us who were terribly inconvenienced and we bore added direct costs of about $1,700. This compensation works out to $18.75 apiece. Could you kindly increase the compensation you are offering us?" or some such.

Good luck!

 

[BadPinkTink]

As someone who had cancelled and delayed flights with Delta during the June Travel Armageddon weekend a few weeks ago, I just dont understand this attitude of expecting airlines to compensate you for flights that you decided to cancel. They were giving you options for next flights with them, which you chose not to take, yet you still want the airline to pay you money???
Seriously???

I missed out on the first day of my vacation, instead of sightseeing in Seattle I spend a day in Detroit airport. All I expected of Delta was to get me to my original destination, which they did.

 

[epcotized]

You did not make the first cancellation. If SW's cancellation was at the last minute with a 3 day waiting period for the next flight it would have been an expensive inconvenience. Not guilty.

 

[lockets]

While they offered you another flight, I don’t think that flight being 3 days later is a reasonable alternative. It’s one thing if the flight were the next day and you found it inconvenient and cancelled it. That’s on you. If I’m reading this correctly they offered you a flight 3 days later and into a work week, no? I mean. How many days do they get to put you on another flight? 1, 3, 5, a week later? Where does it end? Not being sarcastic. Actually asking the question. I wonder if that’s written in the carrier contract somewhere. I think there’s a point at which - if they can’t get you home in a reasonable amount of time they needed to start giving vouchers for hotel and food etc to cover some costs for you to stick around at least.

I don’t think you’re being greedy.

Would very nicely write this out in a letter to customer service to see what more can be done. I like what K5XS wrote above. I’m thinking it should have been $150 per ticketed passenger? Not $18.75 each.

 

[DCJ]

They should have done better. They stranded us in February with an hour notice, gave us $200
Luv voucher. But that means I have to fly Southwest again and risk it again. When I booked again with the voucher, I still had to put money up the way it divided the cost between us. I just cancelled a southwest flight a few days ago and jumped over to American Airlines because I just don't trust Southwest right now. I believe the UK has more rights than USA when it comes too consumer protection regarding airlines. If I'm right, I think the max voucher is $250.

 

[Deb1993]

Sorry to hear about the delay. Check the benefits of whatever credit card you used to purchase the airline tickets. Many cards (Amex Platinum) for instance have reimbursements that they will provide for delays more than 6 hours if the fare was paid entirely with their card. Read your card's fine print to check.

 

[DLgal]

I'd be annoyed by that too, honestly. 3 days later is a massive expense to undertake.

But I don't think the airline technically "owes" you anything since you didn't take the alternative flight and chose to cancel (I don't blame you for that).

This is where travel insurance would have helped you. I know a lot of people don't like paying for it, but in this case, about $150 upfront would have gotten you reimbursement for all the additional costs you incurred.

Check the benefits of whatever credit card you used to buy the airfare (even though you used points, you had to pay that $10 or whatever fee per passenger, right? That counts!). Your card may have travel insurance benefits you are unaware of. Many do.

 

[stinkpickle]

I can't wait to play flight cancellation bingo again this fall. :/

 

[MakiraMarlena]

But that means I have to fly Southwest again and risk it again.

You currently risk it with any airline.

 

[DCJ]

You currently risk it with any airline.

I agree. I stalked both airlines for a few weeks using the flight numbers I was looking at, and American was flying my flight everyday, and Southwest was not so dependable for that route so I made a change.


Right now, Southwest is just downright unpredictable. Plus, once an airline burns you, you tend to remember it.

I cancelled the rest of my southwest flights and am just going to bank the points until things settle down.

 

[supersnoop]

I wonder if this is a consequence of deregulation or if it's just Southwest's policy. Other airlines, at least in my experience, will provide food and lodging when they cancel flights, other than due to weather. I've had American put me up for two nights when the MD-80 fleet was grounded. I would expect the airline to cover the cost of lodging and meals for the duration of your delay, but it doesn't look like Southwest feels the same way.

Other airlines also have "interline" agreements where they can fill seats on planes operated by other carriers. They will put you on the next available flight, regardless of class of service. I've been moved to a first class seat on a different airline when my flight was canceled. Southwest doesn't work with other carriers, so they'll only re-accommodate you on another Southwest flight.

When things go wrong, I much prefer other airlines. Southwest's policies can make small problems into big problems. That said; I have lifetime status on American, earning their "million miler" level before I was 30 years old, and I've chosen to fly Southwest almost exclusively for the past 10 year.

 

[Elle23]

I can't wait to play flight cancellation bingo again this fall. :/

I am extremely thankful our flights a few weeks ago both left on time and we had no issues. However, I’m done flying for the meantime with all of the insanity going on in the industry.

Thankfully Disney has disappointed me enough I feel no desire to take the flight cancellation bingo risk any time soon.

 

[maxiesmom]

As someone who had cancelled and delayed flights with Delta during the June Travel Armageddon weekend a few weeks ago, I just dont understand this attitude of expecting airlines to compensate you for flights that you decided to cancel. They were giving you options for next flights with them, which you chose not to take, yet you still want the airline to pay you money???
Seriously???

I missed out on the first day of my vacation, instead of sightseeing in Seattle I spend a day in Detroit airport. All I expected of Delta was to get me to my original destination, which they did.

Three days later is not much of a real option.

 

[sheilafri]

While they offered you another flight, I don’t think that flight being 3 days later is a reasonable alternative. It’s one thing if the flight were the next day and you found it inconvenient and cancelled it. That’s on you. If I’m reading this correctly they offered you a flight 3 days later and into a work week, no? I mean. How many days do they get to put you on another flight? 1, 3, 5, a week later? Where does it end? Not being sarcastic. Actually asking the question. I wonder if that’s written in the carrier contract somewhere. I think there’s a point at which - if they can’t get you home in a reasonable amount of time they needed to start giving vouchers for hotel and food etc to cover some costs for you to stick around at least.

I don’t think you’re being greedy.

Would very nicely write this out in a letter to customer service to see what more can be done. I like what K5XS wrote above. I’m thinking it should have been $150 per ticketed passenger? Not $18.75 each.

The contracts of carriage in the US are heavily stacked against the passenger. The airlines get your money but don’t have to get you to the agreed-on destination in any stipulated number of days. Do we really think this is the best that American carriers can do? The EU has stipulated compensation for delays and cancellations. American carriers flying out of European cities must comply with these rules. I’m still seeing the major American airlines flying in and out of the EU. Why can’t Americans have nice things—like an airline looking to fulfill the terms of a contract of carriage in a reasonable amount of time or pay for defaulting?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think you have to look at each situation differently because your flight delay last time isn't the same as this situation this time.

In this case they got you on another flight (and that has happened before where flights were booked up pre-pandemic and another one not able to be had for several days) however you opted to cancel your subsequent flights. Our expectations for airlines should largely be when they do something to us. When we have the control our expectation of compensation should be adjusted.

At this point I'd take the $150 LUV voucher and call it good. LUV vouchers are assigned to a particular person aren't they? So the 4 friends of the OP's son are not related to the OP I could understand that being dicey giving that out, they would belong to them not the OP as LUV vouchers are a passenger specific thing.

Delta over 4th of July was just basically like "yeah...we're not going to be able fly you..here's some vouchers" before anyone had even flown for that time period! That struck me as a "yowza" moment. My husband flew home from Delta 1 day prior to those vouchers being given out.

I do understand being upset about lack of flights available to get you home within a day or so, my sister-in-law had that happen a few years back it was incredibly difficult for any airline to get any flights. I think they ended up renting a car.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Other airlines also have "interline" agreements where they can fill seats on planes operated by other carriers.

That is true BUT that does not mean you would get home that day or even the next day or even the next day after that. There have been times in the past family members I've known who have flown non-SWA have run into issues where there just wasn't open seating available for days. This especially happens with bad weather or a system outage. And right now that might be even worse than before with pilot shortages and lack of crew available.