American is my go to. Ive hated Southwest for a while now but especially hate their seat free-for-all system.
Ive had issues with American but never with their customer service, while ive heard from many ithers is awful.
Props to Hilton this month. I delayed my vacation by a day bc a family member was in the hospital. We had one night booked at an Embassy Suites, with points. I didnāt expect to get my points back but figured they might need the room this time of year so I went ahead and canceled the day of. They asked the reason for the cancelation, transferred me a few times, and refunded my points without me asking.
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On hold with SWA so far: 1:35:00 and counting.
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Just got an email from Delta about my flights this evening. Apparently water pressure is an issue at ATLā¦
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Do airlines flying between US cities legally have to offer anything more than rebooking your flight when flight cancellations are outside their control, eg bad weather?
Yes. Per the DOT:
"What happens when my flight is cancelled?
If your flight is cancelled, most airlines will rebook you for free on their next flight to your destination as long as the flight has available seats.
If your flight is cancelled and you choose to cancel your trip as a result, you are entitled to a refund for the unused transportation ā even for non-refundable tickets. You are also entitled to a refund for any bag fee that you paid, and any extras you may have purchased, such as a seat assignment.
If the airline offers you a voucher for future travel instead of a refund, you should ask the airline about any restrictions that may apply, such as blackout and expiration dates, advanced booking requirements, and limits on number of seats."
(https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer-protection/flight-delays-cancellations)
The airlines typically just book you on the next flight, but with the length of delays involved here and holiday travel, sometimes that doesnāt work. If you were flying home for Christmas and the airline books you on January 3rd, that wonāt help.
One time I had a dirt cheap airfare for a quick weekend vacation. Was flying out Friday night, coming back first thing Monday AM. Bad weather resulted in most flights being cancelled Friday night including mine. They rebooked me on a flight Sunday evening. No way I was going to fly somewhere just to spend the night in a hotel and come right back. The airline were resistant to giving me my money back on a cheap non-cancellable fare, but eventually did after I was persistent.
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Seems LUV (Southwest Airlines) saves expenses not building in redundancy. Works great as long as there in no major weather issue.
Also, instead of having a plane fly back and forth all day between two airports, i think they have a plane fly from A to B to C to Dā¦ expecting each airport will be open. One major delay stops up flights along the whole dayās journey.
Now, they have to essentially reboot, based on where the planes are now. Guessing they donāt have a program ready.
My kids are scheduled to fly back on 1/2 on SWA, our fingers are crossed that their bugs are ironed out before then. They came back shortly before smowmageddon and experienced only minor delays, mostly surrounding getting their luggage off the plane and to the carousel which seemed to be having mechanical issues unrelated to southwest.
Lots of stories about Utah fans trying to find ways to get to the Rose Bowl on Monday.
I wonder how many marching bands and other performers might not make it to their parades on the 2nd.
900 miles. Suck it up and drive!!
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Friends niece was in twin cities for christmas. Had tonget back to missoula for work and pet (pet sitter moving on). Was ticketed on SW.
Instead gets a 1200 mile drive (and parent gets the return 1200 too!). Ugh
Sounds like no big deal unless they are driving a Tesla.
Actually only 700, why even think of flying huh?
Though they should head out today, big storms rolling in Friday-Sunday with lots of snow in the mountain passes.
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My limit for driving is about 200 miles, and even then, Iāll be looking for alternatives.
I canāt fly anywhere under 400 miles, I have to drive to those places.
I will grant you that the mountain pass issue is real. I actually flew from Seattle to Spokane one Christmas for that reason. But yeah, outside of snowy mountain pass issues, my limit is between 400 - 1,000 miles depending on a bunch of factors such as traffic, whether I want a car while Iām there, flight availability, cost, time constraintsā¦
I think of anything East of the 98th Meridian as potentially drivable for a family vacation. Iāll add a night or two at an Air BnB on the way there or back if it is much over 12 hours to drive.
Summary
What happened to Southwest Airlines?
Iāve been a pilot for Southwest Airlines for over 35 years. Iāve given my heart and soul to Southwest Airlines during those years. And quite honestly Southwest Airlines has given its heart and soul to me and my family.
Many of you have asked what caused this epic meltdown. Unfortunately, the frontline employees have been watching this meltdown coming like a slow motion train wreck for sometime. And weāve been begging our leadership to make much needed changes in order to avoid it. What happened yesterday started two decades ago.
Herb Kelleher was the brilliant CEO of SWA until 2004. He was a very operationally oriented leader. Herb spent lots of time on the front line. He always had his pulse on the day to day operation and the people who ran it. That philosophy flowed down through the ranks of leadership to the front line managers. We were a tight operation from top to bottom. We had tools, leadership and employee buy in. Everything that was needed to run a first class operation. When Herb retired in 2004 Gary Kelly became the new CEO.
Gary was an accountant by education and his style leading Southwest Airlines became more focused on finances and less on operations. He did not spend much time on the front lines. He didnāt engage front line employees much. When the CEO doesnāt get out in the trenches the neither do the lower levels of leadership.
Gary named another accountant to be Chief Operating Officer (the person responsible for day to day operations). The new COO had little or no operational background. This trickled down through the lower levels of leadership, as well.
They all disengaged the operation, disengaged the employees and focused more on Return on Investment, stock buybacks and Wall Street. This approach worked for Garyās first 8 years because we were still riding the strong wave that Herb had built.
But as time went on the operation began to deteriorate. There was little investment in upgrading technology (after all, how do you measure the return on investing in infrastructure?) or the tools we needed to operate efficiently and consistently. As the frontline employees began to see the deterioration in our operation we began to warn our leadership. We educated them, we informed them and we made suggestions to them. But to no avail. The focus was on finances not operations. As we saw more and more deterioration in our operation our asks turned to pleas. Our pleas turned to dire warnings. But they went unheeded. After all, the stock price was up so what could be wrong?
We were a motivated, willing and proud employee group wanting to serve our customers and uphold the tradition of our beloved airline, the airline we built and the airline that the traveling public grew to cheer for and luv. But we were watching in frustration and disbelief as our once amazing airline was becoming a house of cards.
A half dozen small scale meltdowns occurred during the mid to late 2010ās. With each mini meltdown Leadership continued to ignore the pleas and warnings of the employees in the trenches. We were still operating with 1990ās technology. We didnāt have the tools we needed on the line to operate the sophisticated and large airline we had become. We could see that the wheels were about ready to fall off the bus. But no one in leadership would heed our pleas.
When COVID happened SWA scaled back considerably (as did all of the airlines) for about two years. This helped conceal the serious problems in technology, infrastructure and staffing that were occurring and being ignored. But as we ramped back up the lack of attention to the operation was waiting to show its ugly head.
Gary Kelly retired as CEO in early 2022. Bob Jordan was named CEO. He was a more operationally oriented leader. He replaced our Chief Operating Officer with a very smart man and they announced their priority would be to upgrade our airlineās technology and provide the frontline employees the operational tools we needed to care for our customers and employees. Finally, someone acknowledged the elephant in the room.
But two decades of neglect takes several years to overcome. And, unfortunately to our horror, our house of cards came tumbling down this week as a routine winter storm broke our 1990ās operating system.
The frontline employees were ready and on station. We were properly staffed. We were at the airports. Hell, we were ON the airplanes. But our antiquated software systems failed coupled with a decades old system of having to manage 20,000 frontline employees by phone calls. No automation had been developed to run this sophisticated machine.
We had a routine winter storm across the Midwest last Thursday. A larger than normal number flights were cancelled as a result. But what should have been one minor inconvenient day of travel turned into this nightmare. After all, American, United, Delta and the other airlines operated with only minor flight disruptions.
The two decades of neglect by SWA leadership caused the airline to lose track of all its crews. ALL of us. We were there. With our customers. At the jet. Ready to go. But there was no way to assign us. To confirm us. To release us to fly the flight. And we watched as our customers got stranded without their luggage missing their Christmas holiday.
I believe that our new CEO Bob Jordan inherited a MESS. This meltdown was not his failure but the failure of those before him. I believe he has the right priorities. But it will take time to right this ship. A few years at a minimum. Old leaders need to be replaced. Operationally oriented managers need to be brought in. I hope and pray Bob can execute on his promises to fix our once proud airline. Time will tell.
Itās been a punch in the gut for us frontline employees. We care for the traveling public. We have spent our entire careers serving you. Safely. Efficiently. With luv and pride. We are horrified. We are sorry. We are sorry for the chaos, inconvenience and frustration our airline caused you. We are angry. We are embarrassed. We are sad. Like you, the traveling public, we have been let down by our own leaders.
Herb once said the the biggest threat to Southwest Airlines will come from within. Not from other airlines. What a visionary he was. I miss Herb now more than ever.
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I was expecting a 1 or 2 paragraph summary there. Anyone want to give the TLDR version?