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baltinerdist t1_j1uizw8 wrote

Who's got two thumbs and booked a rental car this morning for an 18 hour drive because his Southwest flight got cancelled? This guy.

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TomassoLP t1_j1urcnj wrote

Good job taking matters into your own hands. Have a safe drive.

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youwantmybiscuits t1_j1uwcbn wrote

you got this baby! i drove from here to lincoln nebraska straight shot. gps said 18 or 19 hours i forget and i would have made it in 17 if it wasn't for stupid chicago traffic! dam you chicago highway system that takes you through the middle of the city which is confusing as fuck lol. i made it there in 18 and half hours.

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ol-longneck t1_j1xr92c wrote

Just finished my 8 hour drive because southwest cancelled my flight this morning. You got this!!

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Colorado1996 t1_j1ub32g wrote

There was an r/outoftheloop thread that had some good information:

> Quote in case the post gets removed/edited:

> On behalf of all employees: WE ARE SORRY! I will give it to you straight- this meltdown was caused entirely by Southwest. It was triggered by the storm, but the failure to recover quickly is on Southwest 100%. If you are still hearing “weather” almost a week after the storm, it’s not true. > Couple main points: > 1. ⁠Please be patient with us. We desperately want to do everything we can to get you where you’re going. > 2. ⁠This shitstorm is because the crew scheduling software went belly up and it almost all has to be unraveled over the phone with crew members calling scheduling. If we had better technology which eliminated the need for phone calls, this would have been fixed by now. > 3. ⁠If you are able to find alternative transportation to your final destination- DO IT. Another airline, bus, train, Lyft, rental car, ANYTHING. Southwest WILL NOT be able to get you to your destination anytime in the next few days. > 4. ⁠Like I said, it’s gonna take at least a week to get back to normal operations for Southwest. If anyone has questions, I will try to answer them. I work ground ops at one of SWA’s hubs. > EDIT FOR FAQs——

> 1. ⁠Checked bags are currently a disaster. Plan to not see your checked luggage for at least a month. In the interest of 100% transparency, some bags will be 30+ days lost in the system.

> 2. Will my flight for X date go out? Next 3 days- plan on a cancellation. 4-7 days- likely to go as scheduled. 7+ days- should see operational recovery.

My own edit: I think this was tweeted Monday, so the 3 day cancelations likely refer to Dec 27-29, but again this is only one persons expectation

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pk10534 t1_j1upav0 wrote

Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for the flight attendants and customer service agents who have to deal with the chaos, as well as all the passengers enduring this. I hope the FAA is able to fine the shit out of SW for this. And they really need to stop blaming this on the storm anymore

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RevRagnarok t1_j1uvjff wrote

Damn I'm gonna paste that to a FB friend who's currently stuck in Hawaii (and not in a good way).

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aoife_too t1_j1usbbx wrote

Thank you for sharing this. I had heard some systems went down, but they weren’t telling customers. Seems like the cat might be out of the bag at this point, though…

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ParticularAsk6193 t1_j1vuyob wrote

Supposed to fly from OKC to San Diego via Denver Jan 4th. I will need to check a bag. Is it too soon to say if I should rebook with another airline that isn’t Southwest? I know you mention it’s likely to go out as scheduled but is there a chance of anymore meltdowns in the near term?

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Colorado1996 t1_j1w4xly wrote

Ya I thought the same. Supposed to fly in Thursday with southwest, but the next open seat on another airline isn’t until Saturday for an insane price. Think I’m going to just stick to the original flight and hope for the best

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ParticularAsk6193 t1_j1w5b7g wrote

Yeah, it’s not looking like Southwest will let you cancel for a refund at this point, only flight credit or change the flight. Considering flying out a different airline and keeping my return flight on Southwest. May give it a day or two to see how things shake out.

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Shiny_Deleter t1_j1w7lvn wrote

They should totally issue refunds to save face and to help themselves get out of this hole.

Obviously I’m preaching to the choir, and we know how reluctant they are to hand any money back.

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magnoliabluebonnet t1_j1uh5vo wrote

I’m supposed to come back to Baltimore from Dallas tomorrow night but I doubt that flight is happening so I booked an American Airlines flight on Friday as a backup. Thankfully I’m at my mom’s house so being stuck here an extra couple days isn’t the worst thing but I feel for everyone who needs to get back. This entire thing is such a shitshow. I had a bad feeling when I flew to Dallas and saw the mess the Southwest terminal was in BWI last week.

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GOAT1915 t1_j1ui5b9 wrote

I was in Rochester yesterday and they canceled my 5am flight at 4:55am lol. I had to uber to another city to get one of their last rental cars and just made the drive back. (This was after Amtrak canceled my train lol)

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NYerInTex t1_j1vuglz wrote

By some miracle I was able to get out of BWI yesterday… having begun the day without a ticket (had to ticket to NY, had to get back to Dallas)…

I kept refreshing at 5:30am and got lucky with an 8:00 flight out. Went to airport early and got on standby to see if I could fly out earlier … not long after that flight gets cancelled but fortunately I was the first on standby (got on early as as a list I guess I bypass those who weren’t, huge benefit of flying a lot I guess).

Ended up on the 1:50 out and got home at a decent hour. Had that not come through I’d likely be in Baltimore through tomorrow or later.

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TheSpektrModule t1_j1vnkol wrote

At least you were flying from another major airline's hub. That makes rebooking a bit less painful.

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GrouchyVariety t1_j1xogqn wrote

I’m on the DAL>BWI flight on Thursday afternoon. Post back here if you don’t mind about your flight status tomorrow. Worried that I should rebook on another carrier. My outbound flight was canceled and it took 2.5 days to get to DAL.

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magnoliabluebonnet t1_j1xwbge wrote

I'll let you know! My flight isn't until night though and is the last one out so who knows when they'll cancel it...does look like the flight at the same time today did make it though, just delayed by a couple hours.

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throwthepearlaway t1_j1ujfnf wrote

Oof. My partner and I barely got out to our destination on the 23rd and are supposed to fly back to BWI on Thursday using Southwest

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crabcakes110 OP t1_j1ucj1b wrote

https://mobile.southwest.com/html/contact-us/intl-customer-service.html in an article on cnn it suggested to call southwests international number for faster response https://www.cnn.com/travel/amp/flight-cancellations-christmas-2022-winter-storm/index.html

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TheSpektrModule t1_j1w4i79 wrote

Getting through to customer service won't do much good when Southwest is still cancelling thousands of flights.

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throwaway_punchline t1_j1wce4j wrote

I was scheduled to fly back home today. They canceled the flight, and the first available was January 1.

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JamesD-TV t1_j1vduk7 wrote

I have a flight out on the 4th. I know that’s a considerable time from now but with everything so backed up I hope I have no issues. Weather at least shouldn’t be an issue by then. I’m leaving as early as possible at 6:15 in the morning so hopefully that will help too. But it is Southwest 😬

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megalomike t1_j1wk5qp wrote

Unrelated to weather - get there early. Last time i flew out of bwi that early they only had one security checkpoint open.

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JamesD-TV t1_j1wxxhw wrote

I did fly out of there previously at early times like that and didn’t have any issues but I’m content to get to an airport very early and chill at the gate and be on time

I’m just worried about the actual flight happening 😅

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Complete-Ad9574 t1_j1wrdjm wrote

You know the public has a weapon in its control to throw terror into Southwest? Stop using them. If the public does not use Southwest for 3 months it will send a signal that the public is voting with its feet.

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kspence66 t1_j1x7ggs wrote

I drove from Rochester to Baltimore today due to cancellations and am exhausted

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TheSpektrModule t1_j1xehkv wrote

https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-bwi-marshall-flights-canceled-20221226-j2inxuosjnh7zgxrs7kpxcolfa-story.html

> This wasn’t how Pamala Shelby wanted to spend Christmas.

> The 72-year-old Alabama woman was supposed to reunite with her siblings in Ohio for the first time in two years. Her youngest son bought her plane tickets as an early Christmas present. There was going to be a potluck dinner with nieces, nephews and grandchildren.

> Instead, Shelby found herself caught up in a massive wave of cancellations by Southwest Airlines. She arrived Christmas Eve at BWI Marshall Airport for what was supposed to be a short layover on the way to Columbus. She ended up spending her Christmas in the airport, sleeping on whatever chairs were available — with no food, no family and no luggage.

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WestsideWizzop t1_j1yl5db wrote

My friend waited for 10 hours to get a flight on SouthWest Friday. Her luggage made it to her destination but she didn’t! Smh!

1

JustANonner t1_j22benb wrote

After Southwest canceling my flight home from Albuquerque to BWI twice this week, I decided to rent a car and pursue the 26 hour drive home. There was no way I was going to take the chance of another cancellation.

1

sxswnxnw t1_j1whsc7 wrote

This is just another reason why I will continue to not fuck with Southwest. When they have crapy scheduling software and a policy to not rebook you on other airlines and have no real/traditional hubs,* this what you get I guess.

*per a New York Times article today

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Moonagi t1_j1vbkqd wrote

Fuck Southwest for not assigning seats. Takes forever to board their planes. Hope this puts them out of business.

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jabbadarth t1_j1vze4v wrote

What?

Southwest has the fastest boarding times across all airlines.

>Southwest Airline’s boarding method – no assigned seats, no assigned order – proved to be the fastest, at 14.07 minutes, which was a whopping 47 percent faster than back-to-front

Also boarding method and assigned seats have absolutely nothing to do with this issue and you are welcome to fly any other airline.

Do you honestly want one of the largest domestic airlines that employs tens of thousands of people to go out of business? Specificly an airline that has a hub locally where thousands are employed specifically because an entire wing of our airport was built to handle their traffic?

I dont know about you but I want as much competition as possible for air travel. Losing airlines means we get closer and closer to a monopoly and thats bad for consumers.

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LearnestHemingway t1_j1wdr0q wrote

I was already thinking OP has probably flown once in their life and had a bad experience with SW. Before even reading your stats, anecdotally, I go on 15-20 work trips a year so like 30-40 one way flights and Southwest is by far the fastest boarding experience consistently. Just line em up and load em in. No zone loading, no searching around for assigned seats.

The worst is when it's a half full flight and American still has to stick to their loading protocol so it takes almost as long as a full flight, where Southwest it's like 2 lines of people. File in and you're off.

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MichMaybenot t1_j213g00 wrote

To be fair, the honor flights take forever to board. If that's your single experience with a Southwest flight I could understand having a grumpy perspective.

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