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Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

cnn.com

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Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#11

Post by miguelazo »

m348e912 wrote: post #7

There's an unsubstantiated rumor that 120 Southwest ramp agents walked off the job at Denver International Airport after the VP of operations out of Dallas sent a demanding (and possibly unreasonable) memo to the Denver staff banning sick time without a doctors note and requiring mandatory overtime. https://twitter.com/AtSouthwest/status/1606543397996855296 If true, it could account for a majority of SW's cancellatio…

I wouldn’t doubt this, although a friend stuck at Denver yesterday told me he ran into a Southwest employee who couldn’t figure out where he was supposed to be for hours. WSJ mentioned it could be due to their call-in scheduling system being totally overwhelmed.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#12

Post by TylerE »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #5
samename wrote: post #3

I have a Southwest flight on Friday I am now very nervous about. For the first time ever I bought a fully refundable flight as a backup option through American Airlines. Looks like Southwest might allow free cancellations too so I might ditch that flight entirely to avoid undue travel headaches. Either way, I don’t ever remember a worst traveling season than this.

> I don’t ever remember a worst traveling season than this Even during COVID?

Probably not, as passenger volumes were a fraction of normal.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#13

Post by miguelazo »

giantrobot wrote: post #10
rhaway84773 wrote: post #2

It feels like SouthWest has been at the center of every scheduling disaster in the US over the past few years. Even if it’s out of their control (many of the issues were within their control), it seems Southwest fails way worse than every other US airline.

I've flown Southwest dozens of times. While I like their lower costs it's pretty easy to see where they are cutting costs with operations. In "normal" conditions their cost cutting is just functional. In any sort of exceptional situation their entire system fall apart.

On what other occasion has their entire system fallen apart? Most every other passenger I encountered during this debacle said something to the effect of “this never happens on Southwest”. I do agree that they’ve been squeezing the system (especially labor) the last few years during their covid expansion, however. This weather was apparently the final straw.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#16

Post by bombcar »

ipython wrote: post #14

Found this interesting reading as to a possible reason why their flight system seems so much more fragile than the legacy carriers: https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/southwest-becomes-one-of-amer...

It sounds reasonable but I’m surprised that it’s not “cost efficient” to have a few sore planes and crews strategically located around the USA - you’d only need three or four to be able to respond within hours to any scheduling mishap. Margins must be quite low.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#17

Post by bombcar »

TylerE wrote: post #12
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don’t ever remember a worst traveling season than this Even during COVID?

Probably not, as passenger volumes were a fraction of normal.

Yeah if you could find a flight you’d probably be damn near the only person on it.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#18

Post by harrisonjackson »

samename wrote: post #3

I have a Southwest flight on Friday I am now very nervous about. For the first time ever I bought a fully refundable flight as a backup option through American Airlines. Looks like Southwest might allow free cancellations too so I might ditch that flight entirely to avoid undue travel headaches. Either way, I don’t ever remember a worst traveling season than this.

The right credit card, if you have one or can get one, usually includes "insurance" for travel delays, lost luggage, cancellations etc. I always forget about the benefits other than "points" but there are some great ones.

Recently, I was glad I used the right card to book an airbnb which we had to cancel day of check-in. Full refund on a non-refundable airbnb.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#19

Post by acwan93 »

Slight tangent on this and something I've always wondered: if something as basic yet extremely crucial as scheduling software is outdated (SWA might very well be on a mainframe or transmitting CSV files in an FTP server and that server could've acted up), how on earth are they expected to scale and adopt new tech? It seems like a ticking time bomb and gross mismanagement.

Fortunately I'm not flying this week, but I've already seen and experienced numerous meltdowns from SWA in the past. If this doesn't signal a wake-up call to invest in tech infrastructure for any company I don't know what else will.

Re: Massive Southwest Airlines disruption leaves customers stranded

#20

Post by woodruffw »

ipython wrote: post #14

Found this interesting reading as to a possible reason why their flight system seems so much more fragile than the legacy carriers: https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/southwest-becomes-one-of-amer...

Extreme nitpick on my part: Southwest isn't actually a legacy carrier: they were one of the first "low-cost" carriers to begin interstate travel after the airlines were deregulated in 1978. The only remaining legacy carriers in the US are Delta, American, United, Hawaiian, and Alaska.
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