41–50 of 115 posts
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 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.
Southwest has always allowed free cancellations, up to 10 minutes before boarding— that was one of its main selling points. You (normally) get the money as flight credit, however.
A few months ago, they monkeyed with our departure time, and we correctly concluded that it would end up missing the connecting flight. The booking agent couldn't give us anything but time-bomb vouchers, but I got cash by emailing customer support. I used the federal wording for "elected not to travel" and "substantially different itinerary," which may have helped me not have any issues.
But when things go wrong en masse, error propagates through the system fast. It’s the same failure mode as just-in-time manufacturing. There just aren’t gaps in the schedule for lots of things to go wrong, nor extra planes to pick up the slack. I’d recommend Southwest still, but not if your schedule is tight and the flight is can’t-miss.
I suspect there are some other problems in their tech stack and personnel they have to sort out too.
From the article: > If you've been left in the lurch and your efforts to reach a customer service agent are going nowhere, the founder of Scott's Cheap Flights suggests trying an international number. > "The main hotline for US airlines will be clogged with other passengers getting rebooked. To get through to an agent quickly, call any one of the airline's dozens of international offices" Scott Keyes said. > "Agents…
this is good advice, let me extrapolate to a simpler heuristic. When landing at an airport when you know several connections are lost due to local issue with your airline, always get on the phone as soon as you get out of the aircraft. certainly call before heading to the kiosk and lining up for the lone agent to support you Because, by the time the sole agent gets to listen to your issue, the next flight will be ful…
But my story isn't bad. Hearing other people's story at the airport in line was shocking. Family with kids stuck in connections for days. No hotels, little food, crowded lines. Bags? Somewhere in the country.
https://old.reddit.com/r/SouthwestAirlines/comments/zw32yt/p... (From another HN posting at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34145303 )
That's damning.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
What CC is that?
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'v…
Extending use cases to cover behaviours that were not covered by the original software is where things get exciting. You will end up with a hodge podge of systems & processes that try to implement multi-step work flows and deal with failures through manual or equally complex automated methods to compensate.
Generally most industries are pretty terrible at evolving the solutions they have or completely replacing them. So you will see a multi-generational set of systems that are in place to provide an acceptably current set of behaviours.
This situation can arise due to varying commercial pressures, however Developer and Engineer's inability to communicate what the system currently does and what is easy and hard to change in no small way contributes to following paths that result in poor system outcomes over the lifetimeof systems.
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…
You have cause and effect backwards. That memo appears to be issued as a result of all the flight problems. And it says it's a temporary emergency policy due to the current trouble they are having.
I don’t remember if the North American winter storms started before December 21, on that day, or after.
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…