re: 9 Months Later- The Southwest Holiday Fiasco

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The article just says they are optimizing schedules. If they haven't updated their software, this could happen again if shite hits the fan

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This is my worry as well and hence why I brought up the topic. I really don't know if they've solved the problems they ran into last Christmas and if they haven't, we could be in for a repeat. It does sound like they made it easier to have their flight crews rebook from cancelled flights to new ones, but not much else about luggage, customer rerouting, or schedule adjustments.

MSY based, EXP on AA.

I would fly Spirit before flying SWA.

I had a miserable experience with them in July and that was the last straw for me. I have another flight booked with them in a couple weeks that was already booked prior, but that will be my last

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I live in Dallas and fly both American and SW depending on cost and flight times available. I’m not hesitant to fly either airline. However, I usually fly the earliest flights of the day to avoid likelihood of delays of later flights with the domino effect.

This is one thing I've found in flying southwest- If you take an afternoon or evening flight, it is almost always delayed. My issue in the past with Southwest was that they scheduled 30-35 minute turns for their airplanes when they knew it would be impossible to do so on a full 737-800 in Denver in January with winter weather.

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My daughter (no pics) flies SW a lot from Nashville where she lives. The BNA/IAH routes are pretty cheap and allow her to check a bag for free. She has sort of figured out how to not check to Houston, by keeping a set of all her hair products at my house. We much prefer United and hate the SW boarding system. I want a seat assignment.

She has avoided the SW Christmas crazy the last 2 years by being able to come home a good bit before Christmas (she's a PT student) and booking the earliest flight possible in the day on her return in early January. Like the other poster said, booking the earliest ones really helps. Both of the last 2 years, she's had delays on those flights and was able to quickly rebook on her app and get something later in the day. She also has proactively rebooked when she thought there would be issues (a bad weather day in Nashville when she was on the last flight to IAH). She was at the airport for her flight but if was delayed and not even showing a departure time. She went to the gate agent and got rebooked for the earliest one the next day, went back home and slept instead of getting in who knows when.

When she is employed, she will probably get the United card so that she gets a free bag.

I've noticed SW get better in the last quarter of so, but before then it felt like every other flight had at least a 30-45 minute delay. One cancelled all together - no big deal for me, just HTX to MSY so I took the first one the next morning.

Operational issues aside, one thing that definitely has not improved is the lack of non-stops. They seem like a luxury, and you pay for it. Now, SW is no longer a cheaper option. The only thing keeping me wanting to fly them is not having to go to IAH while construction is going on.

Used to love flying SW. It was a good natured airline where you could get a good flight deal. Even though you knew you were sacrificing some of the quality like in-flight tech and comfort, you were ok with it as it was a bargain and efficient with great service. Now it isn't at all so it lost its competitive edge in my mind.

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Do you find AA changes your gates in DFW more often than not?

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Yes - the last couple of times we've flown American, there have been gate changes. Several months ago they even changed terminals at the last minute, causing us to miss the flight to Richmond. My wife needs a wheelchair and we couldn't get a porter quickly enough to get to the other terminal.

Spent the weekend in Denver via MSY/DEN direct. No issues whatsoever. I understand that direct flights lower your odds of problems, however all went well. The flight each was totally full (flew out Sat and back Tues).

We did have about a 30 minute delay on the return, but the pilot was able to make up most of that in the air....2 hrs 3 minutes....

Cool mountain air was awesome.

Bump- This was my one Southwest trip I booked on their fly by 9/30, get a half off promo for January - March. Had booked nonstop on Southwest for the LSU game this weekend. Due to a bad thunderstorm, inbound flight diverted to Tampa and has been sitting there since 720pm for an hour and a half. Now stuck in rolling delays of 5-10 minutes at a time waiting on the inbound flight. Asked the gate agent a half hour ago who said the plane left the gate which was a lie. Getting tired of this southwest experience. It'd be one thing if the communication was there relaying live info but I'm finding out more from flightaware and the southwest site than these gate agents.

People in the gate area are also pissed about the gate agents lying. Delay of 3 hours so far

Gate agent didn't enforce the boarding order either. The whole shabang tonight