Southwest cutting back its flight schedule?

[Shredhead]

I like SW. You basically know what your getting. They also have the best frequent flier program with the companion pass.

All airlines will fuck you over at some point.

[Jonathan S.]

I like SW. You basically know what your getting. They also have the best frequent flier program with the companion pass.

All airlines will fuck you over at some point.

Yep, that's pretty much my conclusion too.
So took a mere 58 min and 38 sec on the phone today (mainly on hold of course) to reach a person and request a full refund (after I had booked an alternative flight -- direct, whew -- for the family on United).
Being SW, I still could have used the $ credit for future flights, that would have been somewhat messy, as I'm not sure when I'm flying next, and would have been three different sets of credits, with potential additional complications for how a portion is rolled over from cancelled 2020 flights.
But overall, a full refund for the lowest-fare tix is a decent resolution.
(And even the hold time was par for the course after finally turning my attention back to estate matters for these past two days. The most "interesting" issue was ~40 min cumulative time on the phone with the Social Security Administration trying to obtain a substitute 1099-R since the original had been sent to an apparent fraudster who successfully changed my mother's mailing address in the last few months of her life, although fortunately all the payments were direct deposit, so the fraudster received only the annual summary of all the payments that were rightfully delivered to the bank account.)

[EWG]

Apparently the are cancelling flights left and right this weekend. Just had an afternoon flight cancelled this morning. 300+ flights cancelled. Painful. “Proactive” cancellations due to “weather.” Word is its because they don’t have enough employees. People can’t get replacement flights for days.

So fun.


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[The SnowShow]

Southwest flight hit moderate turbulence over Utah but 4 were hospitalized (3 stewardesses). Surprised they called it moderate. Sounds more like Severe.

[josef]

Southwest flight hit moderate turbulence over Utah but 4 were hospitalized (3 stewardesses). Surprised they called it moderate. Sounds more like Severe.

That’s an aviation terminology deal. If they didn’t lose control of the plane it was likely moderate.

[The SnowShow]

That’s an aviation terminology deal. If they didn’t lose control of the plane it was likely moderate.

Oh, so “severe” would equate to the pilots losing control for a period of time?

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Oh, so “severe” would equate to the pilots losing control for a period of time?

Or damage to the plane?


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[ThreeRidges]

We’re have the same problem with American a week or so back, shitcanned our original flight and auto rebooked on a crappy multi sage saga. Had to spend forever on hold/callback sequence XW’s to get less crappy alternative


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[Ted Striker]

What most passengers think of as heavy, severe, etc is actually on the top end of moderate, eg not being able to walk down the aisle or objects won't stay put.

Severe means that if you aren't wearing your seatbelt you'll be thrown around the cabin like a rag doll. The aircraft might be momentarily out of control (which means when you hold the controls left, the aircraft still rolls a little to the right). It doesn't mean that the aircraft is uncontrollable.

Extreme means the aircraft might get bent. Most professional pilots will go their whole career without encountering that.

[Jonathan S.]

Given all the tales of air travel woes these days, apparently I came out relatively well...

Monday, my BDL > PDX flights had already months ago been cancelled then changed to from arriving into PDX late evening to around midnight.
BDL departure was then delayed an hour, but still plenty of time to make my MDW connection.
Got on the plane and ... not pushing back from the gate.
Pilot says he's awaiting route clearance through some wx in between BDL & MDW.

After about an hour of this, pilot says he's learned that the way it's done in the East is that you first push back from the gate, then you'll receive route clearance.
But now many passengers are too late to make their connections, so they can disembark.
Which takes a lot of time to unload their checked luggage.
This gets us into a feedback loop whereby the more passengers who disembark, the increasing delay means even more passengers will miss their connections, so now they need to disembark too, which means ... well, you get the idea by now.

But my connection has been delayed, so they say I'm still okay.
Eventually we push back from the gate, wait a long time on the tarmac, and fly to MDW.
Where of course my connection has already departed.

Decided that spending a couple hundred dollars on taxi > cheap motel > uber was worth a decent 5+ hrs of sleep as opposed to trying to sleep in the terminal.
(Which I've done once before when I had only a few hours.)
Fortunately my Portland friend was able to pick me up at the PDX Tuesday mid-day from where we got in a short tour at Hood, pushing our two Adams days out, so everything worked out okay-enough-ish.

Flying back Saturday, lucked out -- barely -- with the timing: woke up at 3:30am, flew out early from PDX to MDW, arrived at my connection gate with 2+ hrs and ... PA system announced that everyone needs to stay far back from any windows since a tornado is nearby!!!
Looked at the departure board, something like 90% of flights cancelled.
Fortunately mine was scheduled far out enough after the system had passed through that the incoming plane could arrive, then we took off merely an hour late, whew.

And the skiing in between all that was great!
Trip reports of sorts can be accessed from either of these sites:
https://www.facebook.com/NERandoRaceSeries/
https://www.strava.com/athletes/1583171

[TahoeJ]

Friend of mine is a flight attendant for Southwest. They are having major staffing issues. She can basically work as many shifts / flights as she wants they're so desperate at the moment.

[Ted Striker]

Got on the plane and ... not pushing back from the gate.
Pilot says he's awaiting route clearance through some wx in between BDL & MDW.

After about an hour of this, pilot says he's learned that the way it's done in the East is that you first push back from the gate, then you'll receive route clearance.

That's setting off my bullshit detector.


Plus, don't say idiotic things over the PA.

[josef]

That's setting off my bullshit detector.


Plus, don't say idiotic things over the PA.

Yah clearances are issued by ATC which is run by the FAA. It’s not a regional deal. Pushing back prior would be OP Spec deal per airline but it should be consistent no matter the airport.

Travel came back much faster than most of the airlines predicted. The only ones somewhat prepared were the ones who held onto staffing due to unions and what not.

[Jonathan S.]

^ Yes, that did strike me as "hang tight while I figure out this whole pilot thing here."
Plus doesn't a national airline like SW have pilots flying all over the place? I mean, it's not like the Northeastern U.S. is some exotic seldom-visited region for SW pilots?

[FullStop]

Oh, so “severe” would equate to the pilots losing control for a period of time?

Yep. That's the classification.
Not necessarily losing control but unable to control within parameters for a period of time. Requires a structural inspection if you're above a certain speed.

[Jonathan S.]

Looks like the day I flew back home was a doozy:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ms/5347651001/

[Jonathan S.]

Glad I'm not flying this weekend:
​https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/29/sout...sruptions.html