Southwest cutting back its flight schedule?

[Jonathan S.]

Am I just having bad luck, or is Southwest suddenly cutting back its flight schedule for this summer?
Between two PNW summer ski trips and one CO family trip, I have six different one-way trips booked on SW.
Over the past few days, five of those six flights have been changed (probably just waiting for the other shoe to drop on the remaining original flight), including one switched to another date, and one quick direct flight switched to an eight-hour ordeal.
Same thing happened last summer, but for obvious reasons, and we cancelled all our plans anyway (ditto re obvious reasons).
With travel now roaring back, I'm really puzzled why SW seems to be going in the opposite direction?

[Jonathan S.]

SW must be cancelling all my flights to serve other routes!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/sout...lines-aal.html

[XavierD]

Don’t fly southwest?

[gregL]

Don’t fly southwest?

Fly to Disneyland or Phoenix like all those other people and forget this volcano-skiing stuff?

[XavierD]

Delta and Alaska pretty much own SEA these days and have a better track record of your ski bag going to the same place you do. The United flight from PAE to DEN is pretty solid. Alaska’s flights out of Everett aren’t great yet.

In 2014 SW had 5 Preferential gates at SEA and I’m pretty there are Delta kiosks outside most of those now.

[gaijin]

Are you not aware of the oil pipeline supplying 45% of the airlines with fuel recently getting hacked?

How is this possibly a surprise?


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[snowaddict91]

Are you not aware of the oil pipeline supplying 45% of the airlines with fuel recently getting hacked?

How is this possibly a surprise?


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The sudden cancellations started before the pipeline hacking. This happened to my MIL who is currently visiting, she paid more for the earlier SW flight and then got changed to the later one that she didn't want in the first place.

This sort of shit is hardly uncommon in the airline industry though.

[Jonathan S.]

Fly to Disneyland or Phoenix like all those other people and forget this volcano-skiing stuff?

Well we wouldn't be too far off as SW has switched us from our previous direct Hartford > Denver flight to a long layover in ... Orlando!

[Jonathan S.]

Don’t fly southwest?

They've been generally quite good to me for many years now, whether on biz trips, ski trips, or family trips.
Having all six of my flights changed though is really weird...

[Jonathan S.]

Are you not aware of the oil pipeline supplying 45% of the airlines with fuel recently getting hacked?

How is this possibly a surprise?


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

I think you overlooked the date of my original post.
Plus it's irrelevant anyway, since my post is about *summer* flights and the pipeline is about to start flowing again, over a month before the start of summer.

[Peruvian]

We booked direct flights on Southwest several months ago. Within days the itinerary was changed to include layovers. It was so soon after booking as to clearly being a 'bait and switch' issue. We got our money back and booked with United. Of course, that comes with it's own issues....

[PNWbrit]

Stay home?

[XavierD]

Stay home?

Nah. Get stabbed, go stimulate!

[Jonathan S.]

Stay home?

Then who will get in 10k vert outings on Adams?

[old goat]

My kid booked LV to Reno in April for June. Both his flights have changed, which also happened when he was here in March. All the flights are direct (duh) and none of the changes caused a problem. And they never contacted him.

[Not DJSapp]

SWA must have re-organized their whole schedule. Just had some July flights Sacramento to Kauai via HNL changed up big time.

[ski-wpk]

Happened to us too. Direct LGA-DEN return cancelled, we’re now on a long connection at an awful time when traveling with young kids.

[river59]

Parents booked a direct flight Chicago to PDX. SW changed their flight to include two layovers. They thought their original flight had been cancelled, but nope! SW just changed their itinerary to include layovers.

If they want seats on theIr original direct flight they were told to shell out an additional $350/person.

Fuck southwest.

[liv2ski]

Fuck SW for sure. Glad I rarely fly where they do.

[old goat]

Parents booked a direct flight Chicago to PDX. SW changed their flight to include two layovers. They thought their original flight had been cancelled, but nope! SW just changed their itinerary to include layovers.

If they want seats on theIr original direct flight they were told to shell out an additional $350/person.

Fuck southwest.

That one might be worth a complaint with the Dept of Transportation--probably not deliberate fraud but a snafu arising from their revamping their whole schedule. I'd pay the extra, file a formal complaint with the airline and if denied file a consumer complaint with the Dept of Transportation. I had that work for me. The DOT got the airline's attention in a hurry--I got a call from an airline person whose job it was to deal with complaints submitted to the DOT and I got my money back.

[river59]

^ good advice. I will pass it on.

I thought it seemed awfully fishy. If that type of behavior becomes normal, then you never actually have a ticket as long as someone is willing to pay more for the seat at some later date.

[Danno]

We booked direct flights on Southwest several months ago. Within days the itinerary was changed to include layovers. It was so soon after booking as to clearly being a 'bait and switch' issue. We got our money back and booked with United. Of course, that comes with it's own issues....

United just fucked my July itinerary. Changed my departure time to 6:15am outgoing (fuck!) and changed the return trip by many hours as well. Which fucks us with respect to a family reunion. So good luck with them.

[XavierD]

Y’all know Alaska and Delta fly places too right? Generally had pretty good experience with United as well though. Give them a call and see if they can switch your flights back or provide some other incentives.

[RudyGarmisch]

I had a southwest flight attendant guilt shame me in front of the whole boarding line to take a seat next to a guy who was literally spilling over the armrest because it was a ‘great open available seat’.

Fuck SWA

[josef]

Y’all know Alaska and Delta fly places too right? Generally had pretty good experience with United as well though. Give them a call and see if they can switch your flights back or provide some other incentives.

I booked a trip for my wife to go to Wisconsin this summer on delta. They’ve changed her itinerary 3 times already. It’s the same story as above. Luckily it’s still a direct flight. Just saying that delta isn’t a immune from this.