Unofficial SWA holiday meltdown thread

[BTExpress]

I'm built like a jockey. Can I rent myself out as a B-group seatmate?

 

[User 1019]

Buddy of mine and his family of six meeting me in NOLA for the Sugar Bowl had their SWA flights from DC. They left yesterday driving to make it.

 

[Songbird]

I'm built like a jockey. Can I rent myself out as a B-group seatmate?

Probably some good NIL cash to be made there.

 

[Della9250]

Was supposed to fly today but they cancelled the first leg and not the connection. Would have been Sunday before next available. Somehow lucked into an American flight Friday that wasn’t an arm and a leg

 

[MileHigh]

One of my sisters and her family of four got stuck in Denver. They were supposed to fly back to the East Coast Sunday night. Managed to make it back today by getting on an American flight. Did not sound fun. We both use Southwest regularly since it has a big presence at our home airport, RDU, and our other sister lives in Boulder. I suspect it'll be a long time before she uses them again.

My aunt and uncle were flying home from their son's after Christmas, Cincinnati to Sacramento with a stop in Denver on Southwest. They were at CVG on Monday to go to Denver and were told if they didn't take it, the next possible flight wasn't until Jan. 2.

They made the call and went to Denver despite several delays. They got here, but their connection was canceled. They've been here since Monday. Supposed to leave Friday morning, but now don't have a flight until Saturday afternoon. And no luggage, so they luckily got a hotel room out by the airport and hit up Walmart for some fresh clothes and other essentials. The Hampton Inn they're at ran out of breakfast this morning because there are so many people there.

After three hours, they got a rental car yesterday and after I got back into town today after driving (instead of flying) to Boise for Christmas, we were able to meet up with them tonight at my sister's place in Boulder for a few hours.

 

[BTExpress]

If they can spring for a hotel room, I know a shower curtain ring salesman with a car . . .

 

[Scout]

If Southwest applied for federal money to upgrade these computers, took the money and never upgraded the computers, a lot of people at that company need to go to jail.

Santos needs to go to jail for lying on applications or something.

If this doesn’t happen, democrats are corrupt, too, because people getting away with this **** is one of the things killing our country.

 

[BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo]

I'm built like a jockey. Can I rent myself out as a B-group seatmate?

A new spin on the idea of a seat filler!

 

[User 149557]

Flying with a toddler is expensive but all the leg and arm room! My God!

 

[Azrael]

What Caused the Chaos at Southwest

Mr. Murray said the union had been urging the airline for years to update “I.T. and infrastructure from the 1990s.”

 

[Azrael]

Katie Porter could raise some interesting questions regarding Southwest's obligations as a common carrier.

Like upgrading their own software.



https://www.travelersunited.org/airlines-are-common-carriers/

 

[Azrael]

 

[User 11148]

What Caused the Chaos at Southwest

Mr. Murray said the union had been urging the airline for years to update “I.T. and infrastructure from the 1990s.”

A conjecture ... While the "old computers!" narrative is convenient, it will ultimately prove to be a relatively small part of the whole story. Those systems worked fine a week, a month, a year ago. I find it hard to believe that at the snap of a finger they became inadequate.

 

[BTExpress]

Y2K+22

 

[Driftwood]

If you go to book a flight and hear the old dial-up handshake, you might want to reconsider.

 

[playthrough]

I don't know how much individual airports can possibly do to "investigate and get answers." I guess it's good copy to flame your local airport CEO for not commenting and all, but what do you want to hear? "If they can't do better than this, we're not letting them fly here!"

 

[Azrael]

A conjecture ... While the "old computers!" narrative is convenient, it will ultimately prove to be a relatively small part of the whole story. Those systems worked fine a week, a month, a year ago. I find it hard to believe that at the snap of a finger they became inadequate.

Maybe.

Or Southwest failed an important operational stress test. (Other airlines resumed normal flight operations pretty quickly by comparison.)

 

[Azrael]

but what do you want to hear?

That SWA won't leave thousands of travelers stranded in your airport for days?

 

[playthrough]

That SWA won't leave thousands of travelers stranded in your airport for days?

The airport will make a fortune in concessions (either paid by passengers or SWA) and sell out of all those little neck pillows, which officials also won't talk about but will be high-fiving over when the next revenue report comes in.

 

[Azrael]

The airport will make a fortune in concessions (either paid by passengers or SWA) and sell out of all those little neck pillows, which officials also won't talk about but will be high-fiving over when the next revenue report comes in.

Offset by the cost of the electricity to power all those phones and iPads and laptops. And the wear and tear. And the staff overtime.

Airports aren't built to accommodate longterm strandings, no matter how many bags of yogurt raisins they sell.