Flight Delay 2 min before scheduled to board

[asoc423]

I have flown multiple airlines and have been very loyal to Southwest. Today I experienced what I would expect from other air carriers, but not Southwest. Two minutes before boarding time (when it was clear there was no plane for us), Southwest finally shared that our flight was delayed. They took our plane and diverted it Fort Lauderdale. The next flight would not be until two hours later. I know flights get delayed and that is not the issue. I am complaing about the timing. If there’s no plane two minutes before boarding, you know we aren’t going to leave on time. Please share this with your customer as early as possible. 

[basslaw2010]

I am sorry to hear about your delay. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of a major arline such as Southwest and they do what they can to ensure each flight departs ontime and inform customers about delays. Unfortunately, sometimes even the agents at the airport don't learn about the delays until after the customers are informed through automatic messaging. That happened to me recently when I was traveling. I received a text that my flight was canceled, went up to the agent to get reaccommodated, and the agent didn't know of the cancelation yet.

[DancingDavidE]

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@asoc423 wrote:

I have flown multiple airlines and have been very loyal to Southwest. Today I experienced what I would expect from other air carriers, but not Southwest. Two minutes before boarding time (when it was clear there was no plane for us), Southwest finally shared that our flight was delayed. They took our plane and diverted it Fort Lauderdale. The next flight would not be until two hours later. I know flights get delayed and that is not the issue. I am complaing about the timing. If there’s no plane two minutes before boarding, you know we aren’t going to leave on time. Please share this with your customer as early as possible. 

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I do frequently try to find out where the plane is supposed to be coming from that I'll be boarding, and "stealth" track it in reverse for arrival at my airport to avoid situations like you are describing.

This is easy when the flight is a "through" flight with the same flight number coming and going. 

For flight numbers that end and a new one is assigned, two things:

• Find out what flight is landing at your gate, that most likely is your airplane.
• If the flight was diverted as happened to you, or if it was more than an hour late, Southwest could potentially substitute a different plane that was available - in that case you may not want to wander too far from the gate as you won't be able to track it in the same way.

[bec102896]

Sorry to hear your upset because the flight delay was not announced until 2min before boarding time 

if you would like to discuss your experience with southwest you can reach out on Twitter or you could reach out to customer relations when travel is complete at 855-234-4654 

hopefully they will have you on your way as soon as possible

Blake 

[rtbarron]

Delays are always fluid and can change at a given moment. All airlines are reluctant to post a delay before considering every available alternative. Is there another aircraft available? Is this a quick maintenance fix or is the aircraft out-of-service? If weather is on the way, is it possible to board and depart to beat the weather or should the flight be delayed until the weather has passed?

The problem with posting a lengthy delay is you're giving the passengers an expected departure time that may not be accurate. For example, if maintenance determines that an aircraft will take two hours to repair and a two-hour delay is posted, passengers may leave the gate area and not return until two hours later. If maintenance ends up repairing the aircraft in only one hour, the flight either departs and leaves the passengers who left the gate behind, or takes an additional hour delay waiting for all the passengers to return. It's a no win situation.

Waiting until two minutes before departure to post the delay is cutting it a little close, though.