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Horrible trip - policy question

Bigmike40
Explorer C

I was scheduled to fly from Minneapolis to Nashville with a stop in Chicago. 11:35am  departure Minneapolis and arrive in Nashville at 3:20. I was scheduled to stay on the plane for 40 mins in Chicago . So total fight time from Minneapolis to Nashville 3 hours 45 mins . Due to weather we were diverted to Milwaukee where we waited and de iced again blah blah blah . To make a long story short we were still on the plane in Chicago at 5:15 . I was sitting in the bulk head and pilot comes out and says he is getting food and asks what the flight attendants want . I suggested he get us food as well since we will be on this  plane not allowed to leave for almost 8 hours at least. He and the flight attendants ignore my request and get food and eat In front of us . We finally arrived in Nashville about 7:10pm. I know tarmac rules , but because we sat at multiple airports I assume these rules don’t apply. Boarded plane at Minneapolis at 11:10am finally arrived in Nashville at 7:10 pm. 8 hours on the same plane  and only had pretzels . Any recourse here ? Or am I crazy that this was wrong ?

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm trying to understand how long you were actually sitting in each location, but it sounds like it wasn't enough time to allow everyone off then back on. Yes, frustrating that you got rerouted and delayed without being able to get food, but as you were essentially continuously on the move I don't see where any compensation is justified.

 

I would make a suggestion that you could have possibly handled your request for food a bit differently as the crew probably laughed off your request for them to buy you food. Why should an employee buy you a meal? It's not like Southwest would magically reimburse them. Things might have turned out differently though if you had pulled out some cash and politely asked for someone to grab you something, and thrown in "feel free to use the change to get something for yourself".

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@TheMiddleSeat wrote:

I'm trying to understand how long you were actually sitting in each location, but it sounds like it wasn't enough time to allow everyone off then back on. Yes, frustrating that you got rerouted and delayed without being able to get food, but as you were essentially continuously on the move I don't see where any compensation is justified.

 

I would make a suggestion that you could have possibly handled your request for food a bit differently as the crew probably laughed off your request for them to buy you food. Why should an employee buy you a meal? It's not like Southwest would magically reimburse them. Things might have turned out differently though if you had pulled out some cash and politely asked for someone to grab you something, and thrown in "feel free to use the change to get something for yourself".

 

--TheMiddleSeat


I buy, you fly! ..................Well...we all fly eventually.

 

Another unfortunate clarification would be that you were probably one of a few people as through passengers, many others on the flight probably boarded in Chicago so the crew wouldn't necessarily have known your precise scenario.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

Bigmike40
Explorer C

There were only 24 of us in the plane for the last leg where food was requested. I didn’t not ask them to buy food out of thier own pockets as you are making that assumption . I would of happily paid but yes I would prefer the billion dollar airline ( not flight crew) take care of its trapped passengers. And yes I was polite and asked politely . So it would be ok for you and your family to sit on the same plane for 8 hours with no food and unable to leave ? At which point is this unacceptable? 10 hours ? 12 ? 

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@Bigmike40 wrote:

There were only 24 of us in the plane for the last leg where food was requested. I didn’t not ask them to buy food out of thier own pockets as you are making that assumption . I would of happily paid but yes I would prefer the billion dollar airline ( not flight crew) take care of its trapped passengers. And yes I was polite and asked politely . So it would be ok for you and your family to sit on the same plane for 8 hours with no food and unable to leave ? At which point is this unacceptable? 10 hours ? 12 ? 


This helps clarify the situation. I don't believe you will have been over any limit since the flights were separate legs, the duration would be per individual delay. 

 

My only other hindsight suggestion would be did you ask to get off the plane? This would sometimes be allowed if there was time where the ops agent would check your driver's license (since you won't have a boarding pass for the MDW-BNA leg as a through passenger). But you might not be allowed to do this if boarding was starting right away for instance.

 

I've mainly seen this when flights were delayed at the gate. I'm still not sure if your flight boarded in a timely manner and then you sat out on the taxiway / deicing pad, or if you sat while parked at the gate. If you sat at the gate, I think you could have been allowed to go get your own food.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

I'm thinking of myself and that I would have been HANGRY! And hopefully traveling solo and not with the kids, that would be somewhat of a disaster atlhough after hearing this story I'll start stashing adult snacks in the diaper backpack along with the kids food.

 

I can't eat the pretzels either, or at least not without consequences due to the gluten which would make things worse.

 

 

 

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

LindseyD
Retired Community Manager

@Bigmike40,

 

I'm really sorry you had to go that long without any way to get some grub. I get it, because I get hungry sometimes too. I definitely don't want this experience to leave a bad taste in your mouth (pun... intended). Send me a private message and let's see what we can do.

 

 

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

bec102896
Aviator A

@Bigmike40

 

I'm sorry your flight was rerouted due to weather. Delays are no fun but they happen. Being that it was a weather related delay the airline usually wont offer compensation. If you would like to discuss this with the Southwest you can reach out to customer relations by calling 855-234-4654 or you can click on the contact us link at the bottom of the page and someone will respind as soon as they can. 

 

In reguards to why they didn't buy you food the crew is not going to go out of pocket for food for just you because otherwise they would have to buy food for everyone and if they did go and get food for everyone it would delay the flight even more which they don't want to do. If you offered to pay for your food then others would want to do the same and that would again take even more time. 

 

Hope this helps!

Blake 

Re: Horrible trip - policy question

Bigmike40
Explorer C

Blake- I understand your response but maybe I didn’t word my question/ statement  correctly, let me boil my question down. Is it right for Southwest Airlines to keep you in the same plane for 8 hours with no food other than pretzels? We were not allowed to deplane to eat after asking . And to make things matter worse from my perspective they left the plane and got themselves food .

signed, 

i get hungry sometimes