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Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

JacqueNave
Explorer C

 I receive notification at 8:24 in the morning that my 7 PM flight had been canceled. After being on hold for more than two hours, I got in touch with a customer service person. They explained that the flight had been canceled because of weather in Houston. When I stated that the flight to Nashville originates in Cleveland not Houston and goes nowhere near Houston, she said she did not know why the plane was canceled. This is the fourth flight I’ve had canceled for no legitimate reason by Southwest. I am a current A lister and have been a loyal Southwest fan for more than 10 years. This will not continue due to poor service and unreliable scheduling 

10 REPLIES 10

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

Flight #?

Are you sure the plane was not scheduled to fly through Houston earlier in the day? Planes usually start flying early in the morning and make many stops throughout the day. A problem anywhere in that chain of flights can certainly create a problem with flights further down the chain in seemingly unrelated cities. 

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

bec102896
Aviator A

Just to add to what @TheMiddleSeat  said While your plane may not come from Houston your flight crew could be coming from Houston and the weather has been rough here in Austin and Houston yesterday and today so if that flight crews flight gets canceled your flight would be affected. Also airlines have aircraft swaps so it may not show Houston on the flight path but it could still come from Houston. 

 

-Blake 

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

chgoflyer
Aviator A

As you may be learning, reasons that may seen "bogus" on other carriers (weather especially) can be legitimate on Southwest, due to the differences between hub-and-spoke systems (other carriers, flying back and forth between two cities) and point-to-point (Southwest, planes hopscotching across the country). 

 

This is one of the realities you must accept (much like no assigned seating or interlining) when choosing to fly Southwest.

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

whatrudoing2her
Explorer C

or the other 3 responders can open their eyes and realize that southwest is dropping the ball.  it happened to my family twice this month.  while the max 8's being pulled is not in the control of Southwest, their reaction to it is. one of our flights was cx'ed for a "bogus" reason as well prior to the max 8 tragedy.  two flights going to baltimore at relatively the same time.  one out of Cleveland, one out of Indy.  Indy flight was cx'ed due to "weather" less than 24 hours before departure. The flight out of Cleveland was unaffected by the weather, as there WAS NOs no weather related issue in Baltimore, and arrived just fine.  Ironically, American and Delta had flights leaving Indy for Baltimore within an hour of the scheduled departure of the Indy flight that was cx'ed, and they were both operational. So why was the Indy flight cancelled by Southwest? They insist it was weather.  I insist it was the mechanics' strike.  What is even more frustrating, though, is that they refused to put our traveler on the Delta or American flights or reimburse our traveler the difference between the cost of the Southwest flight and one on either other carrier.  Southwest no longer cares about customer service.  It is all lip flapping, and even though they use words like "transferency" and love, their talk does not mstch match their wslko nothe only  who they inconvenience or k

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@whatrudoing2her wrote:

... What is even more frustrating, though, is that they refused to put our traveler on the Delta or American flights or reimburse our traveler the difference between the cost of the Southwest flight and one on either other carrier.  Southwest no longer cares about customer service. 


As far as I know Southwest has never paid to send passengers on the other airlines, or at least not since deregulation.

 

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

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Southwest has no interline agreements with any other carriers. This is another reality one must accept when choosing Southwest.

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

dfwskier
Aviator A

@chgoflyer wrote:

Southwest has no interline agreements with any other carriers. This is another reality one must accept when choosing Southwest.

 

Even airlines with interline agreemnts are not always accomodating. American has announced it may not rebook on a different airline if you are flying on a "cheap" fare


Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

Atl5359
Explorer C

It's 4:00am the day of my departure leaving today.   My nonstop flight to Austin leaves just two hours this morning at 615am.   I got a text message from Southwest saying my flight has been cancelled. No reasons given. I even called customer service and they said they did not have any reason or could look up any reason why the flight was canceled. I thought it was very odd that when I did check in for the flight at 6:15 a.m. the previous day I got a18 seat position This is very rare as anyone that flies Southwest knows this. 

 

when my flight was rebooked this morning to a stop flight now having to layover in Dallas Texas, they give me seat position C5. So not only are we going to arrive 2 hours later we now have to fly a stop flight when we initially never wanted to do this or would have chose another carrier.

 

I believe this flight was canceled simply because they did not have enough passengers booked to make it profitable so this is the reason why it was cancelled last minute. But doing this for passengers leaving 2 hours is horrible customer service. not to mention the slap in the face of getting put in C5 seat position.

 

Been a very loyal Southwest customer since airtran and the way this was handled was very very poor.  

Re: Last minute cancellation of flight for bogus reason

SWDigits
Aviator A
As another passenger I'm going to *guess* that yesterday's thunderstorms in the Northeast may have been a contributing factor impacting your flight to Austin today. I live in DC and the thunderstorms were strong and widespread. Planes may still be out of position so even if your flight doesn't originate in the area it could still be a factor. Here is the text from the Southwest alert issued yesterday:

"Northeast Inclement Weather Based on the forecasted weather conditions for the cities listed below, our scheduled service on Wednesday, August 7, may be disrupted (flights may be delayed, diverted, and/or cancelled):

Baltimore (BWI)
Boston (BOS)
New York-Islip (ISP)
New York-LaGuardia (LGA)
Newark (EWR)
Philadelphia (PHL)
Washington-Reagan National (DCA)
Washington-Dulles (IAD)

Customers who are holding reservations on Wednesday, August 7, and want to alter their travel plans may rebook in the original class of service or travel standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city-pairs and in accordance with our accommodation procedures) without paying any additional charge."

Customer | Home airport DCA