When was the grounding on Boeing MAX 8 lifted?

[Jazzy]

On this past saturday my wife, 1 year old and I flew home to Chicago from Midway. It was a great Southwest flight as normal but we were disturbed to see once we boarded and were listening to the flight attendant speech that we were flying a Boeing MAX 8! We were under the impression that these planes were grounded for the time being and it would have been nice to get a heads up before boarding what plane we were going to be on.

[SWDigits]

They are still grounded. Are you sure it wasn't for the 737-800? The -800 is not the same as the MAX 8.

[dfwskier]

SWDigits is right. SW hasn't flown a passenger MAX8 Flight since the FAA gounded them. No airline has.

As a matter of fact SW is sending all of them to an airport in California for storage until  the grounding is lifted. 25 of 34 are there already.

[idosound]

I definitely had the same experience over the weekend - I flew from SEA-DEN-MDW and from MDW-SEA. I was on a 737 MAX 8 for two of those flights, and a 737-800 for one of them. I wish I would have taken a picture of the safety cards for proof.

[chgoflyer]

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@idosound wrote:

I definitely had the same experience over the weekend - I flew from SEA-DEN-MDW and from MDW-SEA. I was on a 737 MAX 8 for two of those flights, and a 737-800 for one of them. I wish I would have taken a picture of the safety cards for proof.

All MAX aircraft are grounded by the FAA. While some planes are being flown empty to storage areas, there are absolutely no flights with passengers taking place.

The confusion most likely comes from, as was mentioned earlier, the similar names of the aircraft. A 737-800 is not a 737-MAX8.

Also, because the interior configurations are similar, Southwest uses the same safety information card for both 737-800 and 737-MAX8 aircraft. On the front of that card it identifies both in big blue type. but you were definitely, absolutely, positively not flying on a MAX aircraft. 😉

Here's some great info from Southwest (including a pic of the safety card).