Southwest Airlines Community

You know that is interesting--whenever I have been at the airport I have told if flight is late by a certain amount you can grab without charge an earlier flight. But I couldnt find it on their website.  @elijahbrantley wrote: I'm sorry you had a delay.  Been there!   Can you point me toward the policy you speak of about delayed flights?  And if I understand you correctly, the delay was just one hour, yes?   ... View more

@steveGS wrote: I just got home, about an hour late on Flight 207 tonight. SWA is supposed to have a policy that if a flight is going to be very late that you can book another flight without charge. But that isnt happening, at least in this case. My flight was a continuation of the same plane that was flying HNL to Oakland. Apparently the flight was having a mechanical problem, specifically the pilots seat had a problem I was told. This wasnt a sudden discovery on the ground in Oakland--they knew this either at the time the flight was oringinating in HNL or midflight (as the cabin person said--"oh we knew about this..."). Instead of letting everyone know that the flight had a mechanical problem and would need to be repaired on the ground in Oakland with expected delays, and then allow people to book the flight an hour before without charge, SWA still stated that the flight was on time and therefore in order to take the our earlier flight you would need to pay the fare difference. SWA (or at least part of SWA) knew the plane had mechanical issues, but for whatever reason the gate agents werent told in Oakland. We ended up being an hour late, but I didnt have to be. I could have simply gone and taken the 530 pm flight--but the gate agent didnt know what others at SWA knew that the flight had a mechanical issue. No one is expecting nor should get "special treatment"--if you want to chg flights you need to pay the fare difference. And planes get mechanical issues. That happens. These planes get a lot of use and kudos to SWA to keep everything fixed. But, if SWA knew the mechanical problem, and yes they knew it, why wasnt SWA tellling the gate agent so people like me could have a chance to get to get home on time. No special favors, just try to honor the policies on late flights and get me home not an hour late. What could I have done to avoid this? Gate agent says the flight is going to be on time--people knew (except the gate agent) that the plane had mechanical issues. What other steps could I have taken? (and the bigger question is why dont the gate agents keep track of what is happening with the incoming flight if it has mechanical issues already?) thanks I didnt want to mistate anything--the signs all said the flight on time--I didnt actually ask the gate agent--I was just looking at the sign (and the SWA website).  ... View more