@busdriver11 , what do you mean “with a flight that has backups”? The flight I had originally booked was stopping in Vegas first (the Max8), I was changing planes to finish my destination. There are several flights to my destination. They all have one stop. The one I changed to, I don’t have to get off the plane at the stop.
Southwest was pretty responsive. Kid’s return flight to St. Louis was scheduled on a 737 Max and Mom called them and they were pretty understanding and changed the flight. Of course an hour later the FAA announcement came. The original flight was a non-stop but the new one has 1 stop.
Better safe than sorry I guess.
So now my original flight on SWA blocked as sold out. I changed yesterday to a last flight of the day one day before my original flight. Now I am thinking if I should just book on AA, but it is more expensive, but I get to keep my original date and not leave early
Did you buy a refundable fare rather than the “wanna get away” fare? They only gave credit for that @Ballerina016 .
A couple of hours ago you could still see my original flight showing the Max 8. I just went back to check and all fares now say Sold Out. I think I’m glad I switched now, and will just wait and see what they do.
@sunnyschool If you enter your flight # and date on seatguru.com you will see the equipment that is scheduled for that flight.
@NJres Thanks!!
Ohhh, my original flight (Thurs AM) says 737-800 on seatguru…but SW says it’s a 737-8max -
should I assume SW is more up to date?
Would love to go tomorrow instead of Fri afternoon!
@ conmama, what I mean by plenty of backups is that you leave yourself options if the flight cancels. So if you really need to get there by that evening, don’t take the last flight out. I’d probably take the early flight, if I could. When I am going to work (trips often start hundreds or thousands of miles away), I really need to get there. Never missed a trip in almost 24 years, or been late. I make sure that if my flight is cancelled/delayed, that there are later flights that can get me there. If the weather looks dicey, I’ll leave a day early. Not as important if you have flexibility in your schedule.
@busdriver11 , thanks! Yes, we always try to leave in the early morning. There are lots of afternoon flights. I do find as I’m getting older, I’m not as keen on taking the first flight out anymore. Getting up at 3 to leave for the airport at 4 is so something I’d rather not do. Leaving at 7:30 to 8 is fine now.
Means that there are other flights to your destination that you can be rebooked on without excessive delay if your flight gets cancelled (or you miss a connection).
If the last flight of the day get cancelled not for weather related reason isn’t it airline responsibility to compensate for hotel and meals?
^^Supposedly, though they seem to find ways to blame it on the weather. But if you’re leaving from home, or you really need to get to your destination, vouchers for free meals and mediocre hotels mean very little.
Yeah, I try never to take last flight of the day, just so we can try to get on next flight if anything happens to our scheduled flight.
Some recent articles:
https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/the-world-pulls-the-andon-cord-on-the-737-max/
https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/southwest-airlines-is-adding-new-angle-of-attack-indicators-to-its-737-max-fleet/
The second article, from just after the earlier Lion Air crash, describes how the angle-of-attack indicator is optional on the Max and NG versions of the 737. Southwest was adding that optional display on its Max aircraft, while American had ordered it on its Max and earlier NG aircraft. It also mentions that the Lion Air aircraft did not have the display, nor did it have the angle-of-attack-disagree warning light.
Could not find the one I mention, so will post this. This newer article talks about the two incidents reported by pilots. Not related to MCAS.
Just heard, US has finally also grounded the Max planes, so no need to worry anymore. (That’s actully also in link in #175 but not clear from the headline.)
@mathmom , they announced that yesterday afternoon. Is this something else you are mentioning?
Nope. I just heard this morning. I guess the radio yesterday was too busy salivating over the college admissions scandal!
I wonder how SWA will accommodates for such a significant number of grounded planes? For example they had three flights to the destination we plan to go next week with one flight every day being on MAX 8.
On Southwest, the Max 8 accounts for about 4.1% of aircraft and 4.7% of seats (perhaps slightly more if they have received more Max 8 aircraft since they last reported of 31 out of 750). The Max 8 is one of the two larger aircraft with 175 seats (the other is the -800); most of its fleet is -700 aircraft with 143 seats. Since they are all 737 variants, crews should be interchangeable, although the Max 8 and -800 require one more flight attendant than the -700 (need one for every 50 passenger seats).
So they are presumably rearranging schedules, aircraft, and crews to account for the 4.7% reduction in capacity. Southwest’s load factor (percentage of seats filled) has recently been in the 83-85% range.
American and United are presumably doing something similar, although they may have a more difficult problem due to their much more varied aircraft fleets.
My flight today, which was scheduled to be a max 8 as of two days ago, was 100% full today on a 737-800. There were still seats available 24 hours before.