<p>I’ve flown SW almost exclusively for the past 12-15 years. approx. 1-2 times/month. I’ve had a few delays, mostly weather related. One was mechanical, but they got us to an intermediate airport, put us up in a hotel for the night, and gave each of us a $200 voucher. Just before Christmas was the first time they ever lost my luggage (30 mn connection with incoming flight 30 mn late. They held the flight for me but my suitcase didn’t make it). I don’t think I’ve ever missed a connection because of a late flight on SW. And I’ve never had a cancelled SW flight, except for weather when all airlines cancelled their flights. </p>
<p>I cannot say the same for any other airline. I have rarely had an uneventful flight on another airline–delays, cancelled flights for no reason, lost luggage, rude staff, etc. Every time I try it, I always swear I’ll never set foot on that airline again. </p>
<p>I’ll take SW’s boarding procedure over any other. They others all have boarding groups and I’m not in the top groups. You clearly see many people “cheating” and getting on the plane before it’s their turn. I’ve had to check my limited carry on luggage because there was no bin space by the time I got on the plane. It’s a free for all. I’ll take my place (whether or not I pay for early boarding) on Southwest and take the best seat I can get. It’s actually nice to be able to select a middle seat up front if I have a tight connection, for example.</p>
<p>I also love SW’s boarding procedure. I really like being able to pick my seat depending on the day… if I am sleepy I pick a window seat so I can lean on the wall, if I am on a tight connection I will take that middle seat up front, and sometimes I can even avoid the armrest hogs! Also… as I believe I mentioned on a previous thread – sometimes SW serves Cheese Nips. :D</p>
<p>Lost Bags - when the wife was in the ad business we frequently went to Nassau from Newark. AA was the agency’s client so we flew them, going into WPB, Ft. Launder dale or Miami & catching the pterodactyl puddle jumper of to Nassau. My golf clubs always made it to to FL but AA could not get the clubs to The Bahamas. 3x straight AA paid for rental clubs & spikes, the eventually arrived</p>
<p>That’s crazy, xiggi. Do you have alternative airlines at your disposal, or are you stuck with them for future flights?<<<</p>
<p>Oh yes, between SFO, OAK, and San Jose, I have choices. With connections through LAX, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, Southwest makes Texas accessible. I can also use other major airlines. I enjoyed the airline for years, especially when traveling to Ontario. </p>
<p>And the changes, especially in the last months, is what makes it even more galling. Especially on simple routes between the. Bay Area and Lax, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. For some reason, every flight I have taken has had major delays or what appear to be planned cancellations. My take is that when three planes are not full, Southwest cancels one and starts playing musical chairs forcing all kinds of standby rerouting. They also seem adept at staying just below the compensation windows. </p>
<p>As one of the airline from my birthplace, I would love to love them. They have become similar to the others in several ways, and kept most of their annoying idiosyncrasies such as the FFA boarding. Fwiw, with a preselected seat and occasional confirmed upgrades! I do not have to worry about picking a good seat. I know it is mine! </p>
<p>Nobody is perfect. And traveling is getting to be more of a PITA every year. And I am not that old to have known the good ol’ days when a platinum card meant something. :)</p>
<p>Lets look at the SW flights from Oakland today within the 12 PM to 12 AM range. I see numerous red squares (flights delayed > 45 min) and orange triangles (flights delayed b/w 30 to 44 min). The red square flights include flights from OAK to Las Vegas, Burbank, LAX, Phoenix, Albuquerque and San Diego.</p>
<p>xiggi - do you think that the problem is worse in Texas because of their Houston hub? I’m wondering about that because I had some trouble with flights there that they didn’t even consider cancelled, more like “consolidated”, where people were shuffled about to make sure each leg was completely and totally full. Of course, you leave (and arrive) late in a situation like that and they don’t seem to even bat an eye. I keep meaning to send them a letter complaining about it. </p>
<p>On the other hand, H has been flying them on a regular east coast non-stop that has been annoyingly early every time except for today when midwest weather pushed it later.</p>
<p>From the link in post 25, lets pick flight #3924 from OAK to SAN. The departure time of that flight was delayed for 137 min. How can this flight be possibly be affected by the winter storm? I believe the flight is actually coming from Las Vegas which was delayed 140 minutes. Further upstream, the LAS flight is from Des Moines, Iowa which was delayed 137 min. This is just speculation on my part cross-referencing the airports and estimated and actual arrival times today since the SW pdf timetables is no longer available to the public.</p>
<p>Do you know how planes are utilized by carriers? </p>
<p>That plane in Oakland could have just landed there from the midwest or east coast, cleaned and put back out fir service. </p>
<p>It may be in one spot now with perfect weather, but may have been someplace far away a few hours ago where the weather was not so good. One small delay for weather or mechanical reasons can domino the whole thing.</p>
<p>Samurai, I am trying to guess why the Oakland flight is delayed. It was scheduled to leave 3:50 pm but left at 6:15 pm.</p>
<p>If you check SW flights that arrived at OAK today, there is a flight from Las Vegas that was supposed to arrive at OAK by 3:20 pm but arrived at 5:40 pm instead. The LV flight was supposed to depart at 1:50 pm instead of 4:15 pm. </p>
<p>Then, if you check SW flights that arrived at LAS today, there is a flight from Des Moines, Iowa that was supposed to arrive at LAS by 1:20 pm but arrived at 3:37 pm instead. The DSM flight was supposed to depart at 12:05 pm instead of 2:19 pm. </p>
<p>Then, if you check SW flights that arrived at DSM today, there is a flight from Chicago that was supposed to arrive at DSM by 11:35 am but arrived at 1:41 pm instead. The Chicago flight was supposed to depart at 10:25 am instead of 11:17 am. </p>
<p>So the origin of the delay I presume is Chicago.</p>
<p>I do not know, Krillies. I did read that 1200 flights were cancelled in Chicago this weekend. That could be the big issue at hand, at least for this weekend. </p>
<p>My D left yesterday and luckily got there with no issues. One of her housemmates is stuck on a training trip and won’t be able to fly out till Tues at the earliest.</p>
Yes, of course. It may just seem like a head-scratcher to a student why the winter storms in Chicago or NY affects his SW flights from the SF bay area to LAX or SAN that’s why I gave an example.</p>
<p>It may make sense to check out where your plane is coming from when booking, not just for that flight but for others that day. </p>
<p>I haven’t really done that before. I know how it works though - several friends work for airlines and it is always kind if astounding to hear how the schedule works! </p>
<p>I have learned to avoid flights coming through Chicago, which is notorious for delays, as well as layovers there.</p>
<p>Yes, aircraft or crew coming from a weather-affected area can cause delay or cancellation problems even when your origin and destination (and connecting points, if any) are not affected by weather.</p>
<p>United (pre-merger) was annoying in terms of delays, due to its dependency on hubs at San Francisco and Chicago O’Hare, both of which are very vulnerable to weather delays.</p>
<p>"Honestly, I think sometimes people put too much stock in on-time arrivals, to the point where there is pressure to do unsafe things, like take off on with a mechanically compromised jet, descend too close to another plane, or take off or land in unsafe weather, in order to arrive “on time.”</p>
<p>I’d <em>much</em> rather be late–even if it meant missing a connection–than be a crash or crisis situation."</p>
<p>No, that’s ridiculous. Pilots are not going to die to get the passengers there five seconds earlier. They get paid whether you get there on time or not…in fact, sometimes more if they are delayed.</p>
<p>Planes take off with mechanical issues all the time. That is highly regulated, as in what must be fixed, and what is acceptable to depart with. You don’t just take off with something unsafe because you want to get the passengers there in time. The pilots and the mechanics make the choice, and they don’t want to lose their licenses, get a fine, or die just to get you there a little earlier.</p>
<p>Everything is recorded. Everything has specific limits. If you takeoff or land in what is specifically deemed as beyond the limits, you will pay for it. People would never do that intentionally. You know what the weather limits are for your airplane, you don’t push it to get the passengers there on time. That doesn’t get you a bonus or an award, just a violation. And you sure as heck don’t follow another airplane too closely to save a couple of seconds. That situation happens when an air controller messes up, or there are too many airplanes coming in at the same time.</p>
<p>The short story is…pilots don’t want to die, get violated, lose their licenses or get disciplined just to get you there a little quicker. As much as they would like everything to go smoothly, it just isn’t worth the risk.</p>
<p>I do check where my airplane is coming from and the departure time, if there could be a weather issue and I suspect a delay. If my airplane took off two hours late from its earlier flight, I know it is going to be delayed arriving and leaving, how could it not be? I don’t trust the times they are posting at the airport.</p>
<p>To be clear, I discussed flights since Thanksgiving to today. Hard to chalk the problems to THIS week bad weather. Or ignore how sadly predictable it has become. Different days but same results on the same route. That defies logic!</p>
<p>The consolidation reported above at Hobby in Houston seemed to have migrated from Texas to other airports on the West coast. What made the route Hobby to Love Field prone to massive and whimsical consolidation/cancellations is now fair game between SFO/OAK and LAX/SoCal airports. </p>
<p>And this has NOTHING to do with local weather patterns, but everything with grouping flights that would not be full otherwise. It is one thing to offer flights every hour and another to … fly them as advertised.</p>
<p>Lastly, even if one can check the in flights to predict a delay, it is iffy to NOT go to the airport as one could become a no-show if the flight is rescheduled or the cattle boarding is in full blast. Also, you cannot rely on the messaging system to delay getting to the airport for the same reason.</p>
<p>Southwest’s origin was the Dallas Love Field to Houston Hobby route, which had open slots because those airports had been superseded by DFW and Intercontinental in the mid 70s’ It was an insightful business model. </p>
<p>Since then, success has changed things and more and more they are flying to and from regular airports, and with more and more air traffic. Their business model also relied on quick “turns” of the aircraft spending as little time on the ground as possible. Carriers that rely on this “just in time” model of utilization are more prone to disruptions if things go wrong. Jetblue works similarly, and has a had an episode or two of near total system breakdown over the past decade.</p>
<p>If they are pulling the cancel-the-flights-for-phantom-reasons in order to increase the load factor, it won’t be long before customers become trained not to use them. I had United to that to me on a west coast redeye, and they were attempting to keep us from running over to American for the flight that left half an hour later. Not cool.</p>