Jump to content

What the fuck is wrong with you, Southwest Airlines?

Parliament

By Parliament
in Daily Texan

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 599
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

HornOnTheBayou
HornOnTheBayou

Did the airline lose their luggage? If so, everything that they've got is just what they have on.

tx ind
tx ind

"We didn't cancel flights, we just ran out of flight scheduling technology" -Bob Jordan

Chopper
Chopper

Looking forward to SWA's 2023 marketing campaign. Southwest Airlines: The Spirit of today, the Frontier of tomorrow.

Posted Images

fattyflattie

fattyflattie 4638

Posted
Posted

IAH was nearly completely out of parking today, barely snuck in way the fuck over at A terminal.  Blessing in disguise, there was a whopping 1 person in front of me at security.  CLT baggage claim a complete shit show, but was out in 20 mins.  Was very close to booking this on SW because United sucks to CLT, but thank god I didn’t.  We did delay 2 hours because plane was coming in from Seattle, but luckily saw the notification as I was leaving house. 

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14609

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

It's a shame, as SW is typically the airline that keeps things going when everyone else falls apart.  E.g., the Orlando airport ran out of jet fuel a couple of weeks ago, and Southwest was the only airline that didn't have disruptions as they were nimble enough to adjust on the fly (aided by their lack of a hub and spoke model).   They're the only airline I'ver experienced making up for delays while in the air (at the cost of extra jet fuel) in order to get things back on track.  Ultimately, their old school point-to-point model helps them dodge a lot of the issues that become systemwide problems for other carriers. Something finally had to give them fits, and I guess this was their week.  A bad week for Southwest doesn't overcome decades of complete failure by the legacy carriers, though. 

If it was a such a good system, why doesn't anyone else copy it?  It also lead to an odd amount of 3 leg itineraries.  I've flown AA exclusively fo 10 years now and didn't realize how much of that was going on with that until reading stories on this very board.  Went to their website and tried some fairly straight forward trip and they had 2 and 3 legs.  I'm in semi-rural Arkansas and I can be in 95% of America in two legs yet at SWA, the three leg itinerary is common for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
conVINCEd

conVINCEd 21469

Posted
Posted
39 minutes ago, pantone159 said:

Would you sit in the airport for most of a week before taking Spirit?

 

My uncle was stranded in Chicago on 9/11.  He ended up splitting a subcompact rental with 3 total strangers and drove back to Dallas.  I might take Spirit vs. a ridesharing road trip with 3 strangers, but I would think about it for a few seconds.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MrBig

MrBig 5440

Posted
Posted

During Black Friday, SW flights were on sale at insanely low prices, the lowest ones from the period of Dec 23 - Jan 2. Flights from Austin to Vegas were $34 each way. Flights to Houston were $29. Flights to LA and Orlando were $39. I’ve never seen prices this low, even before & after the lockdown period. Southwest is up to some bullshit and its becoming more obvious how crippled their operations are as things unfold in real time at airports across the country.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Haha 1
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bevo

Bevo 13601

Posted
Posted
56 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

My uncle was stranded in Chicago on 9/11.  He ended up splitting a subcompact rental with 3 total strangers and drove back to Dallas.  I might take Spirit vs. a ridesharing road trip with 3 strangers, but I would think about it for a few seconds.

 

Mondial-automobile GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

  • Like 1
  • Haha 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites
The Dog

The Dog 44139

Posted
Posted

This was posted on airliners.net just now:

Spoiler

Hey there, Southwest Airlines. Bob Jordan here. I know I sent you an update last night and Andrew here has updated you all several times. But I wanted to give you more info on where we are today. First, I know it's very tough out there. We've had another very tough day today in the operation. And there are several more days ahead of us in all likelihood.

Andrew will talk more about how we got here and the causes. But I just wanted to talk to you about number one: an acknowledgment that it is very difficult. I know that you all are working very hard. The circumstances are very difficult. The impact on our Customers is very difficult. I know some of the things that you're seeing don't make any sense—like you've got a missing Crew Member and there's somebody over here that could potentially fly the aircraft or take that spot and long hold times into Crew Scheduling. We'll go through why that is, but just know that we know all those things and it’s part of working through the solution. You've got to stay, obviously, legal with our Crews.

We've got to stay safe. We've got to work through solutions. Here's what we're doing next— we're going to dramatically decrease the schedule the next several days. There will be a bridge from today to tomorrow to get there, but that'll give us the best shot at getting the network reset, our Crews reset—just taking some of the pressure off the system. Obviously, that'll have even more impact on our Customers. So that'll be going out tonight. But we've got to get out of this. We've got to get to the point where we are reliable and we get our Customers, our Crews, our aircraft, everything back on track.

We've talked a little bit over the last year about the need to modernize the operation and invest. This is why. We can't be our size and scope and have a lack of tools. So, you'll be hearing even more about how we invest to fix the issues that confront us as an airline. But, Andrew, why don't you talk for just a couple of minutes about how did we get here, why is this different for us versus somebody else?

Yes, so we started off with the Winter Storm Elliott that really put pressure on our Ground Operations. The extreme cold weather made us limit the amount of time our Ground Operations staff were exposed. We started to see equipment freeze, jet bridges freeze, fuel congeal, and as a result, we had to modify our network, sometimes shutting down Crew bases operations for a while.

And, so we got through that part of it. I think similar to other airlines. The problem was in all those decisions, you end up impacting the Crew network. And the Crew network is a delicate thing because it's governed by some strict regulations, and we have a complex network with Crews traveling throughout it. And, so when we finished with the winter storm, for the most part, then we found ourselves with Crew at a place where we're not able to re-Crew the network. So, we had People that were legal. We had aircraft that were available, but the process of matching up those Crew Members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology. In our desired state, we have a solver that would be able to do that very quickly and very accurately. Our system today cannot do that.

As a result, we had to ask our Crew Schedulers to do this manually, and it's extraordinarily difficult. They must verify that you are legal. They can't just have the next person up, so to speak. They have to look through everyone's board and reassign. So that is a tedious, long process. And every day we try to repair the Crew network. They would make great progress, and then some other disruption would happen, and it would unravel their work. So, we spent multiple days where we kind of got close to finishing the problem, and then it had to be reset. And so now is our latest plan because the last one last night did not work. We had a bad, awful day today.

We will now rotate into multiple days of a lower level of activity, which means we'll have more than ample Crew resources to handle that amount of activity. It will be difficult for Crew Scheduling to reassign it for everybody, but when they get through that transition to reassign it, they will have multiple days to get People in the spot for resumption of our original lines and such. And so that's where we need to get back to—what's the most reliable is getting back to what you originally did. And so, these multiple days are a way to transition into that.

All right, Andrew. Hey, thank you. It's complex, as you can tell. I just want to leave you with a couple of things. No. 1: nothing trumps Safety. You've got to be safe and we are safe and just know that we won't do anything to violate that. No. 2: know that it's complex. But we've got all hands-on deck.

You’ve got armies of folks working on the solutions. The detailed task as Andrew discussed. So, it's all hands-on deck to work our way out of this. Next, it's going to take a more dramatic action, which is this reduction of the schedule which will have impacts on our Customers especially. So, you'll see that, but we will get out of this.

Southwest is a great Company. There's no doubt that this is someplace we've not been before. This is a very tough place to be, but we will get out of it, and we will focus on our tools, our processes, winning our Customers back, winning you back and making sure that we are reliable and stable.

At last, just know that even in a difficult time, I hope you know that we appreciate you. We love you all. I know it's hard and it's hard to feel, but I'm telling you, we love you. We care about you and appreciate you more than we can tell you. And we'll get through it. Thank you all. And I'll be back to update you all more in the next few days.

Follow me on: 
Instagram @BobJordan
LinkedIn"

tl;dr- they have been scheduling crews manually this week because their system couldn’t handle it. Now they have to do a full reset of the entire network.

 

  • Fuck Around and Find Out 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Aqua Buddha

Aqua Buddha 14609

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, The Dog said:

This was posted on airliners.net just now:

  Hide contents

Hey there, Southwest Airlines. Bob Jordan here. I know I sent you an update last night and Andrew here has updated you all several times. But I wanted to give you more info on where we are today. First, I know it's very tough out there. We've had another very tough day today in the operation. And there are several more days ahead of us in all likelihood.

Andrew will talk more about how we got here and the causes. But I just wanted to talk to you about number one: an acknowledgment that it is very difficult. I know that you all are working very hard. The circumstances are very difficult. The impact on our Customers is very difficult. I know some of the things that you're seeing don't make any sense—like you've got a missing Crew Member and there's somebody over here that could potentially fly the aircraft or take that spot and long hold times into Crew Scheduling. We'll go through why that is, but just know that we know all those things and it’s part of working through the solution. You've got to stay, obviously, legal with our Crews.

We've got to stay safe. We've got to work through solutions. Here's what we're doing next— we're going to dramatically decrease the schedule the next several days. There will be a bridge from today to tomorrow to get there, but that'll give us the best shot at getting the network reset, our Crews reset—just taking some of the pressure off the system. Obviously, that'll have even more impact on our Customers. So that'll be going out tonight. But we've got to get out of this. We've got to get to the point where we are reliable and we get our Customers, our Crews, our aircraft, everything back on track.

We've talked a little bit over the last year about the need to modernize the operation and invest. This is why. We can't be our size and scope and have a lack of tools. So, you'll be hearing even more about how we invest to fix the issues that confront us as an airline. But, Andrew, why don't you talk for just a couple of minutes about how did we get here, why is this different for us versus somebody else?

Yes, so we started off with the Winter Storm Elliott that really put pressure on our Ground Operations. The extreme cold weather made us limit the amount of time our Ground Operations staff were exposed. We started to see equipment freeze, jet bridges freeze, fuel congeal, and as a result, we had to modify our network, sometimes shutting down Crew bases operations for a while.

And, so we got through that part of it. I think similar to other airlines. The problem was in all those decisions, you end up impacting the Crew network. And the Crew network is a delicate thing because it's governed by some strict regulations, and we have a complex network with Crews traveling throughout it. And, so when we finished with the winter storm, for the most part, then we found ourselves with Crew at a place where we're not able to re-Crew the network. So, we had People that were legal. We had aircraft that were available, but the process of matching up those Crew Members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology. In our desired state, we have a solver that would be able to do that very quickly and very accurately. Our system today cannot do that.

As a result, we had to ask our Crew Schedulers to do this manually, and it's extraordinarily difficult. They must verify that you are legal. They can't just have the next person up, so to speak. They have to look through everyone's board and reassign. So that is a tedious, long process. And every day we try to repair the Crew network. They would make great progress, and then some other disruption would happen, and it would unravel their work. So, we spent multiple days where we kind of got close to finishing the problem, and then it had to be reset. And so now is our latest plan because the last one last night did not work. We had a bad, awful day today.

We will now rotate into multiple days of a lower level of activity, which means we'll have more than ample Crew resources to handle that amount of activity. It will be difficult for Crew Scheduling to reassign it for everybody, but when they get through that transition to reassign it, they will have multiple days to get People in the spot for resumption of our original lines and such. And so that's where we need to get back to—what's the most reliable is getting back to what you originally did. And so, these multiple days are a way to transition into that.

All right, Andrew. Hey, thank you. It's complex, as you can tell. I just want to leave you with a couple of things. No. 1: nothing trumps Safety. You've got to be safe and we are safe and just know that we won't do anything to violate that. No. 2: know that it's complex. But we've got all hands-on deck.

You’ve got armies of folks working on the solutions. The detailed task as Andrew discussed. So, it's all hands-on deck to work our way out of this. Next, it's going to take a more dramatic action, which is this reduction of the schedule which will have impacts on our Customers especially. So, you'll see that, but we will get out of this.

Southwest is a great Company. There's no doubt that this is someplace we've not been before. This is a very tough place to be, but we will get out of it, and we will focus on our tools, our processes, winning our Customers back, winning you back and making sure that we are reliable and stable.

At last, just know that even in a difficult time, I hope you know that we appreciate you. We love you all. I know it's hard and it's hard to feel, but I'm telling you, we love you. We care about you and appreciate you more than we can tell you. And we'll get through it. Thank you all. And I'll be back to update you all more in the next few days.

Follow me on: 
Instagram @BobJordan
LinkedIn"

tl;dr- they have been scheduling crews manually this week because their system couldn’t handle it. Now they have to do a full reset of the entire network.

 

Is that real?  That's embarrassingly bad.  Basically "It's hard out there."  Yeah, and everyone managed it better than you.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
sidis

sidis 9832

Posted
Posted

Everyone is doing it including American. I’m stranded with wife and two kiddos in northern New Mexico. Was supposed to fly from ABQ back to Austin tomorrow afternoon. Even checked in this afternoon and got boarding passes. Wife tells me she’s seeing a lot of shit go down with SWA at 4 this afternoon. Go to FlightAware and flight is cancelled. Nothing whatsoever from SWA. So go check the trip manage website and they tell me it is cancelled and here’s a fatass error on rebooking or customer service. Looked for other flights and American was the only thing getting me to Austin in the next three days and it was $3K per ($12k total) to go through LAX for seven hours. 

Driving a rental home to Austin (hopefully). 13 hours through west Texas desert will be awesome. 

  • Rage+1 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
tx 3 putt

tx 3 putt 77425

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted
1 minute ago, sidis said:

Everyone is doing it including American. I’m stranded with wife and two kiddos in northern New Mexico. Was supposed to fly from ABQ back to Austin tomorrow afternoon. Even checked in this afternoon and got boarding passes. Wife tells me she’s seeing a lot of shit go down with SWA at 4 this afternoon. Go to FlightAware and flight is cancelled. Nothing whatsoever from SWA. So go check the trip manage website and they tell me it is cancelled and here’s a fatass error on rebooking or customer service. Looked for other flights and American was the only thing getting me to Austin in the next three days and it was $3K per ($12k total) to go through LAX for seven hours. 

Driving a rental home to Austin (hopefully). 13 hours through west Texas desert will be awesome. 

Sandwiches_Slides23_1589402769.jpg?Versi

  • Hook 'Em 7
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
  • Drool 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13253

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, MrBig said:

During Black Friday, SW flights were on sale at insanely low prices, the lowest ones from the period of Dec 23 - Jan 2. Flights from Austin to Vegas were $34 each way. Flights to Houston were $29. Flights to LA and Orlando were $39. I’ve never seen prices this low, even before & after the lockdown period. Southwest is up to some bullshit and its becoming more obvious how crippled their operations are as things unfold in real time at airports across the country.

It's easy to sell flights for 30 bucks if you don't actually have to fly the planes anywhere.

 

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
  • Haha 3
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bevo

Bevo 13601

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, sidis said:

Everyone is doing it including American. I’m stranded with wife and two kiddos in northern New Mexico. Was supposed to fly from ABQ back to Austin tomorrow afternoon. Even checked in this afternoon and got boarding passes. Wife tells me she’s seeing a lot of shit go down with SWA at 4 this afternoon. Go to FlightAware and flight is cancelled. Nothing whatsoever from SWA. So go check the trip manage website and they tell me it is cancelled and here’s a fatass error on rebooking or customer service. Looked for other flights and American was the only thing getting me to Austin in the next three days and it was $3K per ($12k total) to go through LAX for seven hours. 

Driving a rental home to Austin (hopefully). 13 hours through west Texas desert will be awesome. 

 

5 hours ago, sidis said:

Everyone is doing it including American. I’m stranded with wife and two kiddos in northern New Mexico. Was supposed to fly from ABQ back to Austin tomorrow afternoon. Even checked in this afternoon and got boarding passes. Wife tells me she’s seeing a lot of shit go down with SWA at 4 this afternoon. Go to FlightAware and flight is cancelled. Nothing whatsoever from SWA. So go check the trip manage website and they tell me it is cancelled and here’s a fatass error on rebooking or customer service. Looked for other flights and American was the only thing getting me to Austin in the next three days and it was $3K per ($12k total) to go through LAX for seven hours. 

Driving a rental home to Austin (hopefully). 13 hours through west Texas desert will be awesome. 

I've done it a million times. If your rental car doesn't work out, let me know by pm. There may be another option.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
HRSchenker

HRSchenker 2273

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

If it was a such a good system, why doesn't anyone else copy it?  It also lead to an odd amount of 3 leg itineraries.  I've flown AA exclusively fo 10 years now and didn't realize how much of that was going on with that until reading stories on this very board.  Went to their website and tried some fairly straight forward trip and they had 2 and 3 legs.  I'm in semi-rural Arkansas and I can be in 95% of America in two legs yet at SWA, the three leg itinerary is common for some reason.

I've never flown anything other than direct on Southwest. I do live in Dallas so being close to Love Field may play into that but I generally try to avoid Southwest when I can. I don't get the love for the quirky flight attendants and open seating rule. 

  • Hook 'Em 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32428

Posted
Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, Rimbo said:
yup 

 

My goodness; from that Reddit thread:

 

Quote

Southwest is currently sending checked luggage around the country via 53’ trailers because of lack of flights to send them to their final destination. I’ll be 100% honest with you, you probably won’t see your bag for a month. So sorry.

 

Edited by Francisco 2.0
  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
BearSchlong

BearSchlong 8114

Posted
Posted

I work for a major WN technology supplier and all I hear is how their lawyers want to spend 18 months in red lines before engaging in actual modernization projects. We provide the exact same service to AA, Delta, Frontier, and every other major global carrier so it's not us.

This shitshow is completely preventable.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...