sdsearch

The code for Southwest is WN. NW was the code for Northwest, which has merged with Delta (DL).

etna

I recall some former airline exec had the idea to have an airstrip somewhere mid-America, either for regular connection-only ops or perhaps part of a disaster mitigation plan. I wonder if WN's gate operations are portable enough to be stood up in a secure WiFi enabled airport ?

radioinsomnia

Well, here's my story: My wife and I were fresh off a 2.5-week trip around Europe and planned a quick turnaround for a Saturday 6pm wedding in Dallas. It didn't quite go as planned.

Friday morning on the way to MDW to catch an 8:15am flight to DAL via a connection at SAT, we heard about the "incident." Our flight was cancelled by 7:30. Given the two-hour phone queue and hundreds-long line at the customer service desk, I opted to rebook us online for Saturday. Changed the hotel, changed the rental car, checked us in for the Saturday flight, and left MDW at 8:30am, smiling all the way past the hundreds of people still standing in line. We didn't need to be out on Friday, and our chances looked slim, so we gave up. Of course, this was before it was clear that normalcy would not be restored for a while.

Saturday, our 8:20am departure was delayed 2.5 hours - first because of a delay on the incoming flight from EWR, then a crew change. We missed the SAT connection. By this point, I was looking at rental cars to drive SAT-DAL in order to get there by 6pm. The customer agent at MDW tried to split us up on SAT-DAL flights at 1:00 and 3:00, but the last seats disappeared before she could confirm. We landed at SAT around 2:00, grabbed a rental car and drove to downtown Dallas for the wedding. We made it just in time for the end of the ceremony.

Sunday, I woke up early and found that the HOU-MDW portion of our evening return from DAL (1 stop, no connection) was already cancelled - but only because I got a push notification from FlightTrack. WN never notified me. Again, I quickly rebooked a later flight with a stop at MCI for a few hours later. It was delayed only 30 minutes, and we were back at MDW by 11:00pm Sunday.

I was less than thrilled with WN in this irrops situation, especially on Sunday when they never contacted me and had incorrect info on the departure boards at DAL... but we still made it to the wedding. Everything could have been so much worse for us.

lougord99

What do you feel WN did wrong other than those 2 things?

steamboater

SW cancelled my flight from Denver to Des Moines that was connecting through MDW. Customer service rep was basically the worst ever and said all I can do is either rebook another flight leaving the following day (have wedding , wont work) or get a refund. Would not even switch the flight to Omaha which gets in at same time as original flight, and it had open seats without paying the difference of fare, because obviously no longer have the wanna get away fares this close to the flight time. They should at least give you the same fare to Omaha as when I booked my DSM flight 2 months ago or just transfer me to that flight without paying extra to do so.

Hot Pocket

Agree with the above sentiment. Might be worth the HUACA approach (Hang Up And Call Again)

steamboater

I would probably do this if the first call didn't have me on hold for exactly 1 hour 47 minutes before I spoke to the CS Rep.

oswaldjacoby

If there was open seats on the Omaha flight, and they did not agree to rebook you, that was really bad customer service. Suggest you file a DOT complaint http://www.dot.gov/airconsumer/file-consumer-complaint

lougord99

Wow, steamboater, that is horrible. I was on American to ORD ( not this last week but about 4 months ago ) and they were happy to change me to MKE when my flight was cancelled.

Southwest needs to seriously look at their irrops policies.

steamboater

Ya she was pretty much the worst rep I have ever dealt with. The difference in fare from my DSM flight that was cancelled and my new OMA flight is over 100 dollars not to mention the rental car fee from Omaha to Des Moines is another 200 dollars. Since we are going for a wedding, there were no other available options into DSM and we were told the extra fare and rental car is not covered by Southwest. All in all, we are out another 300 dollars for flying into Omaha later today with SW claiming they are unable to do anything for me.

lougord99

They absolutely should not be paying anything for your rental car. This cancellation was not their fault.

They absolutely should not be charging you the $100 extra for the flight.

I would write Southwest a letter after you get back requesting a refund of that $100.

steamboater

Did not say they should cover the rental car, was saying to them I would pick that up on my own if they would be willing to fly me into Omaha which they said they cannot do either. Im calling again this morning to see if they will pick up the fare difference.

lougord99

Can't hurt to call again, but I think you will get better results writing after you are home.

mke9499

I just heard on the news that WN has cancelled all MDW flight for this afternoon.

Is weather the culprit this time?

http://wgntv.com/2014/10/02/hundreds...f-bad-weather/

john398

Could be bad weather in DAL this afternoon as well