How Bad Is Southwest?
Another year, I'm taking my flight from SJC to LAS for the CES today. At 10:30ish this morning, I went to check the mobile app and the 4:25 flight had been canceled. The system didn't rebook me automatically (as I would typically expect when I fly UA) and was waiting for me to rebook. There was no direct flight until 8:30 PM. Fortunately, the app allowed me to rebook within the app this time.
A year ago, on the last day of CES, my morning flight was also canceled. In fact, on that day, most of the WN flights from LAS to the Bay Area were canceled. In comparison, all of the UA flights from LAS to SFO on that same day arrived reasonably on time and no flight was canceled. And at that time, I had to call in because the mobile app wouldn't let me rebook the flight within the app.
I usually only fly WN on short-haul flights to LA or Vegas. I don't fly more than 10 segments a year on WN. But in my limited experience with WN, this airline has no respect for people's time. Half of my flights were either canceled or delayed significantly. Its IT infrastructure is antiquated and its customer service has been really bad. Routinely I have to wait for 30 minutes+ to reach a customer service agent.
Despite all the negative rhetoric against UA, their flights are usually on time and I have experienced no cancellations over the past couple of years (I have been flying 150K+ miles on UA annually over the past 3 years).
Do most WN flyers experience much better services? Where am I going wrong here?