Originally Posted by
AlertPenguin
Welcome to the reality that is Southwest. ULCC that does the bare minimum. Always book a Southwest flight with a card that offers travel protections in the case of weather delays. I would think the Southwest cards do have that.
This isn't a WN-only policy. It's standard for U.S. carriers, and there is no passenger bill of rights (or similar) that compels the airlines to do anything more. When it gets drizzly at LGA, flights get canceled, and the AA, UA, and DL pax are paying for their own hotels too.
I had a WN flight out of LGA cancel last month and it would have been 2 days to get rebooked. Fortunately, UA still had a flight that night out of EWR and I had time to jump in a Lyft across town to make it. I'm no fan of UA, but EWR does seem to operate better during light rain that does not require an umbrella.
The only thing I don't understand is the hour-on-the-phone bit. WN's app has handled rebookings pretty seamlessly for me in the past 1-2 years. I think the last phone call I made was about 3 years ago (?).