robnsfla

It would be a great public relations move by Delta…ask for volunteer employees to operate a few 737-900s (Southwest operates 737) relief flights like Delta did in the Bahamas after a hurricane a few years ago
Delta could pick passengers up at one airport and make 2 or 3 stops along the way dropping stranded people back home
maybe charge 100 per person to breakeven..free if people couldn’t pay
only return legs for people just trying to get home
could even park the plane at a Southwest gate
it would be an industry wide effort…
and yes Delta is still recovering but Delta is in a better position to help especially in ATL MCO and other cities with a large footprint
good idea …??? Is it possible..?

KDCAflyer

Delta barely has enough crews to operate its own schedule. The odds of them being able to help bail out WN (even if they wanted to) are pretty close to zero.

Duke787

No reason for them to do this:

1) Delta has their own ops challenges and is better served making sure their own customers are accommodated (they may need those planes to swap in for other narrow bodies that are stuck)

2) people have an incredibly short memory when it comes to travel. Most people getting screwed by Southwest this week will still book them next year for their 1-2/yearly trips when they are the cheapest option. That’s precisely why these things happen over and over again ever single year (that’s what you get with a de facto oligopoly)

flyerCO

No. WN and DL have no interline agreement for tickets. Thus there's no way for DL to get paid. (Same reason WN can't just rebook passengers onto a DL flight)

Absent that, they could offer discount fares to stranded passengers with proof. However this would be a massive headache and cost.

Beyond that as another noted, passengers will book WN again regardless. Thus any PR goodwill earned, wouldn't translate into $ later down the road.

sydneyracquelle

Expect a huge new years seat sale on WN. People will soon forget.

Hepsaint

Agreed, Delta is unable and not obliged to help out at this time. Also, Hearing the news reports and interviews of passengers who say the usual "I'll never fly (insert airline here) again!" Southwest needs to fully explain the reason for this meltdown to their core flyer base who think that snow storms and other weather related phenomenon are within the airlines control. Delta is pretty good about announcing weather related disruptions and rebooking/cancellation warnings in advance. WN now has the pilot, FA and groundworkers unions clamoring for positions as they grill management about their antiquated reservations and personnel scheduling systems. Also, For those folks that believed that traveling during this monster snowstorm would leave them unaffected need to understand that "Hope is not a good plan".

Beckles

Fixed that for you.

Things look better today, Delta cancelled 9% of its flights yesterday and is still recovering from the weekend. We were scheduled to fly Delta home Christmas Eve before they cancelled our flight, if we hadn't flown home on JetBlue on our own two days ago we would have been flying home today on Delta. Delta is probably picking up all the Southwest flyers they can who are willing to pay last minute fares anyway.

flyerCO

This is far beyond "weather." If it was just the weather, people would complain still, but it would be understood. This is about WN having grown rapidly and still using technology from 30 years ago for crew/aircraft scheduling. When stuff happens like with recent weather, they can't recover. Crew can be left waiting till day after for a call about hotel that night. Etc...

They've canceled 70% of their flights. They refusing to rebook passengers till after Dec 31. (Even if flight is operating and has seats for sale) They're having to bus passengers between airport, this isn't about weather anymore.

rylan

Using the weather as an excuse at this point is unacceptable. Just like some businesses still using Covid as an excuse to not provide proper services.
SWA's operational mess has been long brewing (just look at the meltdown and poor recovery they had over the summer from a much smaller weather event) and this pushed them way over the tipping point. Blame lands squarely on upper management.

AS others mentioned, DL is barely getting by on their own with the recovery and lack of buffer for crews. No excuses for still canceling flights, as it is way past weather and is on the operation now, unless you are flying to the western NY area where they are still getting hammered.

DLASflyer

They are operating relief flights in a way. Guarantee lots of DEN, ATL, SAN, MDW, LAS, BWI, MCO, etc. WN pax have bought new tickets on DL.

KDCAflyer

What SW should do is reimburse the cost of walk-up tickets for those holding canceled SW tickets. They're too cheap to have a standing interline agreement, and now they should have to pay up.

Hopefully that's a part of the looming long chat between DOT and SW upper management.

northinsouth

As an exercise in speculation: obviously, the horse has left the barn on this disaster. But what can SW do to alleviate this situation? I'm not asking rhetorically, but as a genuine curiosity as an outside looking into the aviation industry. For instance, how realistic is it for them to implement a hub system? How hard is it for them to start inter-airline agreements? Etc.

I suppose I'm in the minority here, but since Covid, I've really avoided flying SQ because of these issues. Not to say that DL is beyond reproach--not by a long shot--but I feel a little more trusting in their reliability to get me where I need to go, even if it means flying longer and w/ connections. Perhaps I'm being too naive on this issue...

wrldwide1

Delta's best "PR move" would be to service its own customers as best as possible and stay out of the Southwest cesspool.

hur88

It's not a humanitarian crisis. Not sure why any airline would operate relief flights.

flyerCO

SQ has interline agreement with all *A airlines, plus many more.