rsteinmetz70112

Yesterday afternoon I was flying from Atlanta to New Orleans on flight 2076, scheduled to depart at 3:00 PM. When I got to the gate about an hour before boarding the plane was at the gate.

After the plane was loaded and before the door was closed the Captain came into the cabin announced he had come from New Orleans and there was weather between Atlanta and New Orleans so there would be no cabin service.

He later came into the cabin and announced there was a problem with the rear door slide and it needed to be replaced. They had to see if there was a replacement available ( the plane was an 800). The announced they had located a replacement . They announced the serial numbers didn't match and they had to confirm that the part was correct. They then had to update the paperwork with Dallas. All the while we sat on the plane. After an hour they allowed people to deplane. After another hour the allowed anyone who wanted off the deplane but that they could not come back on-board. The FAs did a water service and passed out pretzels. Several people asked for an cocktail, the FA said that it was their policy to serve only water.

Eventually, after three hours, the repair was made, the paperwork completed and we finally took off. The flight was uneventful and without any turbulence until we had started our initial descent into New Orleans.

The FA also announced a $200 vouched for every passenger. She took credit for arguing for the "extra" $100.

This brings up several points:

1. I thought $200 was pretty much the standard compensation for a 3 hour mechanical delay. Has that changed?
   
2. I have never heard of a policy about not serving drinks on the ground. In fact many airlines do serve drinks to Business Class passengers before departure and I have gotten drinks on the ground on Southwest before, although it's been many years.
   
3. Finally recently I have have noticed that they seem to be omitting cabin service "due to weather" more frequently than they have in the past. Has anyone else noticed this?

joshua362

I don't know the answers to your questions but what a horrible unfriendly chain of events and service overall. Perhaps it was an ex-AirTran crew referenced in the other thread?

rsteinmetz70112

I'm not particularly interested in criticizing the former Airtran employees or blaming Southwest's failures on anyone but Southwest, especially when it's impossible to know who was in the crew. It also seems Dallas had a significant hand in my issues yesterday.

I flew Airtran for years, since they were ValuJet. My wife was on the First ValuJet flight to New Orleans. I booked it to get away from Delta and their horrible policies. I never really had a problem with their service. I've defended them against those slurs here when someone assumes that any poor customer service must be a former Airtran employee. In fact I've received my share of poor service from Southwest employees as well even before the Airtran employees transfered to Southwest, especially in the GK era. It may just be that Texans in general never seem to be able to admit they are less that perfect. In fact as a frequent Airtran flier I became friendly with a number of Airtran employees and I still see some of them occasionally in Atlanta and New Orleans. They always greet me warmly by name. They always ask about my wife and whether she is flying with me today.

In fact it seems Southwest did everything they could to get rid of as many of the former Airtran employees as possible, including closing their call center and forcing those employees to either move of give up their jobs. The same for many Airtran Customer Service and Ramp employees in Atlanta and at closed stations. Flight Attendants and Pilots at least had the opportunity to commute to continue to work for Southwest. I know a former Airtran FA in Atlanta who is still commuting to Chicago to go to work and is forced to pay for a crash pad there to keep her job. Then there was the apparent dirty trick of allowing Airtran pilots to bid for one of three positions, 717 Captain, 717 First Officer or 737 First Officer. No Airtran pilot was allowed to become a 737 Captain. Southwest publicly stated they would integrate the 717s into their fleet they then basically gave them all to Delta and all former Airtran Captains were forced to become 737 First Officers. The Southwest pilots Union immediately announced they had "captured" 240 more captains positions.

joshua362

Wow, this I did not know, I did not know this. As I wrote in the other thread, I loved AirTran and got to know several upfront FA's coming down from NY often. I also was a big partaker in their complementary offerings which sparked many conversations. One claimed I looked like Glenn Frey with my ever present sunglasses which we joked about on many trips over the years.

WN dismantled perfectly good airline IM very selfless O

NoStressHere

Horrible?
Service?

The plane had a mechanical issue. It sucks, but.....

fiuchris

rsteinmetz70112

Thank you for your response.

I do wonder when Southwest's policy changed. I also wonder why soft drinks and juice were not served, it was clear we had plenty of time. In the past (many years past) I have been on ground holds for weather where alcohol was served and in one case the plane was actually catered on the ground to replenish the galley. The guy's bringing on the case of beer were cheered.

I'm also always amused when the pilot announces "The repair is complete, we only have to do the paperwork". That usually takes at least 30 minutes, usually longer.

rsteinmetz70112

The service was neither unfriendly nor horrible, just long.

The real problem seems to have been locating and confirming the spare part was correct then correcting the records to account for an anomaly, but I really don't know what really went on.

I did get my voucher in the email today.

ATLflyer2017

Honestly $200 seems kind of high for non-elite compensation for a 3 hr delay. Perhaps I've just been luck to never have such delays.
I can kind of understand why they would only do a water service, especially if you don't know how long (or short) the delay will be and you need to be able to "pack up" quickly. Also I am glad they aren't serving alcohol on the ground during a delay as that could cause many issues.
Finally, about the service, it can often seem like the FAs are skipping the service because they just want to sit in the back and talk but turbulence is unexpected that's not the main point of them being there.
I have noticed a new attitude from a lot of FAs that they are ONLY there for your safety and anything above that is a bonus.

jmw

All of my recent mechanical delays have been $100 or even just $50 on one occasion. I think you are very lucky to get $200 on this one. If you got anything higher for this flight, I would have bought a lottery ticket on the way home. It's been a very long time since the last time I got a $200+ voucher from WN. I've never gotten $300 except in a VDB, which is almost impossible now on WN. None of my delays in recent years have exceeded four hours.

I agree with the recent FA service going downhill and now resembles United and American rather than striving for Asian airline quality service.

ursine1

$200 for a 3+ mechanical is fairly standard.

joshua362

Horrible is perhaps an overstatement but I take exception with the "you can leave the plane but can't come back on announcement" as this escalates towards 3 hours. And being told no service in the air but we can't be bothered to give out more than 5 ounces of water on the ground. Also wondering how a "rear door slide" becomes inop or detected so easily during a turn.

Good about the voucher though.

exwannabe

Perhaps Steven Slater was working the inbound?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JetBlu...ndant_incident

Or more likely, I think the crew disarms all the exit door emergency slides when they land, not just the door they intend to use.

ryw