jamesteroh

I am flying on Flight 935 tonight tonight DTW/DEN and then have to connect with only a 35 minute layover (was only flight I could book with a regular RR ticket). I just checked the flight status to see if my gate was posted yet and it is showing the flight is delayed 55 minutes right now. I am realy surprised WN would post a flight delay 12 hours out, but it means missing my connection. How can I find out the reason for the delay ahead of time? If I get stuck in DEN tonight I want to know if they are going to blame it on weather in another city or if it's mechanical.

Seeing if the flight is delayed by that long, it is obvious I will miss my connection. Why doesn't WN text or call to tell people so they can make other arrangements and try to rebook? I know I can go through Chicago but paid for EBCI and hate to sit in a middle seat for that long of a flight.

rove312

That flight number starts at TPA, and it's delayed from 11.10 a.m. to 12.15 EDT. Looks like something's happening previously for that aircraft. They might hold your connecting flight, if it's the last of the day.

ETA: It looks like that aircraft's first flight of the day was DTW-BNA early this morning, and it was delayed over an hour. So you can say if there's any reason to blame weather at DTW.

kss5555

Well its been sunny all morning and will be mid 50s with no clouds in the sky here in Detroit, so my guess is that the flight came in late last night maybe causing a delay this morning with the flight crew with mandatory rest.

This is my main reason for completely abandoning Southwest for all my non stop DTW-Chicago/Baltimore/DC trips and using Delta and United. They are the worst at IRROPS and rebooking, they have no ability to protect you on any other carrier and almost always when you are on a flight and you/and they know it is delayed, they will not put you on an earlier flight that has available seats unless you upgrade to a full fare.

formeraa

While I wholeheartedly agree that WN is horrible at IRROPS, they will put you on another flight with availabile seats when your flight is already showing delayed. I have done this a couple of times between ONT and PHX -- as long as my flight was showing a delay they had no problem putting me on an earlier flight. I urge the OP to call WN right now and ask to be put on an earlier flight.

jamesteroh

Thanks for the info. The weather is pretty nice here for early november. I checked DTW/BNA on Delta and the first flight this morning was only 4 minutes late so they can't blame weather or ATC.

This is the fourth time this year I have flown the last DTW/DEN flight of the night and EVERYTIME it is delayed. Fortunately 2 of the 3 times they held the connection and hopefully they will tonight.

jamesteroh

WN is AWFUL about irrops. And I hate to connect (and it isn't just on WN, even though on Delta I can get extra miles by connecting a lot of times, I prefer directs). WN told me when I called to be put on the flight through MDW, that she would recomend I stay on my current flight for now and the connection should be held since it's the last one of the day. I just hate to switch flights since it will probably mean a middle seat, even though I will probably end up with a lousy seat on the DEN/LAX flight since I'll be one of the last to board. I asked the reason for the delay and she said all she could tell me was it was due to plane maintenance, so they will probably try to hold connections at DEN to avoid compensation for hotels.

tusphotog

If I was in your shoes, I'd wait it out too. But I wouldn't get on that flight to DEN if you know you're going to misconnect--I never trust when any airline says connections will be held. Sometimes they can get back on schedule (or close to it) through the day. Your DEN-LAX flight could also get delayed during the day as well...

If you're still showing a delay, go thru MDW and deal with a middle seat in the back for a few hours. It's not that bad. At least the MDW flight leaves after yours so you can switch out at the last minute.

jamesteroh

Yeah that is what I am going to do. My boarding pass numbers won't be too much worse if I switch it out at DTW than if I do it this late in the day anyway. I hate to switch the flights out and then have the MDW flight delayed as well. If I get to the airport and see that the flight is going to be delayed even longer and I will probably misconnect, I'll ask to be put on the MDW flight.

REALLY weird thing is I was curious at to what my flight would cost me now (I am on an RR 1.0 ticket) and just tried booking it and it is allowing me to price out my flight even though the connection will be impossible to make if they don't hold it.

tusphotog

That's because the booking page looks at scheduled connections...not whether the flights are currently on time.

I know that's the case on AS as well.

rove312

For the record, according to the now more accurate SWA site, flight 935 arrived DEN at 9.13 (scheduled 8.35), and flight 337 (scheduled 9.10) departed at 9.34.

jamesteroh

Yeah made it They held all connections except for Boise (and they ended up holding that) and I believe Seattle. At the airport the agent said quite a few people were going on to LAX on that flight so they would probably hold the connection. I actually managed to get an aisle seat in row 9. Flight was pretty empty DEN/LAX which surprised me being the last flight on a Friday.

There were a lot of wheelchair passengers on the inbound plane to DTW, so if it wouldnt have been for the additional time, plane would have been pretty close to being on schedule. There were a lot of WW2 veterans on the flight and before they deplaned the GA told us what was going on and requested we applaud each one as they got off the plane. They had probably 12 wheelchairs already waiting with people to escort them. I thought it was really cool they did that.

InkUnderNails

Congratulations on surviving a stressful day. This sort of stuff gets to me.

Since I started preboarding as a COS, I have been incredibly impressed by the compassion, gentleness and patience that the flight crews and the OA's have with the wheelchair and other preboarding passengers. I am sure this is true on all airlines, but I just get to watch WN.

millere2

I had my first issues with WN IRROPS a few weeks ago. EWR to MDW was late like 1 hour. Missed my connection by about 10 min to IND. Did not hold the flight for me. Next IND flight was 4 hours later and they told me they put me on the list for standby with 13 others already on and flight was oversold. Asked them about flights the next day and he said all flights were soldout already. Wife was not happy. Luckily it's only a 2.5hr drive. Rented a one way car for $160 and went home that night.

Was this really all they could do for me in this situation? Flight delays were for ATC but no attempt was made to hold my connecting flight or even speed up the flight time from EWR to MDW. If I kept waiting For flights I may have not made it home for a day or day and a half.

lougord99

That was not all they could do for you, but it certainly is all they choose to do for you. That is standard procedure. You need to understand that when you choose to fly Southwest.

formeraa

I really try to stick to non-stops or direct flights on WN. With record high load factors across the industry, there are very few backup seats available.