SOMA1K

I am new to SW, and I foolishly booked the last scheduled flight out this evening. Flt 3330 at 2155h. Now showing 0055 tomorrow morning. Experienced SW flyers was wondering how likely is that it will be canceled? I really need to be in LV tomorrow morning. Thanks for any thoughts!

ExCrew

As a recently reformed 7 year UA 1K/turned A-lister, this is one this that worries me with WN: IRROPS.
There are no interline agreements, and no matter how far up the list I am with WN, if I can't get out on them, I'm stuck (unless I buy on someone else).
I wish I had a good word for you other than checking OA. Sorry. :-/

steved5480

The short answer to your original question is "Not Likely".

Southwest generally does most everything they can reasonably do to operate the last trip of the day (night), even if it's majorly delayed like your flight. They need the aircraft and crew in the planned overnight city so as to start the system out the next day "intact".

It appears that your aircraft may be operating as flight #248 SAN-LAS-RNO, turning back out RNO-LAS as #3330. While LAS is Southwest's 2nd-busiest operation, RNO is a relatively small out-station. Having the crew time-out and not having a backup crew available in RNO (at that hour) would/will be a problem. Obviously, there are no absolute guarantees. The good news is their dispatch/crew scheduling IT folks haven't yet met the mentally challenged fools that run the public web site. Please report back if/when you have time and let us know the outcome.

SOMA1K

Thanks guys. Makes sense that they would want the equipment in LAS in the morning. Hopefully crew will still be legal or that they will have changed them in LAS for the flight up. Will let you know.

OPNLguy

Additionally, with LAS now a crew base, it's also likely that the RNO-LAS flight is the last of the crew's multi-day schedule.

alggag

You will more than likely go out, eventually. I went to MSY about a year ago and an afternoon storm rolled through HOU causing all the MSY-HOU flights to be delayed by about 6 to 10 hours after schedule. Despite the massive delay all remaining flights (4?) did eventually operate that evening/early morning.

The flights basically became first come first serve regardless of booking as so many people had abandoned their itinerary and either hit I-10 or had headed back to Bourbon St.

pinworm

It's a 3 hour delay..but couldn't you drive to LAS in roughly that time?

JerryFF

Total Travel Estimate: 7 hours 14 minutes / 448.50 miles

The aircraft is currently boarding in LAS and estimated to depart at 11:10 pm, arr RNO at 12:25 am.

longhorn11

It's only a 2 lane highway between Reno and Vegas, it can take 7-8 hours as mentioned above.

LegalTender

FlightAware reported it pushing back at 12:28am.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA3330

jco613

countless times I've seen the last FLL-TPA or FLL-JAX flight leave at about 1 AM in IRROPS. The weird thing is that much like this scenario, the FLL-TPA did a PHL-TPA-FLL-TPA turn, so it seems pointless to run the flight, but they did despite the delay. As mentioned above, Southwest does everything in their power to run as many flights as they can, whether its at 8pm or 2am. They sometimes run "red-eyes" just to get the planes back in order for the morning (remember, unlike other airlines, they have two "shifts" of crews, so if a plane gets in at 5am and leaves at 6am, a different crew would run it anyway). I give em credit, but I know I wouldn't want to be delayed 5 hours on a FLL-TPA flight! (or RNO-LAS)

OPNLguy

Obviously, nobody would, but when a weather event whacks a major airport, the aftermath of severely delayed flights often presents the only options of running it late, or not at all. The classic case of the lesser of two evils...

LegalTender

Is it known the OPs flight delay (3330) was weather?

OPNLguy

No, it's not known, and my mentioning weather wasn't intended to be to the exclusion of other potential delay-causing items. In basic terms relative to the OP's general situation, a delay is a delay, no matter what the reason, and the bottomline is that it still sometimes can come down to running a flight really delayed, or not at all.

Cheers...

wrp96

I know there was a ground stop for awhile at LAS last night due to AF1. Could that perhaps have been it?