WebTraveler

This holiday season, due to the fares being much less on Southwest, I decided to book the family on Southwest. I have deviated from my traditional patterns, and wow....everything has been massively delayed.

The culprit? Southwest can't turn its planes around in the time allotted. They just can't. I have followed each and every flight, where its to/from....and the bottom line is this schedule is so fine that they cannot handle it any burp.

For crying out loud, this is ridiculous. I now remember why I get so frustrated with these folks.

sdsearch

To answer the question in your thread title, sure, the first flight of the day is likely to be on time.

It's a cumulative problem of flying point-to-point-to-point-to-point all day with not enough "padding" to make it possible to make up for most delays that might happen during the day.

And thus the later in the day your flight is, the more likely it is to be noticeably late.

Most other airlines don't have this problem to this degree, because (having different plane types) they tend to fly different planes over and over again on the same few routes hob-to-spoke routes. (So weather-caused delays are less likely to affect other routes.) Also, any airlines that have premium cabins make more off those premium cabins than most of the rest of the plane, and can thus afford to "pad" their schedule more to keep their best customers (some of whom pay outright for those premium cabins) happy. Southwest with their coach-only planes doesn't have this source of income, and thus feels the need to do rapid turns to make up for it. Unfortunately, those rapid turns are unsustainable over the course of a day if a plane at any point during the day is delayed for weather or any other cause, and because Southwest flies their planes "randomly" hopscotching all over the country, a much larger percentage of Southwest planes is likely to be affected over the course of a day by "regional" weather issues than at hub-and-spoke airlines.

boycruz

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/south...excessive.html

WebTraveler

Ok, so here is the deal. My flight is scheduled at 6:40 p.m. with boarding at 6:10.

The inbound flight (same flight number) is exactly on time, landing at 6:10.

So how can one flight get in at 6:10 and the next flight board at 6:10? This is absolutely impossible. The first people cannot even get off the plane, even if it is on time.

This schedule is a fraud. It is absolutely impossible to do both at 6:10. Southwest knows this and plays games.

Total horse poop. Perhaps when I get to the counter I will lay into the station manager about this. Doubt he/she can control this, but this has games written all over it. This exact even happened on the way down here as well.....it is impossible to meet this schedule and just screws with my day.

WebTraveler

Update: Now its more than 3 hrs late.

Total horse crap

pzswenj

So you booked an evening flight, knowing that the evening is more likely to be delayed, and now are surprised?

For what its worth, both my WN flights this holiday season were on time. One even was in a snow event in Denver.

jco613

This is why Southwest still amazes me. In a good way. In 2014, I flew 18 flights (6 of the last 10 on WN, 10 on DL and 2 on US)...All of the WN flights were on time, save for one that was delayed slightly due to weather and another that was delayed because we had to return to the gate because of an unruly passenger. That flight arrived a few minutes late, turned quick, and we had left the gate early initially. Given only 2 of those 6 flights were 100% full and the rest were 50% or less, I have seen the rampers turn it into high gear to get it going, and the passengers board quick and we're off EARLY in most cases. My last flight was 95% full MDW-FLL with a ton of bags and we pushed back early. I never take the first flight in the morning.

On the other hand, my DL flights were consistently 15-20 minutes late (despite rarely posting a new departure time, they would board at the scheduled departure time!) and they have longer turns, and save for the APU not working on one of my 2 US flights, we would have been 100% on time!

I guess the point of my rant is Southwest operates over 3,000 flights a day. Flights are late sometimes, but to WN's credit (ground staff and higher ups), they have always made delays as pleasant as possible AND when the plane finally does get in, they make sure to do what they can to get that plane out ASAP. And to my fellow passengers' credit, they help the process by being quick and efficient in the boarding process, even over the holidays! Sometimes it's just bad luck, or as is being discussed in my thread about the cold - in the case of last year's sickout, sometimes it's GOOD luck!

Algebralovr

Early flights tend to be on time. Our Dec 23 flights at 6:30 am out of MCI were on time to board, and actually got to LAS on time.

Our return flights on Dec 26 were to board at 4:15 and leave at 4:35. We ended up leaving about 5:10. That late in the day, I didn't stress over 35 minutes.

Our reservations in February have been changed by the airline. They are leaving more time between flights in order to combat the delays they introduced when they tried to cram them closer together last year.

WebTraveler

The INBOUND flight is on time......so why is the outbound delayed?

If it is an unsafe aircraft it wouldn't be in the air right now, it would be pulled.

It is looking more and more like a flight crew problem, more than anything else, because the plane is landing at the time scheduled and its still flying around the country, making several stops today.

I appreciate honesty more than anything else, and this is not being honest. Things happen during the day and I get that - but the INBOUND flight being on time suggests more than anything else it is a flight crew game being played.

If the inbound was delayed then it would be one thing.

jco613

Just a minor correction and I am not saying this is always the case, but there are some MX issues that a plane can continue flying in but it will be grounded until it is fixed. Something as simple as the lav not flushing or a seat not reclining or an overhead bin hinge broken. Someone correct me if I am wrong on that, but I've seen it posted about on here before.

aceflyer2

Recently MSY-SAN was 20 minutes early and PHX-MSY was 15 minutes early.

alggag

I don't hard data but it seems like they are slipping again from when they were back on track in September and October. My last few have been late and it seems I see a lot of late flights again when I look at the TV monitors.

WebTraveler

Possible, but unlikely. Since this particular airplane has been making (on-time) short hops all day. If it was something mechanical it would be held up in any of the places Southwest has a significant staff rather than my origination today....the plane comes from Phoenix right before and that is one of Southwest's biggest bases....and it would be fixed there before it gets on the rest of its way.

expert7700

My inbound arrived on time in STL on Tues when it was inspected and pulled from service due to a lightning strike. The shocking part (pun intended) is that they cited it as maintenance rather than a weather delay. Each person who would have misconnected in Vegas got a hotel room and LUV voucher. Since they gave us a plane bound for another city that just increased other delays.

kathysrewards

I agree with morning flights almost always on time.
That said I find southwest do be the least delay prone.
I was almost always delayed on delta and United regional jets.
That said I almost always fly in the evening so maybe I'm used to more delays.