Nationwide sale $49/99/129/149 book by Fri 6/5; Epic website meltdown, mostly fixed
Jun 3, 2015, 8:25 pm
#62
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: USA
Programs: AC SE100K, F9 100k, NK Gold, UA *S, Hyatt Glob, Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 5,195
Southwest's website, on the opposite side of things, can barely handle normal demand. Once a sale like this gets out, the site breaks every time as it has for years. unbelievable the $ they are losing each time this happens.
Jun 3, 2015, 8:45 pm
#63
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Anywhere I need to be.
Programs: OW Emerald, *A Gold, NEXUS, GE, ABTC/APEC, South Korea SES, eIACS, PP, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 16,046
You would think WN would be more prepared for something like this considering there is no alternate way of purchasing WN tickets...
Jun 3, 2015, 9:07 pm
#65
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: Southwest A-list & Companion Pass, Enterprise, Hilton, Wyndham, etc
Posts: 225
I first noticed the site was down about 1 PM Eastern time. It's now 11:07 PM Eastern - 10 hours when nobody could buy a ticket And a good hunk of that time no check-in and no account access.
At least, they do answer the A list phone number promptly at 11 PM Eastern. How many millions of dollars in revenue has this cost them? How great for employee morale, for customer loyalty, and what great publicity.
Really hard to believe they've done this to themselves, and couldn't get it fixed for 10+ house and counting.
At least, they do answer the A list phone number promptly at 11 PM Eastern. How many millions of dollars in revenue has this cost them? How great for employee morale, for customer loyalty, and what great publicity.
Really hard to believe they've done this to themselves, and couldn't get it fixed for 10+ house and counting.
Jun 3, 2015, 9:13 pm
#66
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 403
What I don't understand is, the deal isn't THAT great... No one has seen $49 fares before for short haul flights?? Am I missing something here?
It has been down all day for me. Southwest better grant 7 day fares 6 days in advance to make up for this.
It has been down all day for me. Southwest better grant 7 day fares 6 days in advance to make up for this.
Jun 3, 2015, 9:14 pm
#67
Moderator: Southwest Airlines, Capital One
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: California
Programs: WN Companion Pass, A-list preferred, Hyatt Globalist; United Club Lietime (sic) Member
Posts: 21,624
If the meltdown becomes a national news story the crush will only increase. Then Southwest might finally relent and extend or repeat the sale.
The national news angle is that this year's sky-high fares have caused a huge pent-up demand for travel at normal prices. Southwest opened the floodgates with this sale.
The national news angle is that this year's sky-high fares have caused a huge pent-up demand for travel at normal prices. Southwest opened the floodgates with this sale.
Jun 3, 2015, 9:39 pm
#68
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 3,638
Online check in
@SouthwestAir is tweeting customers to do online check in at...
https://www.southwest.com/flight/ret...NewSession=yes
It looks like this may have been set up special.
I don't have any flights tomorrow, so can't test it. If anyone has success using this, while the website is still down, please advise.
https://www.southwest.com/flight/ret...NewSession=yes
It looks like this may have been set up special.
I don't have any flights tomorrow, so can't test it. If anyone has success using this, while the website is still down, please advise.
Jun 3, 2015, 9:46 pm
#69
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Programs: Southwest A-list & Companion Pass, Enterprise, Hilton, Wyndham, etc
Posts: 225
"An error has occurred. Please visit southwest.com or southwest.com booking for more help.
"If this issue persists, please call 1-800-I-FLY-SWA (1-800-435-9792).
"Reference code: 999999999"
At the very least WN needs to revise this rather stupid error message. Does it not occur to them that the error is coming from southwest.com? Does it not occur to them that the Reference code "999999999" is meaningless? That after 11 hours, "if this error persists," is moot? It's already persisted.
Also, since that phone number won't be answered for hours, maybe they could just post a batch of websites addresses and phone numbers for other airlines, thus at least saving the paying customer the trouble of looking up those address and numbers.
Maybe WN could even get Delta, United, AA, etc to pay WN a small fee for the service.
Still can't book anything at 11:44 PM Eastern time.
"If this issue persists, please call 1-800-I-FLY-SWA (1-800-435-9792).
"Reference code: 999999999"
At the very least WN needs to revise this rather stupid error message. Does it not occur to them that the error is coming from southwest.com? Does it not occur to them that the Reference code "999999999" is meaningless? That after 11 hours, "if this error persists," is moot? It's already persisted.
Also, since that phone number won't be answered for hours, maybe they could just post a batch of websites addresses and phone numbers for other airlines, thus at least saving the paying customer the trouble of looking up those address and numbers.
Maybe WN could even get Delta, United, AA, etc to pay WN a small fee for the service.
Still can't book anything at 11:44 PM Eastern time.
Jun 3, 2015, 9:59 pm
#71
Join Date: May 2011
Location: 2C
Programs: MR PP & LT Plat, HH Diamond, WN A+ and CP, Avis First, National E+
Posts: 201
Strange - sitting at my hotel room in Denver and just logged on to check in for my flight tomorrow, no problem at all. Didn't even know anything was up until I logged on to FT after checking in.
Jun 3, 2015, 10:08 pm
#72
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 6,286
Still down for me; 11:04 CDT.
This is a new low point for Southwest's IT. And that's saying a lot.
I can't believe it's just traffic from the sale. People were reporting 1-2 hour hold times at the regular phone number since the weekend -- before the sale started.
Heads should roll.
I suspect they won't.
This is a new low point for Southwest's IT. And that's saying a lot.
I can't believe it's just traffic from the sale. People were reporting 1-2 hour hold times at the regular phone number since the weekend -- before the sale started.
Heads should roll.
I suspect they won't.
Jun 3, 2015, 10:10 pm
#73
Moderator: Southwest Airlines, Capital One
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: California
Programs: WN Companion Pass, A-list preferred, Hyatt Globalist; United Club Lietime (sic) Member
Posts: 21,624
I believe this is the most prolonged outage for Southwest since the one-day $25 fare sale on Southwest's 25th anniversary. That was in the early days of the Internet, so of course the website crashed. So people formed huge lines at the airport counters. That's the only fiasco I can recall that was worse than this one.
Jun 3, 2015, 10:31 pm
#75
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: USA
Programs: AC SE100K, F9 100k, NK Gold, UA *S, Hyatt Glob, Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 5,195
Southwest has advertised sale fares and FAILED to make them available. If would be interesting if folks make claims with the DOT, who has the ability to then issue sanctions and a fine. This isn't intentional false adveritsing, but it *IS* a situation that was under Southwest's control and could have been predicted. As a result of Southwest failing to account for demand and correct historical system outages has caused their 3 day sale to be a 2 day sale (at most).