flyer4512

I was flying BDL>MDW>MSP on Saturday. When we arrived at BDL the Southwest line was out the door. We were told about 45 minutes later that all flights into and out of Tampa had been cancelled and that our BDL>MDW flight was coming from Tampa so it was canceled.

EDIT, looking at flightstats this flight came from MCO.........agents said Tampa but I guess it's no surprise that this was also incorrect

Long story short, we waited in line about 30 - 45 minutes more to rebook as I wasn't sure how to rebook my flight and my companion ( was worried about not getting the CP seat as flight were filling up fast or so the agent told us) so I figured we weren't flying out that day so no hurry.

When we got to the agent she booked us on a 5:45 am flight the next day, my parents live in the area so I asked about a rental car discount, as she looked her radio said the plane for our BDL>MDW flight just landed so we got rebooked on our original flights.

The flight was 25 % empty, all those people were re booked on flights the following day, even the agents were trying to figure out how to contact they people the re booked.

If I never asked about the car rental discount chances are we would have left the agent, rented a car , drove the hour to my parents and returned the next day for our 5:45 am flight. Being it was around 3pm that would have meant we would have arrived at my parents around 5pm and had to get up at 2:30 am to come back to the airport

On a side note, having the CP card to rebook came in very handy as the agent wanted proof that she was my CP.

Amicus

I never bring the CP card and even when rebooking at the airport, have never been asked for it either. A few months ago, took VDB vouchers and we were rebooked on a flight 7 hours later. Again, agent never asked for CP card.

toomanybooks

I think I would have stayed at an airport hotel and got an extra 2+ hours of sleep.

Maybe I am old.

flyer4512

A lot of cancelled flights, every outgoing Tampa area flight for every airline was cancelled and any flight coming from Tampa area to BDL that would then fly someplace else was cancelled. There is only one hotel on site at the airport and that was long sold out, the agent said every hotel for miles was also sold out, would have been a lot easier to rent a car and drive an hour.

Hotels are normally pretty full on a Saturday in the summer so we may have driven 30 minutes to find a room and then risk it being a dump and being charged a last minute rate. Southwest was not offering to pay for rooms as it was weather related


Maybe she was new, maybe she was overwhelmed rebooking every person in line but she said she needed to see the card.............this caused another delay which was good, if we finish 2 minutes earlier I'm headed to the rental car pickup

I'm just amazed that nobody figured out this plane was an hour from Hartford when they said it was not arriving.

I wonder if anybody who was rebooked the following day ever realized that the flight they were originally booked on flew that day, 45 or so minutes late

NextTrip

So, did you get where you were going?

jdschwartz78

I wonder if they pulled an inbound aircraft that was due to go elsewhere and canceled an alternative segment thereby freeing up an aircraft to fly from BDL-MDW.

traveller001

Things like this happen occasionally when managing an overwhelming volume of real-time IROPs and suddenly someone puts it all together that you need an aircraft and crew at a downline station to begin tomorrow. Guessing there was a tailswap and unswap or multiple tailswaps that suddenly made the aircraft and crew available.

OP said his plane was coming from TPA but flightstats says one of only two that day cancelled and it was scheduled far too late to make any connection in MDW. So that wasn't it's original origin.

flyer4512

Yes and on time to final destination MDW>MSP.

I guess I'm just amazed that nobody noticed this and so many were rebooked for the next day minutes before the plane landed.


Flightstats show the plane came from Orlando, the agents only mentioned TPA but apparently MCO also had delays.

Flight stats doesn't make sense to me as it shows flight 4606 landed in BDL (from MCO) at 5:53 pm but departed BDL for MDW at 4:59 pm ( which is the correct time ) so unless I'm reading something wrong it's saying the flight left before it arrived, lol

Maybe the flight 4606 that left MCO for BDL wasn't the same metal that flew BDL>MDW. I don't ever use flight stats and there are a bunch of changes in the timeline



http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...08-01&x=24&y=2

AlexM125

This happened to me at BWI a few years back. My flight was canceled but several hours later reinstated. I never would have known it was reinstated until the rep I was talking to somehow found out as we were looking into alternative flights. I got pretty lucky, just as you did.

milesofsmiles

what's a CP card?:

bon95

What's your point in asking this question? I don't see the relevance.

dc2

I have been asked to show my CP card once that I can recall. DH and I were changing to an earlier flight. (It was at BDL, too. )

rove312

FlightAware, for SWA 4606 on Aug. 1, shows MCO-BDL (arrival at 5.52 rather than scheduled 3.15) and MDW-STL, but not BDL-MDW.

Ah, searching the city pair, there was a flight 9023 on that segment; it looks like a flight number used for fill-in flights, whatever the technical term is; a substitute aircraft was found and needed a different flight number while the previous segment of 4606 was in the air.

NextTrip

Wanted to know if the OP got to where they were going. If so, the thread title, "Major Blunder By Southwest", doesn't fit the situation to me.

sleasure

CP = Companion Pass card. This is a plastic card that WN sends out bearing the name of the companion pass holder each year, much like any other loyalty program card.