desi

Southwest has cancelled this flight.

Reason given are (by different reps while trying to rebook)

- Weather problem in Philadelphia
But no other Southwest flight to ANY destination out of PHL is cancelled
No other airline has cancelled their PHl-DEN flights

- Weather problem in Denver
Southwest so far (when last checked) has not cancelled any incoming flight to Denver
As above Phl-Den flights by other carrier running fine


Southwest claims that they can not accommodate family until late Saturday/early Sunday. They are claiming that all other 7 alternatives are sold out in every category (although web shows availability for that many pax but not in WGA)

Competitors flights have seats but Southwest do not use that option.

They are insisting on me taking refund of that very cheap airfare booked months in advance or fly on Sunday


Any recourse later on with Southwest? Whom to contact if this is not really a Weather or ATC delay?

Since we cant wait until Sunday, we booked last minute flights using miles with other airline (lots of miles and substantial last minute ticket issuing fee)

Wonder if there is any recourse especially if this is not really weather or ATC issue. How does one find out if this indeed weather or ATC?

Would also do more search of forums and use google upon return. But thought one of the experts with experience this can point out in case something needs to be done today.

steved5480

In the grand scheme of things, the term "ATC Issue" is way over-used by the airlines. It's an easy way to point the blame at a nebulous entity most travelers know very little about. The short answer is it's storming all around back that way + somebody wants to play golf. Dump all of that into some of the densest airspace in the world and it's more often a mess than not.

Assuming we're talking about today/Friday August 11th: Originally scheduled with aircraft N8606C (an -800). Routing today for that plane was OAK-DEN-MDW-PHL-DEN. Flight #875 DEN-MDW landed at MDW @3:10pm Herb Time. Both the inbound MDW-PHL leg (#875 ) and your outbound PHL-DEN leg show as cancelled.

PHL and the NY Metros have active Ground Delay Programs running due to "weather": http://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/ Strictly a guess, but seems likely as a preemptive weather cancellation by SWA to avoid getting jammed-up in/around PHL issues as the day goes on. While there may not be severe weather at/around the airport, arrival and departure routes in that part of the world are at a premium. The ongoing VIP Temporary Flight Restrictions in effect over a certain country club in New Jersey http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr_map_ims/html/.../tile_8_4.html really helps to gum up the works.

Denver currently has no posted issues at the moment, although this being monsoon season in the west DEN & LAS can and often do have surprise pop-up storms that clog things up later in the day this time of year.

Best of luck to you getting where you need to be.

joshua362

Check the weather where the aircraft was flying before arriving at PHL.

Allan38103

Take the flight that's best for you. Pay whatever it takes. Reserve it right away while you can before it's gone. You can sort out he money after the fact; you CAN'T sort out the flight after it's gone.

xliioper

If by "recourse" you mean WN will reimburse for your new tickets if it's not weather/ATC-related, then no, that's not going to happen. They will refund your flights and perhaps give you some vouchers for future travel, but that's all you can expect. As has been discussed here many times, there's no obligation for the airlines to reimburse for new flights, hotel bookings, and other incidentals in the event of flight cancellations even if it is their fault. This is all covered at length in the Contract of Carriage for each airline. There's no real point in obsessing over the "root" cause of the cancellation as it provides no real benefit to you.

As previous poster noted, the inbound flight #875 from MDW to PHL was cancelled which caused the PHL to DEN flight to be cancelled. The aircraft ultimately flew as flight #1648 MDW-LAS which had been significantly delayed --

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N8606C

Why WN decided to use the aircraft for the LAS flight instead could have due to a myriad of reasons including weather/ATC related ones or a combination of weather/ATC and other issues. Again, finding out the "root" answer is unlikely to ever happen and will not provide you with any real benefit.

ryw

OP - did you book using a credit card that provides travel insurance? (More broadly, I'm curious if this is a weather related cancellation is this a situation where the chase travel insurance would kick in?)

LegalTender

Canceling 4+ hours ahead, Southwest is spared face-to-face flak from 175 frenzied and fuming at the gate.

One WN phone agent explained, "it was just too many planes in the air."

desi

Thank you for kind responses.
@Allan - thats what we did . Had to use double miles and pay last minute booking fees but at least trip was back on track.
@ryw - yes did charge the $5.60 to chase card which has travel insurance but with its own fine print. But I am curious to find out if chase insurance will pay for at least the out of pocket expense (which was only $75 per ticket)

However, that requires something in writing from Southwest as chase coverage works (if I understand fine print correctly) if it is severe weather related and most likely not because of ATC. Southwest keep changing story on the reason of cancellation.
@LBJ, hence the reason of trying to nail down something in writing from southwest (not to get anything from WN but at least try filing claim with chase and understand the system)

Travel insurance covers incidental expense or hotel expense or even change fees but wonder if it will cover booking fee of new replacement tickets. Does anyone has any data point?
(In fact, that particular question is not limited to WN - what would be a good forum to post that question)

expert7700

Chase Sapphire Reserve card requires entire flight cost to be paid by card. Exception only for award travel booked on Chase's own portal ,using Chase's Ultimate Reward points