olouie

Have been seeing a lot more scheduled delays on Southwest lately, but it doesn't seem to be the usual cascading delays. More like everything is on time and airports are running fine, but then a random 1-2 hour delay gets thrown into the mix. A few times SW has removed the delays close to departure meaning that if you didn't get to the airport near the original time you would likely miss your flight.

What do other people do in these cases? Get to airport near original time? Or wait for the delayed timing?

Random example from today - everything looks good at the airports the flight is going through, but then there is an one hour delayed scheduled.



Frustrating since this means I end up wasting a lot of time at the airport getting there near original departure time just in case they move the delayed flights back up.

rsteinmetz70112

I don't find their estimate of delays very accurate.

Last night on the way to the airport got an alert of a 45 minute delay. When we got to the gate the delay was only 30 minutes and we arrived only 15 minutes late.

Other times I have had delays extended repeatedly.

joshua362

I concur, the only thing you can always count on is it not going in your favor.

TPA: rushed to and through the airport to find a zero to 3 hour delay posted seconds after arriving at the gate.

ISP: watched "my" plane struggle through a winter storm all day with serious delays in the Northeast and finally decided not to chance it by leaving the house since it was an evening flight and required a connection. It left on time.

olouie

This is one of my biggest annoyances of flying WN lately. It seems like delays are becoming more, and more random (e.g. not airport or weather related) AND randomly come and go. Very frustrating.

I totally understanding weather, ATC, etc delays, but not the random 1-3 hours that WN often puts in even when the inbound plane is ontime / early and destination is all clear.

toomanybooks

Yeah, I have posted this before.

What good is getting an alert that your flight is delayed 2 hours if later it goes back to its regular time with no way to predict that?

You have to go to the gate anyway, assuming it might be on time. What is the point of sending these notifications? Just causes angst and confusion, and makes some inexperienced people miss their flights.

Completely stupid.

joshua362

Yea, the only value I can see is more worry if connections are involved and whether to postpone the trip or make other arrangements if able to.

My fave F/U was a Jetblue JFK-SJC arriving 10PM PDT only to depart at 11PM SJC-JFK as a redeye with me on it. Kept getting texts all day pushing it back, back, eventually to 2AM even as it departed JFK. Once in the air for 3 hours from JFK at 11PM PDT, it cancels. Thankfully I was not stupid enough to turn in the rental car but was waiting in the parking lot of an airport Marriott. And it was July 3rd, no less.

olouie

Glad I went on time today. Flight delays was an hour up until just before boarding time and suddenly was changed to an ontime departure. Looks like they moved a plane from PHX route to take over.

synergistic

Drives me nuts, especially when I'm waiting it out in a lounge. Haven't missed a flight, thankfully, but I've gotten stuck with middle seats because I was silly enough to believe the sign at the gate, the departure screen, and the app.

rsteinmetz70112

I have missed a flight because they posed a delay and whne I went back to the gate teh flight had already departed.

On my slightly delayed flight earlier this week a fair number of passengers weren't in the gate when the flight boarded and they boarded late. I have no idea how many passengers were left behind, but looking a the number of people missing from the A group a fair number of people apparently didn't get the message boarding was moved up 15 minutes.

COS_Flyer

In my experience, WN will make up any lost time anytime the chance presents itself. So those notifications you receive before arriving at the airport are not to be trusted. It has not been an issue for me, because I always have some work stuff I need to read before and during the flight, so I just go to the gate. But my son received a notice of a 45 minute delay on a flight home - and believed it. So he stopped and got a haircut on the way to the airport. He managed to get to the gate about 10-15 minutes after the flight had departed - which was after the originally scheduled departure, but before the the time he had been told on his flight notification app. He missed the direct flight and ended up on one that required a change of planes and a second stop (about 8 hours longer than the original direct flight).

I like WN, but not enough to "savor the experience" for 8 hours longer than necessary.

joshua362

The real issue is that they can't make up time by skipping stops or flying faster (outside of taking back any padded time) but if they decide to swap aircraft, your delay can go from hours to minutes (or visa versa) in an instant. Been the victim of the later a few times.

PAX62

Yup...always plan being on time...I have a had many a delay not be as bad as posted and all the sudden we are boarding. They will make up time many ways if they can.

vike16

WN always makes up time in my experience. That being said, last summer I was flying the return leg of MSP-MCI and got the email that my plane was delayed an hour so I hung out with the people I was visiting loner. But then I got a second email that my departure had now been moved up 15 minutes (so now 45 minutes instead of an hour) so I left for the airport immediately, went through security right away, and boarded within 10-15 minutes. All told, 45 minutes from the time I arrived at the airport until the time the plane left.

I wouldn't recommend always trying this but as anyone who has used Terminal 2 in MSP can attest, there is NEVER a security line so that makes it a lot easier.

NextTrip

I never trust an airline when they say a flight is delayed. I just show up for the scheduled flight time. You never know if they will come up with a substitute plane to make up a delay.

olouie

The even worse situation is the famous WN cascading delays, which they don't even post until after the original departure time. First 20 min delay, then 40, then an hour, and pretty soon a few hours. Hit one of those recently and it sucked. They didn't make up any time so extra 3 hours wasted.