mke9499

Posted on southwest.com:

Putnik

It wasn't really useful for me anyways as the text would come after I'm already at the airport or have already checked the status in the app.

InkUnderNails

This is good! A promised service that is not consistently delivered can often be worse than the absence of a service not offered.

dansachs

This is not good. I can get SMS messages on my phone even when internet connectivity is spotty. Also I can check for a text message without having to remember my flight number.

ucfjoe

1. WN is the only airlne where I can't seem to get the electronic boarding passes to show on my home screen so there are clear mobile tech issues. Does this mean if you're not connected to wifi on a flight you can't see it anymore?
2. I've always found flightaware to be more accurate Espicially at being able to figure out when a delay is going to happen before WN admits it.

joshua362

1. Actually with iphones at least, its best to disconnect wi-fi at the airport to get the mobile pass to display, IME

2. Yes

joshua362

So essentially they are giving up and admitting they can't fix the service? Mine rarely worked. Yet I can get texts 25 ways to Sunday when a stock hit a certain price.

I wonder the "call me" service is going away too. Seems more disruptive to have 143 phones going off at the same time.

PAX62

They were always useless.

My favorite a few weeks ago was a flight that got delayed and upon the plane arriving the SW staff and passengers all hustled to flip the plane and get under way to make up time, then I get a notification that my flight is delayed as we are pushing back.

kennycrudup

I hope they don't kneecap TripIt in the process ... TripIt has always been ahead of WN when reporting pushbacks/pull-ins (and somehow generally more accurate, too) .

lainys

That's why i let Tripcase, Tripit AND awardwallet track the trips. At least one of the apps will auto push a notification or SMS for delays, gate changes, time to next connection and most any other info I would ever need. Waze data dips to my calendar so I also get a reminder of when to leave for the airport. Addicted to my iphone? Yep that's me!!

EWR-6785

Last Wed, I arrived at ATL well in advance of my 12:10 flight. At 10:55 am, I get a WN flight alert that my flight is delayed to 1:20. So, I figure I'll get a leisurely early lunch and arrive at the gate around 12:30, well in advance in case they can leave earlier. I even check the flight status every 15-20 minutes to see if there is any change

At 12:01 pm, I get a new flight alert that the flight is back on time and leaving in less than 9 minutes. So I hightail it over to my gate as fast as I can, along with several other folks boarding after the C Group.

Look, I'm all for trying to reduce delays but once they have posted more than an hour delay, give folks at least 30 minutes of the new ETD. So I don't plan to trust WN's flight status again.

Do you think Flightaware or FlightAware would have provided earlier notice of the ETD moving up? Thanks

kennycrudup

You actually shouldn't, and while it's generally accurate on the delays, due to Operations changes sometimes they'll change things up to reduce the delays, so a "Delay" notification should be used to give you more time in the airport, not outside of it (unless it's > 90m or so).

Plus be aware that when a late flight does finally land they really tend to hustle turning it around, getting people on/off ASAP. I nearly got bitten by this once 'cause knowing it was late I went to the (airside) Starbucks while it was still on approach thinking I'd had ~30 mins or so and they'd managed to turn it after landing in probably 15, and I'm walking up to the gate as they're calling out for tardies before they close the door.

Hard to say. I've gotten a WN notification about 1 in every 15 delays, but TripIt notifies me every time (and on the rare occasions WN does for that same flight, TripIt is first and somehow usually more accurate). Due to cascading delays, it's not uncommon for TripIt to start pinging me around 7:30/8 am for a flight I'm not taking 'till after 5, which also implies TripIt may be calculating flight arrival data based on gate-activity information and ATC info along with WN-supplied data.

EWR-6785

Question for the Hive:
FlightStats vs FlightAware? Thanks

rsteinmetz70112

I find the delays they provide are inaccurate often because they improvise around problems, sometimes creating new ones in the process. Recently I had a flight delayed because they gave our plane to another flight that had a mechanical problem. They assigned us another plane and were going to use the original plane to handles that second flight after it was repaired. In theory it would have spread the delays around. In fact it took longer that anticipated to repair the mechanical and they reassigned it us us. We were late about 2 hours I got a $100 LUV voucher I'm pretty sure they picked on my flight because it was only half booked and even less booked after they rerouted a bunch of passengers who were connecting at our destination.

NextTrip

I asked a SWA Customer Service Manager about this and was told this announcement isn't for PAX that have booked a flight and asked for Flight Status Notification during the booking process. But rather for people that setup a Flight Notification on the Flight Status page.

We shall see.