https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7054c4cd34.png
I saw the date on this boardingarea.com post. It seems they have edited the date now to March 27th.

https://dealswelike.boardingarea.com...492.1541512203

That doesn't give you any legal right to demand a change waiver though. I get you would like one, just as many many people would. But they can't do it. Your flight isn't for another 3 months. Information should come out by then, and if it doesn't. Then come back & people (myself included) will be more sympathetic. I get someone flying on the plane this week requesting to change. But you have a flight in June. Wait until Boeing either corrects the error, or proves that there is nothing wrong with the aircraft.

Of course. Imagine it would be A320neo crashes. They would probably ground A350 for good measure too. People would be calling it Scarebus and Sully will be in TV saying how side-sticks are inherently unsafe etc. etc.

Edit: Found the link, it took 2 days for FAA to ground a French jet with trim issues - https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...or-rap-423129/

I'm one of the anti-Southwest/Boeing/FAA folks who believe the 737max is unsafe until proven otherwise. I have flights during the next week and many flights over the next month that I have to watch for last minute aircraft swaps because I will not ride this bird. That being said, your flight isn't for 3 months. Southwest is already letting us change flights at the last minute so I can protect myself against last minute swaps and you'll probably have the same ability if the situation isn't resolved by late May. Southwest's reaction isn't the best, but it is good enough since I can avoid the 737max for my close-in flights. I am very confident that Boeing will fix the problem and the 737 max will be safe because it will cost them big money to continue the status quo. I have flights longer out and I won't deal with them until it's closer to departure. You should be patient and do the same as well. You'll have plenty of company and help if June comes around and the 737max situation isn't resolved.

We fly often but are far from aircraft gurus. Is the 737 MAX marked as such on the flight # ? I read that WN only has 31 of the 737 MAX aircraft so all of the 737-800 are not the MAX, correct ? Thanks

Please show me where in the fare rules does it say that it's changeable if another plane of the same model crashes, or if you feel unsafe.

You made the choice to book on this aircraft. Then, something happened to another aircraft of the same type. Your feelings about the aircraft don't change the contract of carriage or the fare rules. The current fare waiver is a goodwill gesture.

Lets say I bought a toaster, and three months later, somewhere out there, someone's house burned down and they suspect the toaster was the cause, but the investigation hasn't concluded yet. If I feel that my toaster could do the same thing, do I throw away the toaster, or do I call up Target and plead with them to bend their refund policy?

Correct. The -800 is a previous generation aircraft that has flown reliably for close to 25 years.

Like I said earlier, I went on here to post my experience and to not be attacked. You fanboys can keep defending this all you want.

I'm not talking about a $20 dollar toaster from Target here. And as a matter of fact, if that were the case, I might actually do that. If it's not a good/safe product, you can be sure I'm going to have an issue with that.

Per the New York Times,"But the civil war next door to Ethiopia, in Somalia, raises the possibility that terrorism, not mechanical failure, was to blame. The Shabab, the militant Islamist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, has mounted attacks on both Ethiopia and Kenya, and the United States has stepped up its airstrikes on the group.A witness has said that smoke was streaming from the jet while it was still aloft, though that could indicate any number of things."

More from the artile."The Lion Air flight had an experienced pilot and co-pilot, each with more than 5,000 hours of flying time. The pilot of the Ethiopian flight was highly experienced, too — but the co-pilot was remarkably inexperienced, with just 200 hours.It is not clear who was at the controls when the jet went down."

I'm not discounting the similarities, but the 2 different crashes have some differences. Honda announced today that they are recalling 1.2 million cars, I don't see the angst about anyone getting in their Accords.

Of course you don't. It's a combination of risk/consequences and individual control. Humans always feel more comfortable when they're the ones in control - driving a Honda can't possibly be compared to being a passenger in an airliner.

Plus, the risk of an accident in a Honda is greater than that of flying, but the potential consequences are much more variable and often a non-injury fender bender if something does happen.

The consequence if something bad happens in an airplane at altitude is essentially death.

Absurd comparison. The faulty airbag inflator was suspected in "a January explosion that injured the arm of a person driving a 2004 Honda Odyssey."

NYT article was cherry-picked for a terrorism tangent. The airline CEO says the ET 302 pilot "was having difficulties with the flight control of the airplane, so he asked to return back to base." Loss of control can point to many things. But pinning your hopes on an explosion is a flight of imagination.

I hope you're aware that these forums are for discussion. Why join a discussion if you're not willing to participate? No one attacked you. I and others merely responded that the rules don't allow what you're trying to do despite the given circumstances. I am not a fan of Southwest, and won't go out of my way to fly the MAX either. These forums are also not an echo chamber.

If people stopped flying on every aircraft type that had an incident or two, then I guess the only aircraft that anyone would ever fly in anymore would be the A220.

And if you were to have an issue with the toaster, you'd probably complain to the manufacturer or a regulatory authority, not Target. In this case, both the manufacturer and the regulatory authority (for the time being) are saying that the product is safe. If you refuse to accept that answer, then you're pretty much SOL.

The fact of the matter is, safe or not, the product is not going away, and will eventually either be confirmed to be safe, or will be made safe. Your flights are after the deadline for the final declaration of what went wrong, and if things need to change to make the aircraft safer, then they'll perform the changes before your flights, or they'll take the aircraft out of service by the time your scheduled flights come around so that you won't be flying on one anyway.

Personally, my opinion leans towards the latter, that these aircraft probably do have something wrong with them that they will fix eventually.

I keep thinking about what happened to my flight on Sunday. The plane I was going to board was a MAX-8. My flight was about a half a day after the latest crash. Our flight was delayed for undefined "maintenance issues" and we got a replacement plane for the trip. Our delay was 2.5 hours. The plane was pushed out to a section of the tarmac away from air traffic and maintenance crews were working on the plane.

I learned about the the fact that the plane removed from service was a MAX-8 the next day. There is a lot of coincidence here, but one possibility is that WN is being proactive but the work is occurring out of sight. It would be interesting to know if there were other delays and equipment changes for other MAX-8's in the fleet.

I have been a maintenance guy for over 35 years. When safety is the issue, there are a lot of resources thrown at a problem and every effort is made to make certain that the effort is effective and that the public knows little or nothing about the efforts until the problem has been addressed and eliminated. The suggestion that WN is doing nothing is probably incorrect. Just because we do not know does not mean nothing is being done.

And thus, no real need to be up in arms about Southwest and American still flying the MAX. If they think they can do it safely, then I'd be inclined trust them. I mean, we trust them to be safe every time that we fly, so I don't see why that should change now.

Going to have to disagree as to the FAA doing the right thing. That wonderful organization has continually dismissed issues with Allegiant Air.

While Southwest may be performing additional inspections and/or maintenance at their own discretion, keep in mind that the FAA has not yet mandated the expected fix as a result of the LionAir crash, or announced specific details of the repairs to be mandated. Also, Boeing hasn't yet released the software updates or any information regarding repairs, maintenance or training. This is all expected in April.

Maybe Southwest is voluntarily taking the Max 8 out of use when possible. I noticed WN1734 is a Max 8 today but is switching to 737-800 Thursday and the rest of next week. Or maybe it's just a coincidence.

I don't think they are voluntarily taking Max 8 out of service. I'm scheduled to fly on the OAK-BWI route that normally flies the 737-800, and they've put the Max 8 on that route for the past two days

Can I ask a stupid question? What's the current status on being able to make changes? I've seen flights through March 18 and I've seen flights through March 27. I've seen indications that this is limited to MAX 8 flights and indications that it's not. It doesn't come up for me on the app or the website. Thanks in advance.

You mentioned United Airlines in your post and from what I have read United doesn't fly the MAX 8 but does fly the MAX 9 which wasn't involved in either accident so I'm curious why you mentioned United?

Looks like they're about to ground them in the US too. Hope it's fixed by my next SW flight next month!

My day trip DAL-DCA-DAL a week from today could be interesting.......

The 737 MAX of all flavors have now been grounded by the FAA. So, anyone hoping to get a free change without paying the fare difference can probably breathe easy since southwest will swap the aircraft out.

Swap it for what?

WN does not have a lot of spares and it is already in the middle of a massive maintenance "emergency." Those who were worried about flying the MAX won't be flying it. But, whether they will be flying at all is a good question.

If I had a trip of any importance, I would be cancelling for a refund and rebooking on something else. Remember that just because your flight is not a MAX does not mean that it won't be the flight cancelled.

Good points. Since I am flying home from BWI later this week, I looked up the cancellations out of BWI today. There were 4 today. There may be more tomorrow as teh grounding occurred mid day. There are a lot of flights out of BWI, so that is not a lot of cancellations, and some may be weather related as two of the four were Denver flights.

My home airport is BNA so checked that as well There were no departure cancellations that I could find on the clunky airport flight status page. . .

Either way, it's a way out that the (rightfully) paranoid can now exercise.