diburning

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.

gregman858

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.

jc okc

Tanic

winston vickers

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.

DenverBrian

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.

LegalTender

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.

diburning

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.

InkUnderNails

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.

diburning

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.

Airrage

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

ursine1

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.

rrgg

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.

jch636

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

zachary

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.