If flight delayed, does the deadline to show up at gate get extended?
 

You're at your own risk on this one. Southwest changes gates/planes all the time to get rid of delays or delay a flight with less people instead. To answer your question: if the flight hasn't started boarding yet, they have no way to verify if you're actually at the gate.

Wouldn't this be covered by the typical "In the morning a noon flight could be delayed until later in the afternoon, and yet at 11:30a the delay goes away and therefore the flight will still close at 11:50"?

I had a flight a few weeks ago where Southwest sent me a message a few hours prior to departure that it was going to be 50 minutes delayed, and on the airport monitors it showed the same delay. I slowly made my way to the gate, got there 20 min prior to the originally scheduled departure time, the monitors still showed the delay, but they were already boarding the B boarding group. The plane took off pretty much on time, and was no more than 2/3 full. As I had a boarding pass in the high Cs, I am pretty sure a whole lot of people missed the plane and had to wait until the next day. Go figure... Lesson: Show up on time, just in case.

I think a more likely scenario might be what if the flight was significantly delayed to the point where not traveling or other traveling via non WN means makes more sense once past the 10 minute rule mark. Would they hold you to the rule? My GUESS is yes from an IT perspective that could be manually overriden by appealing to the right department. Just a guess.

What you're saying doesn't make any sense. Southwest does not make the entire plane check in at the gate desk to see who is there. There is no T-10 if the plane never started boarding. If they have boarded and THEN it is delayed, but the door is still open, you're likely OK as long as there isn't a standby list. If there is a standby list that hasn't been cleared yet, your seat will be given away.

If you show up within 2 hours, delay or not, would not the flat tire rule take effect? You might not get TTF's back but you should get where you are going.

Likely past T-10 of the original departure time, things are locked in from an IT perspective that has to be undone. I once tried to do something (change or check-in) for a flight that was well delayed but within an hour of its original departure time and had to get manual help to get going.

No it's a turn and burn to get it back closer to schedule anyone not at gate probably isn't getting on. Don't trust any source on a delay. Aircraft swaps or crew changes can put a delayed flight back on time or reduce delay. IMO They eliminated the text message status because of this.

Announced delay and final time often are in conflict with each other. BUT....

You have to be there when they board. If they are not boarding, then you do not have to be there.

NOBODY comes around to check if you in the gate area - right?

The first time they deal with you is when you walk up and present your boarding pass.

No, they can post it and technically depart and board earlier. I grabbed a bite to eat in MDW a few weeks ago and had a 2+ hr delay and as I was paying, I checked the status and it was boarding. It left about 1 hr earlier. They swapped equipment and were on our way

The first time they deal with you is when you check in at T-24

Regarding what, in particular? The 100% penalty for WGA no-shows, or something else?

Pretty sure there is something on southwest.com (pre-100% penalty) that says delays are ignored regarding the requirement to show up on time.

I've had Southwest tell me a flight is delayed in the app or in an email, and then it ultimately departed on time. I remember thinking how screwed people would've been if they expected the later departure time. You can do whatever you want at your own risk but, with flights, I play it safe and know that I will have to wait around a bit.

Yup - I was one of those people a couple of months ago.

Received a text message at 4:40 PM advising my 8:40 PM flight now departs at 10:05 PM and another text at 6:15 PM advising it now departs at 8:40 PM.