Getting the worst rebooking options due to schedule change
 

We all understand that the pandemic has caused airlines to shrink their schedules, but I've got to wonder why Southwest, even pre-pandemic, cannot program its computers to assign those passengers with schedule changes the best alternate flights rather than the worst. A 7 hour trip should not turn into an 11 hour trip when a 9 hour trip (leaving close to the time of the original flight ) is still on the schedule and available for booking. As I said, I had this problem even before anyone ever heard of coronavirus.

Just DM the WN Twitter team with your request for a different flight. Prob will take less time than you spent posting here.

The quick option is to just login and make the change yourself. Yea, sometimes you have to contact them - but I have had VERY good luck just logging in.

Couldn't find a great thread for my specific question, but... is it possible to make a change to the destination after a disruptive schedule change? For example, can I change ATL-LGB to ATL-LAX? It doesn't appear to allow this online. I will call if there is some chance for success.

Twitter team didn't respond to my DM after 24 hours. Called and fifteen minutes later had the changes I wanted from MIA to FLL

yes definitely possible, they are considered co-terminals. I once changed from LAX to SNA.

Yes the phone agents will do it.

I had a similar experience. Had a 7:10 pm nonstop flight that was changed to 10:50 pm departure. Rebooked myself online to the 6:55 pm nonstop. The system thinks I won’t be able to arrive for a flight 15 minutes earlier?

I have had two changes where the best alternative flight was only 5 minutes later, but the replacement flight booked by WN's system was 2+ hours later.

It's a bit of a hassle to rebook when there is a companion pass booking associated with the reservation, but can be done on-line with a bit of patience.

The answer swa victor? Has provided is the system typically books you on the flight with the most availability to make sure everyone is accomodated iirc.

American Airlines would do this also all the time.

I don't think this complaint is limited to WN. We had a UA cancellation last year and the online system would only allow us to switch from a 10am nonstop to a redeye connection that left at midnight routing SFO-IAH-xxx. The solution in all these cases is to call the airline (admittedly this makes us angry when the wait time is 1+ hour to fix a problem created by the airline) and use the hold time to research potentially better options.

I gather airline IT systems are programmed with certain variables. For example if flights are available within 2 hours earlier of original ETD it would select those flights, otherwise go to the next available nonstop flight or perhaps a connection that arrives before the next nonstop. Unfortunately the IT is not smart enough to figure out that some people do not want a 6am departure, or a redeye connection, or would rather leave a day early than lose a day off their vacation or miss an event, or in most cases to permit you to select a reasonable replacement that meets your needs.

One thing we have noticed is that status matters, at least as far as the IT programming. Just before the pandemic Mrs. B received notice of a cancelled OAK-SNA flight. The WN system re-booked her for a flight 24+ hours later, which would have shaved a full day off a 2-day trip to Disneyland. However our A+ list friend (and his family) were immediately rebooked on a same-day nonstop flight to SNA, Of course all the nonstops were now sold out for 24 hours due to the cancellation.

Yes, Using the example above, I called WN and requested (instructed?!) that they rebook Mrs. B + child to a same day OAK-LAX flight which had plenty of seats. After escalating, the CSR manager agreed to an "exception" to waive the fare difference (how gracious given that the original cancellation was 100% fault of WN, not weather or ATC). Following an email to customer service, WN agreed to provide a $50 voucher as a one-time courtesy to cover the rideshare from LAX to orange county.

In my UA example, we reached a telephone CSR who agreed to change our routing to connection via LAX with a forced overnight (and also had to get a supervisor to provide an "exception" to the fare difference even though UA had cancelled the flight a month in advance of travel and the replacement was vastly inferior).