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Southwest's Christmas 2022 meltdown - phones, chat shut down, RR points compensation

Southwest's Christmas 2022 meltdown - phones, chat shut down, RR points compensation

Old Dec 25, 2022, 2:45 am
  #1  
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Southwest's Christmas 2022 meltdown - phones, chat shut down, RR points compensation

This has been mentioned in other threads, but I thought it deserved its own discussion.

https://viewfromthewing.com/with-sou...ems-melt-down/
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Last edited by m907; Dec 25, 2022 at 3:06 am
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Old Dec 25, 2022, 7:45 am
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Sound and fury signifying known weaknesses. Southwest always forgiven. Lost in industry tirades.

The employee morale/loyalty thing may be a problem.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 10:53 am
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 1:22 pm
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The Top Ten shown on FlightAware as of about 2pm Herb Time, Monday December 26th 2022

All 10 (out of everything worldwide) are Originating flights (Departures) from Southwest "hubs"/focus stations/busy stations or whatever term you prefer. Obviously, numbers, stations and percentages will shift as the day winds-on.

Absolutely fascinating.

As the saying goes, you cannot make this stuff up.

It's really not so much that the entire Corporate leadership has totally lost their way, it's that it's totally "ok". As an A-List Preferred/Companion Pass Customer since there was such a thing, I'm pretty much at a loss for snark.

Thoughts are with those that are impacted.

Pardon the funky formatting, FT doesn't deal well with spaces

https://flightaware.com/live/cancelled

Code:
Cancel. Delay .
Num .%. Num .%.
201 22% 171 18% Denver Intl (KDEN)
145 21% 090 13% Harry Reid Intl (KLAS)
141 42% 052 15% Chicago Midway Intl (KMDW)
132 30% 045 10% Dallas Love Fld (KDAL)
123 20% 091 15% Phoenix Sky Harbor Intl (KPHX)
118 38% 058 18% Baltimore/Washington Intl (KBWI)
102 34% 027 09% William P Hobby (KHOU)
098 09% 211 20% Hartsfield-Jackson Intl (KATL)
093 15% 174 29% Orlando Intl (KMCO)
087 24% 057 16% Austin-Bergstrom Intl (KAUS)

Last edited by ftnoob; Dec 27, 2022 at 10:22 am Reason: Improve table readability
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 1:49 pm
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Currently FlightAware shows 2687, which is 66% (!!!), of the Southwest flights cancelled for today. I don't think I have ever seen a meltdown of similar epic proportions since 2001. Other airlines are in the single digits with cancellation percentages for today, with the exception of Spirit (16%) and Alaska (14%).
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Last edited by PHXflier; Dec 26, 2022 at 2:11 pm
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 2:07 pm
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Yea, a bit crazy. Long time loyalist but really wondering what is happening.

How long to recover?

Family n friends head to Cabo on Wednesday and normally I would tell them all will be fine. Not so sure this time.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 2:20 pm
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Originally Posted by PHXflier
Currently FlightAware shows 2687, which is 66% (!!!), of the Southwest flights cancelled for today. I don't think I have ever seen a meltdown of similar epic proportions since 2001. Other airlines are in the single digits with cancellation percentages for today, with the exception of Spirit (16%) and Alaska (14%).
I just checked, WN was at 66% (2677 flights!) cancellations and AA was at 0% (rounded - 12 actual AA cancellations) so far today. So it will be pretty hard for WN to blame this on "nationwide weather conditions affecting the entire industry" (or something similar).

I sure am glad I am done traveling for the year. I thought I would be just short of A+ and was going to have to do a quick out-and-back somewhere to get over the hurdle, but it turned out I went over 70k points and so was OK by Dec. 14. I would not have wanted to have what was going to be a quick TPA-FLL / ATL / TX / wherever half day turn become a multi-day ordeal during my vacation time, OR decide it was too risky and end up 400 miles short of A+.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 2:25 pm
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When an airline canceled 66% of its flights nationwide today, and their competition is registering cancellations in single digits, Southwest can't blame the weather.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 2:45 pm
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Originally Posted by halls120
When an airline canceled 66% of its flights nationwide today, and their competition is registering cancellations in single digits, Southwest can't blame the weather.
They'll be back up tomorrow. The last resort way to reset.

Ugly, no question.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 2:46 pm
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Whatever the root cause, it seems their IT systems are horrifically unprepared for this situation.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 2:58 pm
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How do WN road warriors continue to put up with such incompetence? WN had a similar Holiday meltdown, originating in MDW (in 2018?). The pitchforks came out, WN responded with some discounts, aggressive marketing about free bags and snacks, A-List and companion pass promotions, all was quickly forgiven. For anyone who travels for a living, I cannot understand how anyone would choose a carrier that does not have interline agreements with other carriers - full stop.
One would expect disgruntled passengers to be low hanging fruit for other carriers - skimming the higher value frequent flyer cream, leaving WN to drown a sea of low information casual travelers who still believe they are getting a deal.

One big difference: like the rest of corporate America, carriers worldwide, there is still a significant labor shortage; how long will WN staff put up with disgruntled passengers when the grass is clearly greener at the competition.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 3:08 pm
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Originally Posted by diver858
For anyone who travels for a living, I cannot understand how anyone would choose a carrier that does not have interline agreements with other carriers - full stop.
I no longer travel heavily for work, but the answer here is really simple. Southwest had many direct flights to the places I needed to go regularly from the place I lived in. No one else did. During the several years that Southwest was my primary airline, I personally experienced no major issues (nothing worse than I experienced with American or United as my primary). So given the choice of flying another airline that would require a stop for almost every flight, probably doubling (or more) my total travel time and increasing the opportunity for mishaps, or an airline that has had issues but none that ever actually caused me a problem, I didn't find it particularly hard to decide. Real impact on every single trip vs. hypothetical impact at some isolated point in the future.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 3:11 pm
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Originally Posted by Cardboard55
I no longer travel heavily for work, but the answer here is really simple. Southwest had many direct flights to the places I needed to go regularly from the place I lived in. No one else did. During the several years that Southwest was my primary airline, I personally experienced no major issues (nothing worse than I experienced with American or United as my primary). So given the choice of flying another airline that would require a stop for almost every flight, probably doubling (or more) my total travel time and increasing the opportunity for mishaps, or an airline that has had issues but none that ever actually caused me a problem, I didn't find it particularly hard to decide. Real impact on every single trip vs. hypothetical impact at some isolated point in the future.
Same…intra-CA schedules that no other carrier can match and infrequent serious disruptions IME.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 3:19 pm
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Originally Posted by smmrfld
Sameintra-CA schedules that no other carrier can match and infrequent serious disruptions IME.
Have you checked AS recently? They may not have the frequency of WN intra-California, but at least out of SAN, AS covers all of my business and leisure needs - including secondary options like MRY, SLO and STS.
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Old Dec 26, 2022, 3:20 pm
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Interline agreements would be of minimal help this week - other carriers are running FULL already and do have some cancels... but nothing bad like WN.

Just looked, they are at 65% cancelled today at of 4pm central.. and you know it is going to get worse.

Herb must be turning in his grave, and lots of current management either feel like they are in the grave or wish they were.
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