Southwest Airlines Meltdown

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

So… SW cancelled 3000 flights on Monday and 2500 flights yesterday.  Their CEO says they’re “really sorry” and weather caused the problem… but they are the only airline having these problems.  

Now it seems they are pushing some stranded passengers out of concourses and into the ticket counters for having “cancelled tickets”.  With airport police claiming the people in concourses with cancelled flights aren’t authorized to be in the “secure area” because their flights were cancelled.

How will this help Southwest?  What the hell happened to this airline that people used to gush about?

 

[Ran]

Randomly, I saw this on Reddit yesterday which purports to explain what happened. TL;DR: Southwest's scheduling software is severely outdated and flakey, due to lack of investment in updating it, and they are basically the only carrier using something that old. A perfect storm of events led to it collapsing into complete chaos.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

3 minutes ago, Ran said:

Randomly, I saw this on Reddit yesterday which purports to explain what happened. TL;DR: Southwest's scheduling software is severely outdated and flakey, due to lack of investment in updating it, and they are basically the only carrier using something that old. A perfect storm of events led to it collapsing into complete chaos.

And they are “fixing it” by throwing passengers they haven’t gotten to the destinations they agreed to get them to outside the “secured” areas without tickets to get them back in… wow.

[Fragile Bird]

5 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

And they are “fixing it” by throwing passengers they haven’t gotten to the destinations they agreed to get them to outside the “secured” areas without tickets to get them back in… wow.

Well, it’s the holidays and they have thousands of cancelled flights and no aircraft to carry all of the passengers. They don’t know what to do and are getting bad advice.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Well, it’s the holidays and they have thousands of cancelled flights and no aircraft to carry all of the passengers. They don’t know what to do and are getting bad advice.

Who would ever fly Southwest after hearing about how they are treating their passengers?

[Fragile Bird]

Just now, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Who would ever fly Southwest after hearing about how they are treating their passengers?

Like I said, they are getting bad advice. Someone should grab their crisis team members and boot them out of the office PDQ.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

6 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Like I said, they are getting bad advice. Someone should grab their crisis team members and boot them out of the office PDQ.

Do you think SW thinks if they are unpleasant enough their stranded passengers will find other ways to their destinations?

[Argonath Diver]

I rarely fly (though I enjoy it!) and almost always have used Southwest. Was just looking at their prices for a trip in a month. Gonna pivot to one of the other budget airlines. Two of my friends were among the great many at Lambert in St Louis, herded into cordoned off with other fliers for hours on end, with no good communication. One of them said it was her single worst travelling experience of her life - and this couple are among the most well-travelled folk I know from this area. I don't think I've seen this person ever share anything negative at all on facebook before. Southwest customer service was generally sound with me, but this sounds like a total nightmare, for both the travelers and the company.

[Wade1865]

This is why I only fly Spirit Airlines. It’s just like being in a C-130 during a tactical landing. Sure, in both cases your life flashes before your eyes, but at least you’re not stranded.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Well, it's safer than the Kansas way of flying. 

They put a red cape on, wait for the next Tornado and yell: up, up and away!

They rarely land, where they want to. But that'S the true story behind the phrase: I think we're not in Kansas anymooooooore.

 

[Wade1865]

I’ve always loved the process of travel / movement. Regardless of location or means of travel -- capital cities or isolated outposts; airports or railheads -- they were always an adventure!

Of course, I’m not foolish enough to travel within a day or two of Christmas Day, especially during anticipated ‘once in a lifetime’ inclement WX events. If compelled, though, I’d accept potential disruptions as part of the risk, and enjoy them as they happen.

LUV will update their technology systems, and maybe how they orient their operational assets (daisy chain vs centralized hub); and it’ll recover. In the meantime, clever scalpers most likely profited 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 minutes ago, Wade1865 said:

Of course, I’m not foolish enough to travel within a day or two of Christmas Day, especially during anticipated ‘once in a lifetime’ inclement WX events. If compelled, though, I’d accept potential disruptions as part of the risk, and enjoy them as they happen

Southwest is the only airline having issues on anything close to this scale.

[Jace, Extat]

3 minutes ago, Wade1865 said:

I’ve always loved the process of travel / movement. Regardless of location or means of travel -- capital cities or isolated outposts; airports or railheads -- they were always an adventure!

Of course, I’m not foolish enough to travel within a day or two of Christmas Day, especially during anticipated ‘once in a lifetime’ inclement WX events. If compelled, though, I’d accept potential disruptions as part of the risk, and enjoy them as they happen.

LUV will update their technology systems, and maybe how they orient their operational assets (daisy chain vs centralized hub); and it’ll recover. In the meantime, clever scalpers most likely profited /cdn-cgi/mirage/3147f740a2a3662aaaf85ff234cb03121a827026dfcb102b5b0e28261491ae61/1280/https://asoiaf.westeros.org/uploads/emoticons/default_leer.gif

We will recall of course that it was the Tsar's transportation system finally giving it up that lead to the Feburary Revolution and, as Engles predescribed it

"... general exhaustion and the establishment of the conditions for the ultimate victory of the working class."

 

[Wade1865]

31 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Southwest is the only airline having issues on anything close to this scale.

Ser Scot A Ellison -- that’s right, which is why it was such a surprise (and an entertaining opportunity for some investors).

Worse, the airline knew their technology systems were outdated, which only aggravated their unique operational strategy. It made a huge mistake, hahaha.

[Wade1865]

Just now, Fire and Jace said:

We will recall of course that it was the Tsar's transportation system finally giving it up that lead to the Feburary Revolution and, as Engles predescribed it

"... general exhaustion and the establishment of the conditions for the ultimate victory of the working class."

 

Fire and Jace -- I’m not familiar with the Revolution but I believe that it was critical! The transportation system is the State’s cardiovascular system. And it explains why the USG seemed to have been so alarmed during the LUV fiasco.

I believe LUV’s CEO was genuinely contrite, and most likely personally devastated. I’m sure the Tsar was, too.

[Jace, Extat]

2 minutes ago, Wade1865 said:

Fire and Jace -- I’m not familiar with the Revolution but I believe that it was critical! The transportation system is the State’s cardiovascular system. And it explains why the USG seemed to have been so alarmed during the LUV fiasco.

I believe LUV’s CEO was genuinely contrite, and most likely personally devastated. I’m sure the Tsar was, too.

Moreso soon, too, we can hope eh? 

[Jace, Extat]

You know that Feburary Revolution aside, October's triumphs of the same year would not have been possible without the support of goodly and brethren-loving military men and their families. 

Just sayin' 

:One of the Majority:

 

[DMC]

Meh, used Southwest almost exclusively for about 20 years now.  Didn't fly this holiday season and obviously if I did my opinion might be very different, but generally I'll vouch for them. 

Last time I flew was Tampa to Pittsburgh in late June -- around when there was a lot of weather and everyone was cancelling flights.  When the flight got delayed, went up right to the woman at the gate and asked what were our options.  What happened was convenient for me and obviously wouldn't for others, but she immediately booked me on the next day's flight so I could just go back to my sister's place and get the fuck out of there.  Luggage was waiting the next day when I got back to Pitt.

Got probably about a half a dozen stories like that.  It's the "major" airlines that suck hard in my experience.

[Deadlines? What Deadlines?]

I'd be skeptical of "outdated software" explanation as a root cause of this. That software worked just fine at thanksgiving, the biggest traveling holiday of the year, when that same software was only ever-so-slightly less out of date. 

[Ran]

5 minutes ago, Deadlines? What Deadlines? said:

I'd be skeptical of "outdated software" explanation as a root cause of this. That software worked just fine at thanksgiving, the biggest traveling holiday of the year, when that same software was only ever-so-slightly less out of date. 

The storm causing several days worth of delays for multiple airports and hubs didn't happen in Thanksgiving, it happened now, which is what is the real issue.