Southwest Airlines same-day standby experiences?

[barkley]

As for paying - remember when it was possible to enter through security without a ticket?

oh yeah, used to walk to the gate when dropping someone off, be waiting at the gate to pick folks up. i understand all the safety protocols these days but air travel used to be so much easier and less time consuming-i miss that.

btw-just saw that the number of flight cancellations today has topped 2200 nation wide. i don't know what the weather projections are like elsewhere but it's still going to be messy in the PNW for the next several days so my sympathies to anyone traveling.

 

[cats mom]

I looked up Alaska Airlines, which used to be free for flights to/from their "shuttle" hubs (Portland, Seattle, Anchorage, and within California), but now it's $25, then $50 for other flights. However, I'm pretty sure they'll accommodate free same-day standby if someone misses a flight but then goes to the gate or ticket counter to show that they tried. My wife and child got there right as the door was closed and they had to wait something like 4 hours for the next Oakland-Seattle flight. But that was accommodated for free, and most airlines will do that if it's an honest mistake.

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/travel-info/at-the-airport/same-day-flight-changes

Note: bolding above mine.

Discount airlines being an exception. Some of them offer little to no accommodation for anything and charge you extra any chance they get.

My last flight out of a small regional airport, where I had never seen more than a dozen or so people in line for security, I came around the corner to find hundreds of people in a line that ended up taking me approx 2 hours to clear. I definitely wasn't the only person in that unusually long line to miss my flight.
I went to the Allegiant desk and paid a $75 change fee (more than the original cost of my ticket) to get on a later flight, as did a few other people. But another group of people banded together, asked for a supervisor, and demanded accommodation due to the unusual circumstances. I'm sure they were hoping there would be strength in numbers, but they got nowhere. No sympathy or accommodation at all from the folks at Allegiant.

 

[JLemaire7]

btw-just saw that the number of flight cancellations today has topped 2200 nation wide. i don't know what the weather projections are like elsewhere but it's still going to be messy in the PNW for the next several days so my sympathies to anyone traveling.

We are in the PNW and were supposed to fly to see family in Los Angeles tonight. Our flight was canceled due to the ice. We were notified early this morning and were able to rebook quickly for Saturday. Our area is supposed to warm up significantly tomorrow so it's just this short duration event tonight that had poor timing for travel. It will be a short visit but glad we were able to salvage part of the weekend.

 

[barkley]

We are in the PNW and were supposed to fly to see family in Los Angeles tonight. Our flight was canceled due to the ice. We were notified early this morning and were able to rebook quickly for Saturday. Our area is supposed to warm up significantly tomorrow so it's just this short duration event tonight that had poor timing for travel. It will be a short visit but glad we were able to salvage part of the weekend.

it's 2 degrees where i am right now. snow is supposed to start up again overnight to dump several more inches. i'm looking forward to getting above freezing by beginning of next week. fingers crossed for your flight!

 

[bcla]

oh yeah, used to walk to the gate when dropping someone off, be waiting at the gate to pick folks up. i understand all the safety protocols these days but air travel used to be so much easier and less time consuming-i miss that.

btw-just saw that the number of flight cancellations today has topped 2200 nation wide. i don't know what the weather projections are like elsewhere but it's still going to be messy in the PNW for the next several days so my sympathies to anyone traveling.

Rules were heavily relaxed. I used to keep a small Swiss Army knife on a keychain and one time it was just "oh it's a pocket knife" and they let me through. That was a more innocent time.

I've gotten a gate pass to drop someone off before. It's really not all that hard - just have some excuse and a willing ticket agent. I'll just say my excuse has never been among those listed here, but they pretty have the discretion to give one to anyone. But once I just gave up because I forgot that I had a pocket knife in my pants and my wife was already inside and didn't really need me to help out.

https://community.southwest.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/Requesting-a-Non-Passenger-Escort-Pass/ta-p/93349

So I'm starting to get worried about it for my flight given all the travel chaos. OAK-LAX is hardly going to be subject to weather problems, but I've been there where a plane first had to get there from the east coast during really bad weather conditions. Christmas Eve 2012 was horrible.

 

[bcla]

I'm looking at today's OAK-LAX flights on Southwest and I'm kind of worried about all the delays. 4 out of 6 nonstop flights have been or are projected to be delayed more than a half hour. I'm starting to worry a bit.

But if I do get there late I suppose there is Uber. How much would surge pricing be on Christmas Day?

 

[sam_gordon]

I'm looking at today's OAK-LAX flights on Southwest and I'm kind of worried about all the delays. 4 out of 6 nonstop flights have been or are projected to be delayed more than a half hour. I'm starting to worry a bit.

But if I do get there late I suppose there is Uber. How much would surge pricing be on Christmas Day?

Wasn't there a storm that went though part of the country today? I think that's supposed to be gone by Sunday.

I wonder if there's fewer Uber/Lyft drivers working on Christmas day (they set their own schedule, don't they?).

 

[barkley]

I'm looking at today's OAK-LAX flights on Southwest and I'm kind of worried about all the delays. 4 out of 6 nonstop flights have been or are projected to be delayed more than a half hour. I'm starting to worry a bit.

But if I do get there late I suppose there is Uber. How much would surge pricing be on Christmas Day?

hopefully it's not a flight that involves anything via SEA TAC b/c it's been closed down on an off with hundreds of flights cancelled today.

 

[bcla]

hopefully it's not a flight that involves anything via SEA TAC b/c it's been closed down on an off with hundreds of flights cancelled today.

That's the thing. I remember Christmas Eve 2012 I flew to Vegas from work SJC-LAS and then my wife and child went on Virgin SFO-LAS. I was supposed to be there about an hour later. But my flight was delayed less than an hour, but theirs' was delayed about 7 hours because the plane came from the east coast that was heavily snowed in.

I looked up my flight number since they usually keep it across all legs of a flight. That flight is originating in Honolulu, so hopefully they don't have a sudden snowstorm in Hawaii.

 

[bcla]

Wasn't there a storm that went though part of the country today? I think that's supposed to be gone by Sunday.

I wonder if there's fewer Uber/Lyft drivers working on Christmas day (they set their own schedule, don't they?).

While it's cold for California, the weather is OK right now. But who knows if a plane is arriving from the PNW or the midwest. All I know is that I verified the first leg of my flight is from Honolulu so I'm feeling a little bit better about it. Unless somehow the plane is supposed to arrive from (let's say) Seattle the night before.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

While it's cold for California, the weather is OK right now. But who knows if a plane is arriving from the PNW or the midwest. All I know is that I verified the first leg of my flight is from Honolulu so I'm feeling a little bit better about it. Unless somehow the plane is supposed to arrive from (let's say) Seattle the night before.

you can track the plane on flightaware.

 

[nalabear]

If your flight is delayed more than 30minutes they will change without charge regardless of status/cheap fare.

Otherwise, WGA needs to pay the difference. They started enforcing that rule about mid-year - at least on the west coast.

 

[EACarlson]

I looked up my flight number since they usually keep it across all legs of a flight. That flight is originating in Honolulu, so hopefully they don't have a sudden snowstorm in Hawaii.

Go to flight aware, put in your flight number, find the right segment and you can backtrack where the plane is coming from. I'd be a little surprised if SW had an ETOPS certified airframe running OAK-LAX unless the next segment was LAX-Hawaii, they don't have enough of them to use them on inland routes.

 

[bcla]

Go to flight aware, put in your flight number, find the right segment and you can backtrack where the plane is coming from. I'd be a little surprised if SW had an ETOPS certified airframe running OAK-LAX unless the next segment was LAX-Hawaii, they don't have enough of them to use them on inland routes.

I entered my flight number on Google, and they specifically listed the legs of the flight. And the plane is a MAX 8. I'm not concerned. But I'll probably monitor it day of.

 

[bcla]

This is starting to worry me, but I guess I'll see what it's like in a couple of days. Plus I have no idea where the equipment was supposed to come from.

https://www.southwest.com/air/fligh...X&flightNumber=700&originationAirportCode=OAK​

FLIGHT​

700

SCHEDULED AIRCRAFT​

Boeing 737-800Subject to change

CANCELED​

Gate: N/A

SCHEDULED​

7:35PM

OAK​

Oakland, CA​

​

CANCELED​

Gate: N/A

SCHEDULED​

9:00PM

LAX​

Los Angeles, CA​

Strike that. This is really bizarre. This was supposed to be how the plane continued.

https://www.southwest.com/air/fligh...S&flightNumber=700&originationAirportCode=LAX​

FLIGHT​

700

SCHEDULED AIRCRAFT​

Boeing 737-800Subject to change

ON TIME​

9:45PM
Gate: 18A

SCHEDULED​

9:45PM

LAX​

Los Angeles, CA​

​

ON TIME​

10:51PM
Gate: B14

SCHEDULED​

10:50PM

LAS​

Las Vegas, NV​

 

[sam_gordon]

How does a flight take off 30 minutes late and arrive 50 minutes late? Looking at flightaware, that flight number has only been used for that route since Wednesday.


Before that, it was used for Sacramento>Ontario.

It's hard to get a trend. You can go here: https://flightaware.com/live/findflight?origin=KOAK&destination=KLAX and set up the filters to only see SW flights between OAK and LAX. A number have been cancelled recently (everything Friday evening), and some were delayed.

 

[bcla]

How does a flight take off 30 minutes late and arrive 50 minutes late? Looking at flightaware, that flight number has only been used for that route since Wednesday.
View attachment 727114

Before that, it was used for Sacramento>Ontario.

It's hard to get a trend. You can go here: https://flightaware.com/live/findflight?origin=KOAK&destination=KLAX and set up the filters to only see SW flights between OAK and LAX. A number have been cancelled recently (everything Friday evening), and some were delayed.

I'd think that if a plane had to circle around for a while it might have to be exceptionally late. Hopefully not Die Hard 2 late.

It's hard to get a handle on all this. I get that there are cascading delays and cancellations because of the way aircraft have to actually get from one place to another. Along with rapid logistical equipment changes if needed. But once I was flying MIA-SFO and we had an issue with the plane. But Miami was a major hub so they had another plane out and ready in less than 20 minutes. However, I don't think they typically bring out new aircraft even if they have them since they need the crew. And I'm thinking that a lot of these flights get cancelled after several delays because of crew work time limits.

But again, I'm hopeful because the information for my flight says that the plane is arriving from Hawaii. Unless maybe the airport that supposed to get the plane to Hawaii is snowed in.

 

[bcla]

Go to flight aware, put in your flight number, find the right segment and you can backtrack where the plane is coming from. I'd be a little surprised if SW had an ETOPS certified airframe running OAK-LAX unless the next segment was LAX-Hawaii, they don't have enough of them to use them on inland routes.

It was flight 948 which was HNL-OAK-LAX. I was looking at the plane (a 737 MAX 8) and ETOPS was clearly marked on the front landing gear door. What cancelled the flight was that they needed a crew deadheading from different parts of the country and after nearly three hours they cancelled.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA948

I called in to the place where I’m staying and they won’t declare me a no show. I’m taking Amtrak, and I think I got the last seat available on the bus segment. I’m thinking the train should be fine. FkixBus has some pretty poor options and Greyhound is sold out.

 

[barkley]

It was flight 948 which was HNL-OAK-LAX. I was looking at the plane (a 737 MAX 8) and ETOPS was clearly marked on the front landing gear door. What cancelled the flight was that they needed a crew deadheading from different parts of the country and after nearly three hours they cancelled.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA948

I called in to the place where I’m staying and they won’t declare me a no show. I’m taking Amtrak, and I think I got the last seat available on the bus segment. I’m thinking the train should be fine. FkixBus has some pretty poor options and Greyhound is sold out.

take extra reading material, snacks, anything that will keep you occupied. we've had upwards of 12 hour delays doing amtrak (in california). at least you will be going through somewhat populated areas b/c if they get a particular crew member who is at the end of their legally allowed shift they will literally stop a train and have it sit until a replacement crew member can be brought in (there had been so many delays on one of our trips that they had gone through everyone on board w/the licensing to do some task so we sat for 2 hours while they had someone drive out to the middle of nowhere to drop a 'fresh' crew member off). keep an eye out for alternate transportation to your bus on arrival-we lost out on our rental car b/c we were so late/had no cell reception to alert them.

 

[Dan Murphy]

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/flight-cancellations-christmas-2022-winter-storm/index.html