Post all SW questions concerns, etc. here...

[focusondisney]

I hope if any of you get a survey on the DW website, you’ll fill it out with your thoughts on all these changes

 

[dez1978]

All of these changes made me think about our next trip. We have 8 people on 3 reservations bc we used a combo of points, cash and vouchers. Is there a way to link those so that if changes are made we don't end up on all different flights? I know we'd have to check in seperately, still.

 

[Gitelfor]

All of these changes made me think about our next trip. We have 8 people on 3 reservations bc we used a combo of points, cash and vouchers. Is there a way to link those so that if changes are made we don't end up on all different flights? I know we'd have to check in seperately, still.

Contact Southwest and request that they notate the associated confirmation numbers.

 

[TNKim]

All of these changes made me think about our next trip. We have 8 people on 3 reservations bc we used a combo of points, cash and vouchers. Is there a way to link those so that if changes are made we don't end up on all different flights? I know we'd have to check in seperately, still.

Last May, SW changed our flight and my Companion Pass was changed to a different flight than we were on. I had to call and actually had to change all 4 of us to a totally different flight because there was not an extra seat for the CP on the flight we had been changed to. Totally crazy because a CP cannot fly without the person who added the CP.

 

[aokeefe]

Contact Southwest and request that they notate the associated confirmation numbers.

Thank you for the suggestion to contact Southwest as I'm in a similar situation for 4/22 flight that I'm expecting to be changed anyway now.

 

[hsmamato2]

you guys are freaking me out

 

[mickeyfino]

Boy am I glad I checked this thread last night. Our mid-April PVD-MCO early morning flight was cancelled but I didn't get an email. It wouldn't let me update it online so I called SWA and spent almost an hour on hold before reaching the most helpful agent ever who rebooked our flights. We lose almost an entire day (original 5:10am flight, now 6:30pm - slim pickins for nonstops due to school vacation week in the northeast) but at least I don't need to change our resort reservations.

Does anyone know if I need to change my car rental reservation now? Original pickup time was 9am, now it's going to be 10pm. I booked at $700 for the week and now the rates are up to $850 ugh. I did input my original flight info on the reservation but I'm worried the time difference is too great.

Thanks and good luck to everyone, this is so nerve wrecking!

 

[leeniewdw]

I'd be leery of trying to change anything online for a car rental. I would call and see if there is anything that can be done so you don't lose the car but don't change your rate.

 

[jkelly86]

Our flight on April 14th was changed last night. It's perplexing because we were on a sold-out flight on the Thursday before Easter. Southwest worked really hard to reaccomodate us, so I am still a loyal fan (even though the new flight times are less than ideal).

 

[Gitelfor]

Is there anyone whose flights were changed this time around for any month other than April?

I recall that the March and April 2022 flight schedules had some modifications last November. So, there probably are those whose flight arrangements have had involuntarily changes more than once, since originally booked.

 

[Lsdolphin]

I’m sure it is blocked for moving people to. If I was keeping the times I would have called immediately & requested to move to that flight. I have family members traveling the week before that & had their flights cancelled Sunday night. They were originally moved to a late evening connecting flight, called & most got put on the late morning nonstop. The other 2 were moved to an connecting flight at a similar time so at least they can all travel to the airport together. But the agent told them same thing, keep an eye on that nonstop & they can use their 1 request to move to it if it opens up again.

It’s crazy when you call you can Be on hold around 2 hours or more they used to offer to call you back when it was your turn but that certainly happen for me on Sunday or today. Then whilleyour on hold the available seats are disappearing and availability disappears for some flights than reappears after you have been rescheduled of course...

 

[mickeyfino]

It’s crazy when you call you can Be on hold around 2 hours or more they used to offer to call you back when it was your turn but that certainly happen for me on Sunday or today. Then whilleyour on hold the available seats are disappearing and availability disappears for some flights than reappears after you have been rescheduled of course...

Oh definitely, this was happening for me last night and omg so frustrating! I was ready to rebook for two days before our original flight, but thankfully availability opened up for the evening of our original flight just as the agent answered and she was able to grab them for me. Nail biting for sure!

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Another person flying the PVD-MCO route whose flights during April school vacation were changed. Ugh I really like the early morning nonstop (which they got rid of) and didn't rebook us on anything and then got rid of our return flight home which was a nice afternoon nonstop. They put us on the last nonstop that night which didn't get us home until almost 1am. That is just not going to work with a 2 year old. We decided to move our return flight home to Saturday and grabbed the last nonstop/flight out to PVD which actually leaves at a decent hour of 4:50. All these flights were showing 8,060pts/person so I was able to get a decent refund in points back. Now I'm just hoping we don't get pushed too far back with early bird since we're on a new flight. The points refund is the only positive in this since I had to book an extra day with our DVC points. Luckily there was a studio open at BLT that night but it's not going to be fun cramming 3 adults and a toddler in that tiny space. Hoping my WL for a 1 bedroom comes through now!

 

[aokeefe]

I'm another PVD-MCO flyer and have been monitoring the flights all day. We are flying Fri-Fri and had that early 7:05 am flight home and noticed it was now listed at 7:25 but hadn't received any notifications. I at too at least was able to change the flight on my own and get 17k in points back. We gave up on taking the last flight home; I don't like not having a home base all day. I keep monitoring to see if I can move my departure flight to the 1 lone earlier direct but if not- it is what it is and our changes didn't change too much from original flights.

 

[mickey916]

My changed flight was MCO-PVD as well on 4/10 that got moved to the 10:10 pm flight...I'm obsessively checking my flight down on 3/31 but so far no change there...also May flights still seem intact.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

I think I beat the crowd with getting my flights adjusted after they were changed. Now I'm looking again and most flights to/from all say unavailable for all three fares.

 

[Poohlovr]

Our 4/19 SDF-MCO flight was changed. No email but thought I should check since so many other people have flights getting changed.
Originally we were on 0600-0805 but now it's 0950-1155. Sucks that we lost 4 hrs on our arrival day.
Lots of other flights in the 0600-0630 range but with long layovers

So far our 1720 return flight is Istanbul

 

[Lsdolphin]

I think I beat the crowd with getting my flights adjusted after they were changed. Now I'm looking again and most flights to/from all say unavailable for all three fares.

yep it’s been a wild day!!!

 

[bsmcneil]

She might not have offered Family Boarding because technically it's meant for 6 and under with you having a child older than that. There are reports that kids older than 6 have boarded with Family Boarding especially when they have those younger siblings who qualify with no issues and you've already reported that you did that but that could be why the gate agent did not. I'm sure some gate agents might suggest it but they aren't under an obligation to as it goes against SWA's official policy. Their policy only speaks to 2 adults can board with a child 6 and under. I don't mean to spark a debate on that but just to say I can understand why the gate agent didn't suggest it.

I don't know that she was doing it to be less than helpful. It's also kind of hard for the gate agent to rectify a situation like had been done because it was how the tickets were purchased.

I think your mistake was just the Business Select purchase and I'm not sure what the prior comments were on that here on this thread but yeah you can't piggy back off of each other since those Boarding assignments are a main perk of it. If people could just purchase one Business Select but have others board with them you know many people would lol. What you might have been able to do was purchase Upgraded Boarding at the gate for your 5 year old had there been any spots left in the Business Select A1-A15 of course that would have been more money.

I do appreciate you coming back on here to give your experience for others to know and I do think you were quite understanding that a oops had occurred

Are you suggesting that if a family has any kid older than 6 (while also having one under 6), they're not supposed to use family boarding? Because that really doesn't seem to be the words on SW's website and it seems to be what you're saying. Nor do I quite get the two adult thing (are you suggesting that single parents wouldn't be able to use family boarding if their kids are under 6 since they reference two adults? Logically, does it quite add up to you that if family boarding is meant for families with kids under 6 that making it more complicated for those families would be beneficial to any part of the boarding process?). If anything, a single parent with a kid under 6 (even if I have one over 6) probably can use the time since kids under 6 can be hard to direct and get into the plane (and fwiw, many of the families returning and using family boarding - I paid less attention departing - seemed to only have kids over 6 instead of one in each group like I had). At no point did anyone ask about the age of kids when scanning passes (though I presume they might've all come up on the screen - maybe not) - but I can't wrap my head around what seems to be your suggestion that because I was one adult and/or had one kid over 6, I wouldn't have met the requirements for (or benefitted from) family boarding.

As you mentioned what you diagnose as my mistake, you seem to be correct - though I had specifically asked about it since I was using the CP earned through the CC as well as points. I had understood that since reservations for a minor traveling with me would be connected to my boarding pass, this would make sense (and I think I literally wrote that out far before the trip in this long thread) and somewhere along the way I got it wrong. I now know that it's a poor use of the SW card, CP, points, etc and won't make the same mistake (and hopefully others can avoid it). I mean you said something like "everyone would do this" but I spent more funds purchasing the Business Select ticket than I would've had I simply purchased EBCI for the three of us (which I couldn't figure out how to do with the CP) and this seemed like the simplest/least expensive way to do what I needed (which was have time to board with my two kids as a single parent, managing one of them - the 5 year old - for their first flight ever). Obviously, yes, I could have bought all three of us Business Select tickets, even forgoing the Companion Pass and points I had earned over the previous 6-12 months. Maybe your implication is that if you have kids, you should spend as much money as possible?

A simple acknowledgement from a gate agent, "You seem to have your hands full" would have been representative of the typical good customer service and friendliness that Southwest is known for; that didn't happen. Not unlike Guest Relations at Disney Parks (or really any customer facing job anywhere), simply acknowledging a customer's story can go a long way to helping them feel like they had a positive interaction. In my current job, I'm regularly discouraged from making a problem that occurred - even if it's absolutely clear the customer made a mistake - about the customer's fault (and instead am told to say things like, "I'm sorry this didn't go as planned - how can I help in the moment?"). But, it's a stressful job (the gate agent), it's 5:30am, and I recognize she may not have had a ton of time to think on her feet to say anything like, "Yeah, this really does stink for you because you had an expectation and it's not being met, regardless of how we got there." At that point, it's not about "rectifying" a situation (this is where I often think people on the boards go wrong with expecting Disney to offer "pixie dust") so much as a positive interaction with another human (or, at the absolute least, not a negative interaction which is what I had). And if that's asking too much, then I do think it makes sense that I don't go out of my way to give them business (which I've been doing since just before covid). It's not a slight against the person or company - just an honest to god consideration of what they say at the end of each flight ("we realize you have a choice as to who you fly").

 

[KayW]

My 4/16 nonstop flight out of BDL was completely cancelled and I did not receive an email. Thank God I saw a post on Facebook and checked. Was able to get the last seats on the other nonstop that AM. Now I get an email that my return flight has changed from nonstop to a stop in Baltimore. Waiting on DH to decide if we should add a day to get a nonstop the next day or just take the one we have. Glad I took today off!!