Southwest changing schedules

[dleyel]

Just chiming in to "second" this. I had never had a flight moved with them before and my last few trips (since the dark times started) every time there's been a major change. Things happen but it's not an acceptable move to turn my four hour nonstop flight into an eight hour flight with a stop in it.

I find that when Southwest makes changes, they just automatically change you to the closest departure, sometimes going from a nonstop to a long layover. When they make these changes, you can change your flight within certain days and airports with no charge. Here in SoCal you can change between LAX, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Burbank and Ontario. I’ve had no issues changing to another nonstop that works out better than what they changed my flight to.

 

[Bigmace]

I traveled with 80 people (66 students, 14 chaperones). Alaska canceled the flight out of PDX, the group had to fly out of SEA/TAC. In four different flights, one day earlier. It was a huge mess.

Alaska airlines is mess. They used to be my favorite airline but I wont give them a dollar of my money now.

 

[tlovesdis]

My June SW flight from the Bay area to Denver was changed both directions. There used to be so many good options to Denver on SW (non stop) but not anymore sadly.

 

[soniam]

We are going in August.

After calming down this morning, I did some more research and found a better solution. Instead of their suggestion or the short layover flight changing planes, I found a SW flight from Austin to Long Beach that is non stop, leaves mid morning, and arrives at 11 am. After another long wait on hold have everyone on the same confirmation now, and everything is set. Looks like the drive from Long Beach airport isn't too much further than John Wayne Airport. Worth the extra 15 min or so, to not have to worry about delays and missing our connection and trying to hurry 3 kids to the next gate. So this way we still have nonstop, and arrive in plenty of time to enjoy the pool before our dinner at Goofys Kitchen to start the Disney Fun. Their other grandma is joining us also but flying in from another state

I was very leery of dealing with LAX on my own with 3 young kids by myself, and have heard the drive during the week midday can take up to 2 hours.

Here's hoping SW doesn't change this one too. They did also change my return flight also, but it was only a matter of less than 30 minutes and still non stop.

I don't blame you for going the easiest route with kiddos. We only have one, and I never flew alone with him until he was 12. I am glad that you found a good solution. Have a great trip!

 

[DizMe]

We are going in August.

After calming down this morning, I did some more research and found a better solution. Instead of their suggestion or the short layover flight changing planes, I found a SW flight from Austin to Long Beach that is non stop, leaves mid morning, and arrives at 11 am. After another long wait on hold have everyone on the same confirmation now, and everything is set. Looks like the drive from Long Beach airport isn't too much further than John Wayne Airport. Worth the extra 15 min or so, to not have to worry about delays and missing our connection and trying to hurry 3 kids to the next gate. So this way we still have nonstop, and arrive in plenty of time to enjoy the pool before our dinner at Goofys Kitchen to start the Disney Fun. Their other grandma is joining us also but flying in from another state

I was very leery of dealing with LAX on my own with 3 young kids by myself, and have heard the drive during the week midday can take up to 2 hours.

Here's hoping SW doesn't change this one too. They did also change my return flight also, but it was only a matter of less than 30 minutes and still non stop.

Glad you found a better option! LGB is great- very small and quick to get in and out. Easy trip to DLR from there too.

We love Long Beach! It's so easy and a very nice option. We often prefer it to SNA, especially when renting a car. You just walk across the street to the lot and drive away. The distance from DLR is nearly the same as from SNA.

 

[DizMe]

I find that when Southwest makes changes, they just automatically change you to the closest departure, sometimes going from a nonstop to a long layover. When they make these changes, you can change your flight within certain days and airports with no charge. Here in SoCal you can change between LAX, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Burbank and Ontario. I’ve had no issues changing to another nonstop that works out better than what they changed my flight to.

I hope this is no longer true, but when SW changed our flights and I needed to reschedule them from what they'd chosen for us, they were not allowing it do be done online as usual (and easy), but required you to call in and have an agent do it. They also disabled the option to have them call you back instead of waiting on hold. It was over an hour wait on hold for each of us. It would have been so much easier if we could have made the changes ourselves through our accounts.

 

[JohnR5101]

SW OAK to SNA we booked back in Dec for this coming May. In Feb they changed from our original 10:30 am departure to 2:00 pm departure. I really hated to lose an extra 3 1/2 hours park time so I checked on line to see if that was the only choice. There was a 12:00 flight so I changed to that. 2 hours better. I have no idea why they didn't move us to the nearest departure to our original res. So, moral is you need to be your own travel agent (do they even have those anymore?).

 

[jujubiee4]

Alaska airlines is mess. They used to be my favorite airline but I wont give them a dollar of my money now.

Alaska and jetblue were my go to airlines. After a recent harrowing experience with Jetblue
with delays and cancellations. Come to find out Alaska right there with them.

Shame this is happening.

 

[CeCe0906]

I hope this is no longer true, but when SW changed our flights and I needed to reschedule them from what they'd chosen for us, they were not allowing it do be done online as usual (and easy), but required you to call in and have an agent do it. They also disabled the option to have them call you back instead of waiting on hold. It was over an hour wait on hold for each of us. It would have been so much easier if we could have made the changes ourselves through our accounts.

I could have done it online. They had a link in the email to the rebooking/cancel page. But I had the complication of having 2 on my party on one confirmation, and 2 on another. The latter 2 were both minors so I couldn't do online. I'm not sure if I could have changed route online though. It was annoying to have to wait on hold, but the agent was very helpful. She rebooked all of us together on a single confirmation.

 

[dleyel]

I hope this is no longer true, but when SW changed our flights and I needed to reschedule them from what they'd chosen for us, they were not allowing it do be done online as usual (and easy), but required you to call in and have an agent do it. They also disabled the option to have them call you back instead of waiting on hold. It was over an hour wait on hold for each of us. It would have been so much easier if we could have made the changes ourselves through our accounts.

Oh, I’ve always been able to change online. That’s awful that you had to call and wait on hold.

 

[mel2014]

I hope this is no longer true, but when SW changed our flights and I needed to reschedule them from what they'd chosen for us, they were not allowing it do be done online as usual (and easy), but required you to call in and have an agent do it. They also disabled the option to have them call you back instead of waiting on hold. It was over an hour wait on hold for each of us. It would have been so much easier if we could have made the changes ourselves through our accounts.

This has been my experience lately as well, that if Southwest changes the flight schedule they won't let you do the free switch to a different SoCal airport online. The only way to change airports online was to do a standard change and pay the fare difference, if any.

The other thing that irritates me a bit is that we've had it work out a couple of times that the new flight was actually cheaper and it still wants to simply process it as a no-cost flight schedule change so I end up having to entirely cancel the reservation and rebook using travel funds to take advantage of the fare reduction.

 

[PaladinButters]

I find that when Southwest makes changes, they just automatically change you to the closest departure, sometimes going from a nonstop to a long layover.

We were able to change it to another nonstop but man, the time between the notification and being able to secure that was AWFUL. Full panic, pacing around the living room crying to the air about the money we wasted buying park tickets for arrival day if we can't get there then we have to contact the TA (shoutout to Dreams Unlimited) and see if we can move the whole trip because that's ridiculous but if we can't then we have to try and find another airline on short notice and ahhhhhhhhhhhh. (I may be exaggerating a little here.)

 

[bettymae1121]

I hope you all don't mind me putting on my Travel Agent hat on to provide some general advice! I work in corporate (vs. leisure) travel and I've got over two decades of experience in dealing with the airlines.

Disclaimer - The following are general airline policies, YMMV (literally) with your specific situation and airline.

Airlines typically are willing to work with you when there is a moderate to major schedule change. As many of you already noted, this includes allowing you to change your destination and/or origin airport(s) to get a more acceptable option. All of this requires that the flight(s) you want to switch to are available, if they are full or nearly full, you may not have the option to change. Having a basic economy ticket may also restrict the options you might have to switch. In any case, the bigger the change you want to make, the less likely you'll be able to do it online vs. having to call, and having multiple people on multiple reservations can also complicate matters. This isn't the airline necessarily trying to be difficult, it has a lot to do with the limitations of the system the airlines use to manage reservations and ticketing - sometimes a human just has to physically make the change.

If you need to call, trying early in the morning can mean a shorter wait, I always try calling first thing for my corporate clients. Also - if it's not super urgent - check the national weather forecast before calling. If there is a major ice storm in Texas the day you need to call, your hold time is going to be measured in hours and not minutes. It may pay to wait a day to deal with it.

One more option is that if the schedule change is big enough, you can request (and likely receive) a full refund - you are then free to turn around and book flights on a different carrier (check prices and availability on your new airline before you cancel your existing reservation though) or postpone your trip to a later time. What's considered "large enough"? That varies by airline but typically it has to be a change of departure or arrival time of at least 90 minutes (some airlines require 120 minutes or more) OR a non-stop flight has changed to a connecting flight. Also a flight going from mainline service to regional service (even if it's still a non-stop or the times didn't change much) may allow for a refund as well (example an American Airlines flight changing to American Eagle operated by Republic Airways). If your change is less severe but you still want a refund, you can ask - but it's not nearly as likely. You may not see an option for a refund online even with a big schedule change and may need to call to request one.

Even if you are willing to accept the schedule change as-is, you should still double check your seat assignments (for those airlines that provide advance seat selection). Often a change of schedule also means a change of aircraft type and that may require the airline to move everyone around a bit. Even if the only change to your flight is a flight number change or a time change a few minutes...double check your seats! While airline software does a passible job of keeping parties together (all of this is automated folks), it's not fool-proof - if the software needs to split parties up to make everyone "fit", it will. You'll have much better luck getting your group back together again if you do it a month out vs. at the gate because you never noticed they split you up at some point.

Don't rely on the airlines to notify you in a timely manner. It could take 1-2 weeks or sometimes even longer for them to email you the new info after they've changed their schedules. By then any good alternate flights could be gone, or it's harder to get your seat assignments straightened out. Don't be obsessive about it, but checking your reservation on the airline website every 1-2 weeks or so isn't a bad idea - and again even if you don't notice a time change, look at your seats to make sure they weren't changed. It's not a hard and fast rule but airlines typically change their schedules over the weekend, so checking on a Monday is a good way to go.

 

[ddwlms]

I find that when Southwest makes changes, they just automatically change you to the closest departure, sometimes going from a nonstop to a long layover. When they make these changes, you can change your flight within certain days and airports with no charge. Here in SoCal you can change between LAX, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Burbank and Ontario. I’ve had no issues changing to another nonstop that works out better than what they changed my flight to.

If you want to change airports, do you need to talk to a human? I know that in the past, I've changed airports, after they made a change, and I was able to to it on line. But this time I either can't change airports (just times) or I'm missing a step.

 

[dleyel]

If you want to change airports, do you need to talk to a human? I know that in the past, I've changed airports, after they made a change, and I was able to to it on line. But this time I either can't change airports (just times) or I'm missing a step.

I don’t know. I changed airports in February for a March trip after Southwest changed my flight from Santa Ana to Charleston such that I actually couldn’t make the connection. I strangely never received an email. I just canceled and rebooked as it was actually a little less going out of Ontario. I’m just glad I noticed the change in time to book a new flight that worked for me.

 

[gelatoni fan]

If you want to change airports, do you need to talk to a human? I know that in the past, I've changed airports, after they made a change, and I was able to to it on line. But this time I either can't change airports (just times) or I'm missing a step.

It's possible to change airports online with Southwest but if you purchased a cheap fare, they may not show you the full inventory of other airports. Each airport has select nearby airports that you are allowed to change to so it is possible to change from SNA to LGB. Sometimes, mass refreshing the page can get a flight to show up as they will try prioritize putting you onto flights that are better for them (ex. empty flights they won't sell) which is not always better for you.