HATING SWA right now!!!!!!

[DebbieB]

I flew home from Orlando last night. Our plane was coming from Atlanta and was delayed because deicing was causing 1 to 2 hour delays. It was supposed to leave 3:15, at first delayed to 5:15. Then they came on and said they found a plane coming from Newark that we could use, so our departure was changed to 4:15. Then they had an issue with the passenger count, somehow someone got on who was supposed to be going to San Juan, he was wearing headphones and didn’t hear the announcements asking if everyone was going to Pittsburgh. How does that happen, they accepted his boarding pass? Finally left around 5:00.

Looking at Southwest’s website, there was a flight from Atlanta to San Antonio that was scheduled to arrive last night at 11:45pm. That flight was cancelled. Most likely your plane.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Looking at Southwest’s website, there was a flight from Atlanta to San Antonio that was scheduled to arrive last night at 11:45pm. That flight was cancelled. Most likely your plane.

That would make sense too. Could have just been a chain reaction with not having a plane available the next day due to a weather related issue the day before.

 

[Simba's Mom]

As far as the flight being cancelled after you checked in-we've had flights cancelled after we've gotten on the plane (and had the flight delayed about 3 times before they cancelled). But you definitely SHOULD be able to change to Austin.

 

[DebbieB]

As far as the flight being cancelled after you checked in-we've had flights cancelled after we've gotten on the plane (and had the flight delayed about 3 times before they cancelled). But you definitely SHOULD be able to change to Austin.

Assuming there are seats. Both of my flights in the past week were 100% soldout.

 

[Soarin4us]

Flightaware.com is useful for airport delays and info about where your plane is coming from. It's not SWA; midatlantic weather is snowy/icy today and tonight.

 

[writerguyfl]

It's actually more complex than just having an airplane. You also need a crew to fly that airplane. Sometimes, weather in other parts of the country can essentially "trap" crews in that location. No crew can result in a canceled flight.

Also, you have to remember that Federal regulations limit the number of hours that an airline crew can work. If weather causes delays (like in DebbieB's tale of de-icing delays in Atlanta), it's possible to have an airplane but no crew to fly it because the they hit the maximum number of hours per day that they are allowed to fly.

 

[georgina]

It is frustrating. I had that happen once when we were in Orlando in January. Got a call in the morning that our evening flight home was cancelled, and the only other non-stop was leaving at 2 in the afternoon. So we had to pack up and head to the airport instead of spending the day in the park as we were planning. Wasted day of our tickets. It happens sometimes and there is nothing to be done but vent!

 

[DebbieB]

It's actually more complex than just having an airplane. You also need a crew to fly that airplane. Sometimes, weather in other parts of the country can essentially "trap" crews in that location. No crew can result in a canceled flight.

Also, you have to remember that Federal regulations limit the number of hours that an airline crew can work. If weather causes delays (like in DebbieB's tale of de-icing delays in Atlanta), it's possible to have an airplane but no crew to fly it because the they hit the maximum number of hours per day that they are allowed to fly.

I used to travel a lot for work and this happened frequently. One time there was a mechanical problem and the pilot said if we don’t push back by xx:xx, they will time out and they will need to get a new crew. And it happened. Luckily it was at MSP, a Delta hub, so they had a crew available.

 

[Elle23]

You can look it up on SWA's website. I actually think I found the OP's flight too.

So where you would go on SWA's website is flight status (there are several ways to see that).

Once you are there you'll see one of these screens (depending on which link for Flight Status you selected):
View attachment 287807
View attachment 287808
Enter in the data and select 'Search'
You should then see something similar to this:
View attachment 287809
Select 'View flight status' and you'll see this (flight #2857 appears to be the OP's flight):
View attachment 287810
If you select the flight number itself it will open up this:
View attachment 287811
If you know the flight number you can skip a few steps and just search by flight number instead of inputting the airports of departure and arrival.

So it looks like the OP's flight originates in San Antonio. There are delays (like stops in Nashville) from both San Antonio and Austin airports in the late morning. To me it looks like they have a plane that they will plan to use in Orlando to get to Las Vegas instead of using the plane that was supposed to come from San Antonio.

Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate it!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

it sucks when this happens. Weather, mechanical issues, various delays and regulations regarding crew rest sometimes screw up flight schedules. Not just on Southwest either.

 

[rigs32]

Pro-tip: Enter your flight number on flight aware. There is an option to see where your plane is now.

When I fly, I’ll track my plane back for the whole day and monitor its status so there are no delay surprised when I get to the airport.

 

[georgina]

More than once I have gotten to the airport to find a long (2 hour-ish) delay that was changed to a shorter delay though. In recent memory this has happened on United and on SW. there were a bunch of people in a restaurant in Tampa and we all had to switch our orders to take out when SW suddenly un-delayed a flight! So even if you can see it may be delayed, you still need to get there on time.

 

[rigs32]

If you follow the flight aware tracking, it’s in real time. So if your plane isn’t to your airport, it won’t be suddenly advanced in time unless your at an airline’s hub where there are replacement planes

 

[georgina]

Well I'm sure Pittsburgh is not a United hub, but they found a plane somewhere. I had spent an hour on the phone with a United agent rerouting our entire 3 flights to Europe, including us driving to West Virginia to catch a different flight, when suddenly the flight was back at an earlier time and we had to change back to our original flights.

Likewise, I don't believe Tampa is a SW hub, but our long delayed flight suddenly got moved up. I'm just saying even if your flight is showing delayed you still have to show up on time.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Well I'm sure Pittsburgh is not a United hub, but they found a plane somewhere. I had spent an hour on the phone with a United agent rerouting our entire 3 flights to Europe, including us driving to West Virginia to catch a different flight, when suddenly the flight was back at an earlier time and we had to change back to our original flights.

Likewise, I don't believe Tampa is a SW hub, but our long delayed flight suddenly got moved up. I'm just saying even if your flight is showing delayed you still have to show up on time.

Yeah always show up for your original time-well show up however early you would as if your flight is on time.

I've had flights show delayed something like 40mins then back down to 20 mins and then back on time before. Sometimes it's just a matter of the fact that they were able to make up the time such as good weather/wind conditions, etc. A real long delay may result in a different plane made available for your flight. We had one time flying out of Baltimore when we were coming home that was delayed like 1 hr 30 mins due to weather. It was technically the last flight out that night to my home. What they ended up doing is taking a flight that was coming from Orlando and once it touched down and everyone got off using it for our flight to get home. Total delay time was only like 30mins because of that.

 

[scrapquitler]

Yeah always show up for your original time-well show up however early you would as if your flight is on time.

I've had flights show delayed something like 40mins then back down to 20 mins and then back on time before. Sometimes it's just a matter of the fact that they were able to make up the time such as good weather/wind conditions, etc. A real long delay may result in a different plane made available for your flight. We had one time flying out of Baltimore when we were coming home that was delayed like 1 hr 30 mins due to weather. It was technically the last flight out that night to my home. What they ended up doing is taking a flight that was coming from Orlando and once it touched down and everyone got off using it for our flight to get home. Total delay time was only like 30mins because of that.

This happened to us flying back to Hartford from Orlando a few day after Hurricaine Irma. We had a connection in Baltimore, and when we arrived in Baltimore, it showed our flight delayed 50 minutes. Then it was delayed 1 hour 10 minutes, then it showed delayed 30 minutes. And then it showed ON TIME. In the end, we left at the originally scheduled time, so you just really never know.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Your plane and flight crew can come from two different airports. We had a connecting SWA flight cancelled because of a terrible storm. Our plane was stuck in Austin and the crew that was suppose to fly our flight was stuck in Denver. Just because the weather in your city is fine it depends on where the flight crew and plane are coming from.