Anyone else get screwed by Southwest this week?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/2016/07/22/southwest-airlines-flight-woes-cascade-into-friday/87430038/

Southwest had some major computer issues on Wednesday. Starting Wednesday night and all day Thursday there were hundreds of cancellations and delays.

They said they got it fixed yesterday, so I thought I was safe for my flight this morning.

Nope. Wake up at 4:45 and see I have a text message saying my flight is canceled. Boooo.

I call the number the text message tells me to call, and I wait on hold....

FOR THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

Finally, as I'm making breakfast someone answers. The earliest they can fly me out is Sunday evening on a connecting flight.

F#*$ that, I say. Let's do next weekend. Thankfully my nonstop flights from DTW were available for next Thursday outbound and next Monday inbound. So my vacation got pushed back a week. Too bad I wanted to be there today for my birthday....

He tells me to call some number to try to get a travel voucher (I have yet to try that - I fear how long that wait will be after my 3.5 hour torture session this morning).

Next step: rebooking my stay at the Aria. This sends a chill down my spine. I booked this stay ages ago to lock in some cheap rates. I KNOW prices will be way higher now. I looked on the MLife site for the rates for next weekend and they are extremely high.

So I call the Aria VIP services and explain the situation.

She says, "Hmmm.... I know next Saturday, the 30th, we're sold out."

Dun dun dun.

Thankfully, she says she will take care of me and override it. AND she will just transfer the rates I booked ages ago to next weekend, so I will be paying what I would have this weekend. Wow. I was impressed. I told her I was expecting this call to be much more painful. She said they had received a notice describing what was going on with Southwest so they understood what was going on.

So I woke up this morning expecting to go to Vegas on my birthday, now I have to wait another six days.

Moral of the story:

Southwest - get your S#*& together.
Aria - thanks for the great customer service.

 

Sorry about your flight but really nice to hear that Aria took care of you.

 

Yeah. bummer about the flights, but hopefully it'll all work out.

 

Sorry for the delay. Thanks for the positive customer reviews. Many times people don't take the time to share positive events. Kudos to you.

 

15 hours at LAS on Wednesday. Was supposed to leave after a great week in Vegas. They could not get me back to Pensacola until Saturday at the earliest so I got a ticket from Delta for over $400. I'm home now but still waiting for my checked bag from Southwest.

Lessons learned. I'm done with Southwest and more importantly I'll never, ever check a bag again.

 

Computer crap happens, as does bad weather, etc....
Gotta go with the flow....

 

That is awesome that Aria took care of you, that could of been a lot worse.

 

Really sucks, but.....
It has happened to a few other major airlines as well.

You had a double $hitstorm in that it all happened between checking your bag and getting on the plane. Most people just stood in line and got nowhere, or as in an earlier poster, never even checked in.

I am a million miler with Delta, but we still do SW when the flights work out. We actually flew with them on Tuesday night. Maybe I should not have spilled that beer on their computers.

 

I wouldn't drop SWA over a computer glitch--that can happen to anyone. If it starts happening regularly, then drop 'em!
We used to fly United; but after 3 different flights being canceled out of Lincoln over the course of a year, we were done. I will fly them--just not out of Lincoln.
SWA has my ticket--companion pass was brilliant. Trying to find a way to get THAT again!
Free checked bags...I can rebook at anytime & get credit if there is a price drop...if I use points it is FULLY REFUNDABLE right up until flight time. And when DD had a $400 credit that expired (you have one year from the time you fly), we were able to extend the credit 6 more months for $75 fee. NO other airline gives you those kinds of perks!
Glad things worked out with Aria--that is awesome.
We fly SWA Weds. Hoping the wave of rebookings doesn't affect us; guessing the plane will be FULL.

 

I'm flying SW for the first time this December. Have been loyal to JetBlue for over 14 years

SW rebook dropped the r/t price to $279. JetBlue was over $700 with no nonstop on Saturday morning.

Hoping for the best.

 

What happens if you had reserved show tickets, would they work with u for a different date?

 

I was leaving Vegas Thursday morning. Fortunately, my flight got out only a few minutes late. But the airport was chaos. I lot of people I overhead talked about spending the night in the airport. By Thursday it seemed like the main problem was primarily that Southwest's pilots and crews were scattered to the wind in the wrong locations and that was screwing up a lot of the flights. Seems like everything is back on track now. I hope so. I have another flight with them Thursday

 

I had that happen once at Venetian and they changed my tickets to another performance with no problem.

 

Sorry about the delay but glad that Aria took care of you. Have fun next weekend.

 

Yes. My first outbound flight was over an hour late departing, but I never got on it. My conecting flight to Las Vegas was cancelled.

The real reason to write in here is to publicly thank the Golden Nugget. I called to cancel my stay and mentioned that it was due to Southwest's problems. The reservation agent (Monique) was sympathetic and asked for the flight numbers. After providing them, I was put on hold for a couple of minutes. When she came back, it was to tell me that my deposit for the first night would be refunded, even though I'd missed the hotel's deadline to cancel. She said it wasn't my fault, and there's no way the hotel'd charge me.

Thank you Golden Nugget.

 

Actually, I had booked a show ticket at the Mirage!

I called to cancel and they refunded what I paid, except the $10 "service fee" which was nonrefundable.

 

Happy Birthday. I was reading the reviews on SW/Facebook. I was shocked at all the people writing about their minors flying solo and no one taking care of them. That would freak me out.
I hope they get it fixed soon, as of last night there were still lots of issues.

 

Happy Birthday! I'm sorry about your hassles, but I know you will have even more fun with the anticipation of the upcoming trip!

 

You didn't get screwed. You were highly, highly inconvenienced. Southwest didn't swindle you.

 

You should be fine. If SWA has these issues by Dec., then there are MAJOR problems.