Cade Klubnik's Parents stranded by Southwest

#2
#2
I just spent the past week in Houston with my wife’s family…her parents woke up yesterday to a text that their flight through Southwest was canceled…they luckily found a flight to Asheville and rented a car to drive home to Charleston, SC…I also heard multiple other stories directly from people stranded by Southwest cancellations as we made our way back home…talk about a piece of s*** move on their part
 
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#3
#3
What exactly is SW's issue? Why have they been hit worse than other airlines by all this weather?
 
#7
#7
Sea Ray said:
What exactly is SW's issue? Why have they been hit worse than other airlines by all this weather?
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Based on a news report this morning SW systems are old and stuck in the 1990s. Its caught up with them and caused this mess brought on by all the cancellations from last weeks weather across the country. Due to SWA system they haven't recovered while other carriers have. Wakeup call sort of speak.
 
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#8
#8
It's not a big mystery. Southwest flies more city-to-city routes in an effort to lessen cost. What that means is, they'll have a plane do something like Boston to Raleigh to New Orleans to Denver to (wherever). Whereas the biggest airlines do more to-and-from the hub flights (AA using DFW, United using IAH, Delta and Atlanta, etc.). Southwest's model is an efficiency in optimal conditions, but a deficiency when you need to reroute or re-plane passengers, and it also creates huge failure points if a city isn't operational as part of the chain. Add in the staffing shortages from seasonal outages, the outdated systems others have mentioned, and then the unprecedented cold hammering some of Southwest's quasi-hubs, and here we are.

Seriously though, it's not a mystery. Airline travel has both pushed and been driven toward efficient, lean operating approaches over the years. Dollar decline, costs up, and they hunt for efficiencies wherever they can find them. Anyway, super-lean systems or "just in time" systems are often fragile, because redundancies and backup systems are seen as a (unnecessary) cost in optimal operating environments. You could take a half-full flight all the time in the old days, but now? Full flights or the routes get closed. Southwest just got caught with its pants down. Way down.
 
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#9
#9
Sea Ray said:
What exactly is SW's issue? Why have they been hit worse than other airlines by all this weather?
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This is what is being reported. Horrible weather, over scheduling and infrastructure failure is what they are telling us. I'm not sure I'm buying. Let's say the system failures were due to a cyber attack. Do you really think Southwest or the government would let anyone know? I think not.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/southwest-airlines-service-meltdown/index.html
 
#13
#13
Tman44 said:
This is what is being reported. Horrible weather, over scheduling and infrastructure failure is what they are telling us. I'm not sure I'm buying. Let's say the system failures were due to a cyber attack. Do you really think Southwest or the government would let anyone know? I think not.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/27/business/southwest-airlines-service-meltdown/index.html
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There's no reason to suspect cyberattack. I'm sure they'd prefer to say that this is caused by hackers rather than a side effect of their business model. If you choose to boost profit by under investing in resilience and systems sometimes you're going to get burned.
 
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#19
#19
My in laws lived in Ft Lauderdale FL for years and we flew from Nashville many times on SWA to see them and we never had a issue...of course it was always in normal weather too. I remember coming back from Ft Lauderdale one time the plane stopped in Tampa to let people off and take passengers on. The wife and me just stayed in our seats because we were going on to Nashville.

We were on the ground for about 30 minutes....during that time the 2 pilots came back to the cabin with little trashcans picking up trash left in the seats or seat pockets from the passengers that deplaned. One pilot stopped across from me picking up trash and I said...What the heck are you doing? He said....you got to do what you got to do to be a no frills airline....LOL
 
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#20
#20
VolsFan-TX said:
it is a long drive, but Austin, TX to Miami, FL is not “across the country”.
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Distance from Miami to Austin
The shortest route between Miami and Austin is 1,349.31 mi (2,171.51 km) according to the route planner. The driving time is approx. 24h 38min.

Depending on the route driving across the country is 2,500 - 3,500 miles.

Neither is optimal unless you have lots of time.

The things parents do for their family/children is remarkable and should be applauded at every level.

I'm a parent and 95% of my effort is done for my family and children. The 5% set aside for myself is special as well.

Best of luck to all the families out there and those of us doing the best we can!
 
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#23
#23
OrangeTsar said:
ANY drive that begins in, crosses, or ends in Texas might as well be a cross country drive 😉. That place makes the steppes of Central Asia seem like a city park by comparison size wise
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Texas has roughly 269,000 square miles----this place is big. Tennessee has roughly 41,000 square miles
 
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