SW isn’t a viable option for me, but even if it was there is no way I’d fly with them. Their business model is severely flawed and we keep seeing it melt down over and over again. This is at least the third major multi day shut down we’ve seen from them in the last year or 2. It’s not the weather or the pandemic or staffing issues, it is their business model and that isn’t changing.
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Heartbreaking
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So. SW has so many nonstop (and cheaper) flights per day out of our home airport that we’ve used them almost exclusively. And, we usually fly on points transferred from our Chase card to SW. But, I’m currently trying to book flights for a Feb trip to MCO and thinking of using the points elsewhere. This latest SW stuff is an absolute mess and I worry about our short weekend trip being similarly affected.
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I only flew SW for years, always out of PVD or MHT (my first choice) even though I live about 10 minutes from Logan (on a Sunday morning).
I will admit that I have booked my son and his girlfriend a couple of flights with my SW points, but I stopped flying them years ago.
I can Lyft to Logan for under $20. If JetBlue cancels my flight there are usually 20+ other chances I can get on another flight, and at least 25% of those are direct flights. Add the fact that for some crazy reason JetBlue gave me a crazy amount of free points during Covid for their credit card/ I am now “all in”.
“There were 2,818 cancelations Tuesday across flights within, into or out of the United States, and 2495 of them were on Southwest”.
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Can you still add trip insurance? 
This is my top choice these days. It really isn’t much more price wise for where we fly. And I’ll pay extra to have a seat so I can be in the plane the least amount of time as possible!
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Yeah, as @QwertySC said, it’s just from the daily thread and now she’s having to drive for 15 hours to get to her daughter’s wedding.
It’s terrible that there was no alternative flight 
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Through NY.
Where parts of the Thruway are still closed
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I don’t fly enough to do any kind of comparison. But since Detroit is Delta’s main hub, it is almost always the airline with the most choices at the lowest price for us. We don’t see flights nearly as low as many here do, however…at least not for flying to MCO.
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I didn’t know that 
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I’m in the same boat as Enchanted - I booked on points, so that makes it more challenging for trip insurance.
If I have to drive 14+ hours, it will be fine. Not ideal, but fine. I would just have to make the call prior to leaving for the trip.
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That is terrible indeed. Obviously for something of that nature, I’d be hopping in the car and driving too, sucky as that is
There was no alternative flight on SW or none at all?
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This is a thing of the past where I am. Now there’s generally one, occasionally two nonstops a day in each direction and the times stink.
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I’m unsure, but I assume the latter if she decided to drive.
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My personal lifetime experience which is anecdotal of course
American - downright rude employees (at least in the DFW hub)
Delta - just okay
Southwest - used to be a a great deal with some of the cheapest flights and best on time record then I think it was another airline they bought out or something like 10 years ago and their prices skyrocketed and they’ve never been the same. I HATE the seating assignment, boarding process and by the time I pay to avoid it, it’s more expensive than the major airlines
United - aka Untied. Planes break and you get stuck. In 7 degree Chicago. At least that’s my experience. I don’t like them but I LOVED Continental whom they bought out. I was hoping they’d lean in that direction and I think they might have slightly nudged but I still don’t love em
JetBlue - loved them back in the day as well. Now not so much. Still better than others but they’ve declined
Frontier - planes got worse (they used to have TVs like JetBlue and normal seats) but I’ve never had an issue. Not as many choices
Spirit - literally zero issue flying them. My issues came with their bag drop at MCO taking forty minutes and that they kept charging me MORE for flights when I modified them even when the new flights were cheaper. I had to call multiple people and the online chat was horrid customer and I mean horrid customer service continually stating the price of the flights had changed. Yup but in my favor so I shouldn’t be getting charged when you claim to not have change fees.
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None.
It’s awful.
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So this feels like, then, there’s a whole air travel industry implosion with SW being the most visible because they’re actually cancelling stuff or else there would be seats on other carriers, wouldn’t there?
I’m not defending SW. I hate that - for me - they are still the best option where I am, I’m just thinking out loud that if it was just Southwest that was sucking folks would be able to switch streams and travel with another airline. It feels like Southwest is just the one that is sucking out loud right now.
(and I don’t mean to come across as lacking empathy. I can’t imagine the stress and heartache this is causing)
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Also, I just bought my son a flight from Dallas to Austin next week. For those that don’t know Love Field is a much friendlier airport but only SWA flies there. Yeah Jaden is coming home on American. This current thing is nuts! 80% of their flights affected and responsible for 75% of cancellations and all airlines had the same weather so that issue is BS
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I wonder if it’s a case of as Southwest was canceling flights people were picking them up on other airlines? That is exactly what happened to my daughter-in-law to be on Wednesday. We could actually watch flights becoming unavailable as we were discussing our alternative options.
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