The letter I wrote the FTA

[purplenimue]

There is something VERY wrong when an airline has 3.5 days of canceled flights, and other airlines are getting flights successfully out of Portland OR.  Ergo my query that I am searching, does SWA have to get their passengers on the first flight out despite what airline that is?

Anyone with information, please come forward.  I'm searching around and

Comments

[webcowgirl]

I think all they're obliged to do is to refund you your money.

Of all airlines I bet Southwest has the worst relationship with other airlines - it would probably be very hard for them to get other airlines to take you on when SW does not reciprocate this.

Just guessing on the second half but the first bit I think is right.

[purplenimue]

You are correct, and according to Aviation Consumer Protection, you can request their endorsement of a ticket on a different carrier, but there is no federal rule requiring them to do this.

[purplenimue]

Confirmed seats. They did notify us in a timely manner that our plane was cancelled, but then had no where to put us that would get us to Albuquerque by Christmas.

[purplenimue]

Sea-Tac, but they're having similar problems. Other airlines are flying, but they're full up, and SWA won't endorse a ticket on another flight, so I'd have to pay the difference, which is a lot.

Southwest's problem at Portland

[anonymous]

As the mom of two someones flying into Portland this week and after watching gazillions of hours of reports on the subject matter, I think Southwest's problems were these: they did not have enough de-icer chemical on hand (each airline is responsible for their own supply), all other flights were sold out due to Christmas travel, and high-level Gorge winds were restricting traffic both IN and OUT to one runway.

One of my sons made it in, the other is driving in from San Diego.

Good luck with your travel.

Re: Southwest's problem at Portland

[purplenimue]

All of that is true. And apparently the company - I'm trying to find out which one - was unable to bring more de-icing fluid to SWA at pdx.

I also can't help wondering if part of the problem is not having enough de-icing machines. The SWA employee who assisted me explained it in a way that had only one machine working on a plane at a given time, so that by the time the de-icer made it around the plane, it's starting point was iced again.

When I worked at O'Hare Airport, I observed 2-4 de-icing machines working on a plane at a given time.

So, either the employee assisting me was incorrect (and this was a ticket agent not an engineer) or SWA doesn't have the quantity of de-icing machines needed to handle this kind of weather in Portland.

I'm glad your son's are making it. :)

Re: Southwest's problem at Portland

[purplenimue]

This too, is also true. According to my neighbor it's the most snow they've had in 15-20 years.