A place to discuss all things Southwest Airlines. Please read Sub-Reddit rules before posting. Not an official SWA forum.
So yesterday my flight was originally at 5:50 PM out of BDL, delayed until 6:20. We get on the plane, sit on the runway, taxi back- mechanical issues, now it’s 8pm. We get off the plane. They tell us another plane is coming from Baltimore and we will depart at 12am. Seriously? Ok eventually we depart right about 12:50AM. So about 9 hours of airport fun.
This experience was ridiculous in that we flew from BDL to MCO. BDL literally had nothing open past 9PM, so there was nothing to eat.
We get off the plane at 3:30 AM. So fuck my rental reservation, in which I had to cancel and still don’t know if I’ll be reimbursed that $200. I was supposed to be touched down by 840 PM. Picking up my rental and going to my hotel in Daytona. But instead at 330 am, I had to wait until 5am until the rental place opened. Drive to Daytona. I went to sleep at 715am.
Needless to say the amount of money, energy, and time spent on this pisses me off. And to have them give us 100 voucher, seriously?
I’m wondering if anyone has had luck with getting more than that after something like this. I had JetBlue give me a 500 credit (cost of flight) without even asking for a similar inconvenience.
Sort by:
Top
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
Check their delay policy. Each airline specifies what they will give in case of delays based on the amount of delay. You can apply for reimbursements for costs incurred due to the delay. You can find the process on the same link.
It would be also be worthwhile to see if you can claim money through your credit card’s travel insurance (if any). If you used one, based on the credit you might be able to get back the cancellation/lost amount ($200) on the rental, money spent on meals while waiting etc and also a fixed amount for the delay.
This link has a bit of explanation, with a button to request reimbursement.
(https://support.southwest.com/helpcenter/s/article/delayed-or-canceled-flight)
As someone who works at BDL (not for WN) I feel your pain with nothing open past 9. Heck by 7 most places are closing up. It’s ridiculous.
i was delayed in ontario (california not canada) once for like 4 hours. plane left at 9 pm & literally everything closed at 5 pm. i get you’re a small airport & we were the only flight left to depart but i was starving & we had gone down & back from sacramento in one day so i was exhausted lol. had to get coffee from one of those gas station dispenser things built in to the wall
Also, if you provided your flight # to the car rental place, you should be good.
Welcome to post COVID air travel.
I guess it just depends on who you talk to. I got more than that for them failing to let me know about a delay (much less than 7hrs).
Anecdotally you'll get more on the phone than online
I got 150 for a 3 hour delay that wasn’t even their fault 😭
I got $200 for a recent 5 hour delay. It came automatically via e-mail the following day.
And, yes, JetBlue seems much more generous.
I used to get $100 for 1hr delays and anything over that was $150 or even $200 if it was bad. I think they’ve tightened up reimbursements lately. I used to submit requests and easily get money but now they require like 3hrs minimum
$100 seems low for something like this. I would contact them again. I’ve gotten $250 for similar situations.
I got delayed last week out of HOU for nearly 7 hours due to weather and was pleasantly surprised by the $100 voucher that came automatically Not their fault lightning struck and damaged the runway- what is there to do yell at them for nature? 🙃
Do you have travel insurance? Or did you use a card with travel insurance benefits?
I have a SW Rapid Rewards Visa, there is not standard travel insurance but some coverage when using the card. I did use it for everything related to this trip.
There’s several SW cards so you’d need to read the benefits related to yours. I have a 3rd party annual travel insurance policy that we buy for medical benefits outside the country, but in this case the travel delay benefits would have kicked in.
Most car rentals allow you 24 hours grace period to get your car
WHAT?🤣 This is absolutely not true, I don’t know where you got this from.
When I got delayed over night budget told me not to worry they allow a 24 hour pickup extension. They thanked me for calling but said not to worry they honor reservations. Same with Avis. But hey go ahead and downvote me lol
Expect $200 loss in auto rental could have been through a pre-pay deal. That has been my experience when car rental quotes have been high
I went with Routes, through economybooking.com lol…what a joke. I have always used the bigger names but figured I would give it a shot. 🤣 I’ll try to get my money back through economybooking.com hopefully because I booked with them again for the new rental.
That’s the reason I always book direct. I get saving money but it can be such a pain . Good luck
(A 12:50 PM departure would be a 19-hour delay, well into the next day.)
I meant 12:50Am.