PDT_FSU95 t1_j1u1s5l wrote on December 27, 2022 at 11:39 AM

The cancellations weren’t necessarily market related. They were a ‘bomb cyclone’ weather event that was literally nationwide. Between power outages and high winds and heavy icing issues, it’s probable they did it due to a safety margin policy.

It sucks being stranded at an airport at no fault of your own, it’s better than reading about planes crash landing or having mechanical failures due to weather related/preventable issues.

My two cents. Guessing whatever the circumstances specifically, I doubt it will stop people from buying LUV flights. As a carrier, they are a better low end choice than the alla carte flyers.

I’d say the odds of winning this bet are very low in the contract length. Be ready to dump as soon as it’s in the money.

Sorry you all were stranded in various airports. That’s no way to spend travel time. Good luck to you!

Current-Promotion-31 t1_j1ufeqn wrote on December 27, 2022 at 2:05 PM

Well then I guess all airlines had the same cancelation rates right? Oh southwest had more than double the next highest and aa had virtually 0? So they must all be on track today then right? No. Southwest is bullshitting about the weather to get out of some reimbursements. Best explanation I saw is most airlines operate a spoke and wheel type setup where crew is more back and forth from the same hubs but southwest operates with crew on long runs of unrelated destinations for crew. When some crew got held up for weather AND the system for scheduling went down AND they had a massive "sick out" of employees to give them the finger, it broke them in a way no other airline was broken. Not unrecoverable, but definitely unique to them.

PDT_FSU95 t1_j1uocq8 wrote on December 27, 2022 at 3:16 PM

Nah, you’re right. They do have a ‘ponzi scheme’ style of doing business with the way they send pilots and crew to anywhere really and caused their own headache by not having the means to correct for these issues.

Maybe ‘employee shell game’ is a better description?

Anyways, I replied before seeing a more in-depth article and made regarded assumptions based on the knowledge I had at the time. Oh well.

I read the average cancellation for other carriers was around 2% vs 60-70% with southwest.