The worst, and an example of REALLY bad communication was my flight leaving Austin that was delayed 10 minutes at a time due to weather, which added up to almost an hour. We left and then were delayed another 10 minutes at a time, circling Norfolk, Virginia waiting to approach JFK due to traffic and weather. This amounted to another hour. While between Austin and Norfolk, I asked the flight attendant if there was any way to please contact JFK and see if the last Syracuse flight would be able to wait, since it was the last flight of the evening and it’s only a 45 minute flight. There were about a dozen other people connecting from AUS-JFK-SYR.

Well, that flight attendant did not contact anyone. As we approached JFK I asked her again and she said she thinks it may have left.

A doze or so of us were stuck in the JFK terminal. No cots, pillows, blankets (air conditioning was frigid at that time of year), no offer to send us to a hotel or anything, and I was just late enough where I couldn’t get to Port Authority to get to the last Greyhound bus to Syracuse (they were not willing to help me out with the ticket or a taxi, and I did not have enough on me). I had to spend the night in the terminal while people vacuumed ALL night…all of the food places were closed.
Hungry, tired, freezing I was stuck there during their construction of their new terminal at JFK and it was awful. Next flight was about 9:50am.

Despite being angry, I do have to admit that out of all the years and miles clocked with Jetblue, that’s the only real negative experience (only slightly worse than my awful experience with Delta). Typically I’d have good luck with Jetblue and prefer their airline whenever possible.

However, I do think it is a warning to them to be careful, because when they do make mistakes it tends to be a pretty big one.

Agreed. When they flew secondary airports, and especially ones with slim to no international exposure, FIM agreements weren’t much of an issue. As they continue to expand in to larger markets it is a good question to challenge them with:

As you grow in to larger market airports, are you, Southwest Airlines, reviewing your passenger protection programs with respect to FIM acceptance in support of controllable delays at your carrier?

That doesn’t mean it was as easy as it could have been, but Southwest has always stayed away from the complexity of those types of settlement agreements. As they become more like a legacy carrier, I wonder if we’ll see them change.

I understood the joke as intended but am not sure if Southwest really has an understanding on their interline exposure.

THEY see their 80% point-to-point customer base only from the data of their ticket history. What they may not capture is how many of those passengers “manual interline” to other carriers thru two separate tickets.

They ARE aware of it as it was a story line in “Airline” a while back. A Chinese couple was late from Phoenix to Los Angeles and missed their flight on China Airlines to Taipei. If I remember that episode correctly Southwest did nothing for them and, according to the contract of carriage for the ticket they bought (only to Los Angeles), they didn’t have to. They got the couple to LA, end of story.

Even “Ombudsman” from Conde Nast would advise anyone interlining manually between Southwest and another carrier would say “buyer beware.” Southwest doesn’t have to do a thing for them though it would be nice if they did.

As far as actually accommodating them on other airlines, unless Southwest paid rack rate to the other airline, the letter of the law again is the bi-lateral ticketing agreement, if any, which includes acceptance of “FIMs” or Flight Interruption Manifests. Airlines accept FIMs from each other at 75% of retail to cover operational disruptions based around Rule 240.

Without a bi-lateral agreement, the FIM isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. The other airlines won’t accept it when it hits Accounting and the Station Manager where it was written will have some serious explaining to do.

That is from my operational background at the airports. I’ve never seen Southwest send any of their cancelled or delayed customers to my airline. If they have, I’d be interested in those stories.

K

As a foot note US Air no longer flies between Las Vegas & JFK.

Verbal communication, useful verbal communication for the average passenger, is going the way of the buggy whip. Should improve the airlines’ bottom line given the lack of need for much of their airport labor forces.

Very sad, a great loss for what being human is all about. But this, I believe, is the way we’re headed with this industry.

I expect though that new autoland systems have made this a mood event for BGM.

But the calculation probably comes down to how much they have to shell out for meals etc.