<p>Well, my son moved in this past weekend early for OA. Traveled on Friday morning with no problems, shopped at Walmart for a few hours with clothes on board. Move in was soooo easy. Pulled up Saturday 9AM, plenty of help getting things to dorm, set him up and had a great weekend including dinners at DePalma’s and Mellow Mushroom. Left son with wife in tears (ha ha) as he walked away with a few felloe Outdoor Actioners as they headed to their first meeting.</p>
<p>Getting home to Long Island Sunday afternoon to Long Island another story. Drop of rental van at BHM Airport and first flight headed to Tampa delayed which meant we would miss connection from Tampa to LI. Had to make arraingements for stayover in Tampa until the following morning. That meant no work and other arraingements for my other children we left at home. They found wife’s corkscrew for wine in carry-on and would confiscate it unless we checked in as baggage. No problem except my car keys were in bag that would take us home from MacArthur Airport on LI. I figured we would get bag when we landed in Tampa. Of course Southwest picked up hotel tab and $ 200 in vouchers for future flight. Land in Tampa and our name comes over the loudspeaker announcing that our flight that was to take us from Tampa to LI was also delayed which meant that we could get on it anyway and not stay over in Tampa overnite. Great! As we ran through airport to gate as they were waiting for us before taking off, I asked counter rep if our checked baggage would follow us on plane. I was told yes it would be on plain. Arrive in LI 11PM Sunday night and our names are announced again on loudspeaker. We certainly are popular. I knew right away that our luggage was never put on the plane even though I was told it would be. Of course that meant no car keys to get home. They had to summon a cab to take us home. Arrived home at midnight. Now have to wait until 10:30 Monday morning to drive out there to get our luggage and received another $ 50 voucher.</p>
<p>Moral to the story? I’ve invested in future flights for my son including Wednesday morning before Thanksgiving weekend and Saturday Dec. 15th. after finals for Winter Break. I have flow Southwest three times to Bama and twice had problems getting home due to delays and picking up connecting flights. </p>
<p>Have anyone else had issues with Southwest and traveling back and forth to Alabama? I’m starting to think I will never get him home for Thanksgiving a la Trains Plains and Automobiles. </p>
<p>Any feedback from fellow Northerners?</p>
<p>All in all, I love the University and have a great feeling that my son will too!</p>
<p>We fly Southwest out of Chicago and have never had a problem. I’m going to assume that the delays were weather related. If I’m correct then I must say that it’s amazing that Southwest gave you so many vouchers and paid for your hotel, very few airlines would do that today. </p>
<p>Again, Terry? Hoped your travel nightmares would have ended with Bama Bound.</p>
<p>FYI, we fly down on Sat direct to Atlanta instead of Birmingham. About the same total travel time as connecting flight to bhm, but don’t have to deal with connections. Fares were much lower too. I’ll let you know how it works out.</p>
<p>Why pack your car keys? I never pack keys or daily medication! For all the large carry ons passenger bring on the plane, the one thing I would never check in is car keys.</p>
<p>Our54, maybe you didn’t get the purpose of my post. If you read carefully, I never intended to check my carry-on into the baggage section. I intended it as a carry-on with me on the plane. The humor is that we weren’t about to give up our treasured corkscrew. When I had to go back and put the bag into cargo, I obviously forgot my keys were in the bag. By the time I realized it it was too late to get my keys from the bag along with the fact that I figured I would get the bag back when I got off in Tampa to stay overnite. I didn’t purposely put my keys in a bag to check into cargo to get lost. Thank you for your words of wisdom. I don’t know what I would do without your post. The humor was in not wanting to give up the corkscrew, get it?</p>
<p>The purpose of the post was to see if others are finding Southwest unreliable with connections to get to and fro.</p>
<p>I had S fly non-stop with Delta into LGA or HPN for thanksgiving. He wasn’t flying until late on Weds & flying to the NE can be dicey that time of year so I didn’t want to stress with a connection.
Now tomorrow I am flying home from T-town on a SW connection. I couldn’t pass up the $135 ticket. A little concerned as rain/storms always seem to be an issue this time of year in he late afternoon.</p>
<p>Unlike many other airlines and like many Low Cost Carriers, Southwest doesn’t interline baggage or tickets in the same way that legacy airlines do. Generally speaking, if you miss your connection on Southwest, you’ll need to wait for the next flight on Southwest or Air Tran. In contrast, when one flies a legacy airline and experiences an airline-caused delay, they can rebook you onto another legacy airline. For example, if you have a mechanical delay on United, they can rebook you onto United, US Airways, Delta, American, and many other airlines.</p>
<p>^ That’s really good to know. I flew Southwest down here and finally made it today, but I will never fly them again…the stress isn’t worth the money I saved.</p>
<p>We’ve flown Southwest to Birmingham from Chicago 3 times so far without incident. All but one flight were nonstop, and on time or early. I had to change 75% of those reservations once made, so I was thrilled to be on Southwest with no change fees.</p>
<p>We fly Southwest out of Chicago and they are one of our favorite carriers. We flew to BHM a couple of times without incident.
We’ll see how they do during the holidays. Have booked S on Southwest for Oct break, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Booked all non-stop flights, except for two.</p>
<p>Son has flown many flights with Southwest and happily no incidents, like lost luggage, or missed connections. They were also very accommodating about changing flights when a freak ice storm was due to hit Tuscaloosa. Managed to change flights and fly out one day sooner, making his arrival on campus right before the storm hit. Other students were not as lucky, some were stranded on the highway and others at the airport.</p>
<p>I have been really happy with southest, including any connections I have ever had to make. This past weekend is the first time we have ever had any trouble at all.</p>
<p>I love SWA. I fly with them across country once a month and rarely have delays. I have flown Delta twice in the past two weeks and had delays on all flights. I think you experienced an isolated incident.</p>
<p>I avoid layovers at all costs. I’m in the Philly area and drive to BWI for a direct flight. I can’t stand waiting around airports and the thought of a missed connection is even worse:-) I’d rather drive for the amount of time I would be waiting in the airport. Unfortunately, my daughter may have to suffer with connections when she travels unless she can find a ride back from BWI. I draw the line at driving down there to pick her up;-)</p>