In the last two weeks our daughter has flown solo on two different trips, and despite having flown dozens of times in her life she is still a teenager and isn’t a huge fan of traveling alone. For her return home last Thursday, she was flying from Raleigh/Durham (RDU), North Carolina back to St Louis (STL) but with a connection at Chicago Midway (MDW). Unfortunately, this trip was impacted by the severe storms in the Chicago area, but as much as I have been critical of Southwest in the past few months, I have to give them kudos for how well they handled this situation.
Her flight left RDU on time and I think they expected the storms to be out of the area by the time they were arriving at MDW but as you can see on the flight path below, they got stuck in a holding pattern looping around northern Indiana. With the storms still blocking Chicago, they eventually had to divert to Indianapolis (IND) to wait and refuel.
Since she was on WiFi on the plane she was able to text me and let me know what was happening in real time. With it already being around 5:00pm I started looking at options for ways to get her home because, as a minor, they could not put her up in a hotel room alone if they ended up stuck in Indianapolis or Chicago. My thought process went like this:
- Were there any more connecting flights from IND to STL that would still get home that night? There are no nonstop flights in any case, but there was one option to fly back easy to Baltimore and then on to STL. Still stung from getting stuck in Baltimore earlier this month that wasn’t appealing.
- There are later nonstop flights from MDW to STL which would be preferred but would she be able to make it to MDW at all? Would the incoming planes for those later flights also be able to make it? Should I proactively book her a ticket just to hold one of the seats?
- At what point should I just start driving to IND to pick her up?
I did try to call in to the A-List line but they were clear that based on the diversion, someone would already be working on options to rebook her so they don’t go in an adjust those active reservations. This was good to know but also took away many of the options I could help with remotely.
Southwest service shines
Once they finally made it to a gate at IND, a Southwest agent came onto the plane and confirmed their game plan. They did ultimately want to take that plane to Chicago which makes sense since many of the people on the flight likely needed to end up there. There were several being rebooked or rerouted and they ran down that list. For our daughter, they called out her name and asked her to press the flight attendant call button so they could come talk to her individually, which I really appreciated. They explained that the plane would be continuing on to Chicago and that she was already rebooked on the later flight home to STL.
Around that same time I got a text message about the rebooking so I could confirm to her that everything was taken care of and she would get home that night. Now they just needed to get to Chicago. Eventually they made it after a delay for the weather and taking a less than direct route.
As expected, the delays also stacked up in Chicago and then they were waiting on a pilot, but eventually they made it to STL that night. In the end, the delay was about 5 hours, so all things considered, wasn’t the end of the world and we greatly appreciated how they handled the communication.
Our final surprise came two days later. I received an email with a $100 LUV voucher due to the disruptions. This was a nice surprise but a surprise nonetheless because the delay was weather related and her checked bag made it on her final segment so there were no issues picking it up upon landing. Even more surprising is that this flight was booked with points, not cash. I don’t recall ever getting a LUV voucher for flights booked on points. When our connecting flight was cancelled a few weeks ago, me and my daughter got LUV vouchers but my wife, travelling on Companion Pass, did not.
TL;DR: Despite a weather-related diversion, Southwest got our daughter home last week when flying alone as a Young Traveler. They were very proactive and communicated well to make sure she understood the plan. As a parent watching this unfold from 100’s of miles away, it made me feel good that she was well taken care of.
Always good to see positive stories.