comment: >
  
  And no bag fares, which makes it so much easier to plane/deplane when people aren't messing with their bags
context: I have a friend who's flying in on the 27th (tomorrow). We thought she would be fine because the storm would have passed by then, but it seems the cascading effects of all the delays might ruin that flight, too. >
  
  Some years ago I was trapped in Chicago for a few days when the airlines were all mass-cancelling flights. I remember for two days leaving the hotel, going to O'Hare and sitting and waiting for thousands of others to see if our plane would leave that day. They just had people wait for 12+ hours waiting just in case. Then they sent us back to our hotels. At least they were then still paying for the hotels and meals because of the delays, but they do that less now a days.
  Finally, United found a seat for me on an American trip to a city about 50 miles from my original destination. I took a cab ride from one city to another... it was the weirdest travel experience I ever had. >
  
  When I worked at an airline we would tactically cancel flights. Like if there was a flight with 5 people and a flight with 200 people at the same time we are going to cancel the 5 person flight and save the 200 person flight. However when shit gets real crazy it’s time to start canceling because you will never recover if you keep pushing yesterdays problems to the next day. >
  
  Honestly assumed that global flight schedules were like…handled by AI.  flight schedules for thousands of planes in dozens of time zones Just always seemed like the kind of work a computer would do. TIL >
  
  I would be absolutely stunned if they didn’t do it that way, because that’s the kind of problem AI had been working on a couple of decades ago. 
  It’s not just the one flight with five people. The scheduling system is depending on that plane and flight crew being in Dallas by 5PM, and if they’re not there’s going to be follow on consequences. 
  I’m actually surprised there’s not an integrated system between airlines for rerouting and such. I was once on a flight out of Dallas and through persistence (I had to get home to take care of pets, because the sitter I was paying couldn’t work after that morning), and they put in a Herculean effort to re-route me through a couple of different cities to go around a storm. 
  I know I’d pay a premium on a ticket on American if I knew they had integrated with other major carriers so that passengers could avoid delays whenever possible. I’ve taken cabs between airports in DC just to avoid them. 
  I know it can’t fix all of the problems, but I’d really like there to be more adaptive systems. >
  
  AI does not exist for this. They do have a program which can minimize atc effects by delaying or moving up flights to minimize atc impact but man everything that happens is done by a person. There are purpose built tools which can help you have situational awareness but basically it’s moving up crew members to save the flight in 5 minutes and worry about the flight in 5 hours later. It’s really just a clusterfuck at times. Lol if this sounds interesting to you then airline ops is for you. It’s not for the faint of heart. Ultimately you can just make the best decision based off what info you have but sometimes you will have to delay or cancel and that has an impact on our passengers and it sucks for them but ultimately you are trying to limit the cascading effect. >
  
  I am a manager at a FAANG who runs a machine learning group, and have an entire career invested in designing such systems. This is eminently solvable, and if you’re an industry person saying that such a thing doesn’t exist, then we should probably look into doing that. >
  
  Lol decades of operations research by thousands of PhDs and you think you can turn the crank using some ML algorithm and get it to work? Such arrogance. It's a huge mixed integer linear program with a gigantic state space and so many constraints to consider that it's not solvable in any easy way. "Good enough" doesn't work when a hard constraint is violated as it might in content recommendations. >
  
  But but DaTa ScIeNCE will solve it! >
  
  Fuck I have a southwest flight tomorrow morning >
  
  No you don't. >
  
  Flight was on time already got to my destination >
  
  A happy ending after all :D >
  
  We were boarded on a flight on the 24th, and our flight was cancelled and we had to deplane because they didn't have a pilot. Our rescheduled flight (the earliest available) is on the 28th and I'm not optimistic. >
  
  Same situation with United on the 23rd. Right before boarding they tell us no pilots and then it took them 3 hours to tell us they couldn't get any (aka almost 1am)
  How the hell do you not figure that out and notify people until that close to the flight? These airlines are disgusting >
  
  Pilots may get stuck last minute somewhere else. It’s a fragile logistical operation >
  
  The pilots that landed the plane coming in couldn't go because otherwise they'd exceed the FAA hours max for the day
  And they didn't figure that out or say anything until boarding started for the last flight out that day to my destination the night before the biggest snowstorm of the year. Inexcusable >
  
  They were trying to locate reserve pilots, they don’t know until 5 minutes before you do. They’re doing their best >
  
  Nah man
  It is inexcusable to either 1) not track your pilots' hours and only realize there are no pilots when everyone is at the airport and expecting to board or 2) track the hours, know there are not pilots, and not tell anyone 
  One of those two situations happened, and neither is ok. Absolutely beyond me why you're out defending this, especially with it being something you did not experience or witness
  And to have that level of fuck up the night before a storm and two nights before Christmas Eve? Doing their best lmao
  Oop here come the big airline simps >
  
  
  The delays are worse for the crews
  
  Absolutely. I felt awful for the rest of the crew stranded because one of those two above situations, that can be avoided, happened
  
  Airlines care about money, we LOSE Butt loads of money when this happens
  
  As they should. Delays and cancellations that are the airline's fault should make them lose money. That doesn't make it any more ok
  
  Lastly “track the pilots hours”
  
  Yup, absolutely is feasible to track hours via a computer system to ensure no one goes over the max and everything on that end is covered
  And if that's not being done, congrats for identifying another problem by acting like it's impossible for airlines to track hours of their pilots
  
  What happens when we attempt to land, can’t due to weather, divert to another state?
  
  Weather and mechanical delays are par for the course and cannot be avoided. Those did not happen to me. I said nothing about those types of delays
  Cancellations because of no pilots due to 1) exceeding daily hours and/or 2) a shortage that the industry is partially to blame for can be avoided 
  And when I see the same types of avoidable delays constantly happening with some airlines (United for me), and not others, it shows they are avoidable issues >
  
  
  You didn’t address my comment about what happens when a flight diverts last minute. How do you magically make another crew and plane appear magically?
  
  That didn't happen in my situation, mate
  I don't care if you're a pilot, this was a completely avoidable cancellation. The airline apologized, accepted full responsibility, and is issuing reimbursements and refunds
  And yet you're here going around all self-important like a jackass, why? You like my Christmas plans getting ruined? You think airlines are these infallible creatures? >
  
  The ONE time I had an issue with a Southwest flight, I was able to book a flight on another airline. The issue was actually with the terminal, and the other airline flew out of the other terminal so I caught the shuttle over there and was on my way.
  I called Southwest when I got back from my trip and explained what happened.  They refunded the entire cost AND gave me $100 flight credit for a future flight.  That was about 18 years ago and I still fly Southwest exclusively when I'm flying in the US. >
  
  They’ve gone way downhill lately in terms of reliability. 3 out of last 4 trips with them outright cancelled and have not been able to get rebooked, leaving me to scramble to find last minute flights with other carriers at exorbitant rates.  No compensation other than refunds. They are operating so lean right now that any disruption has huge cascading effects.
  On top of that, they’re not even that cheap anymore. Minimum $600 round trip per seat every time I’ve looked.
  Used to be my first choice; now I will think very carefully before choosing them again. >
  
  Honestly I never understood why people take SW. Whenever I fly domestic I always check their prices and everytime in the past 5/6 years it was higher than united/Alaska/delta... Maybe it's my destinations but I just don't see the point of SW when you have to pick your seat. Alaska is my preferred airline, they're pretty cheap and give me credits whenever there are delays or cancellations >
  
  Free rescheduling or canceling flights has always been my main reason for choosing Southwest in the past.