This is hearsay, but I believe any cancellations due to weather are not subject to fines and fees from the FAA, or being responsible for providing more generous compensation/accommodation for customers. So if there's any reasonable way to blame a failure on inclement weather an airline company will do so without hesitation.

You’re wrong dude.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SouthwestAirlines/comments/zw6upo/h...

How does that post in any way refute the parents point? I agree with the parent that management will try like hell to blame this on the weather- heck they already are. Just check out their press releases.

Yeah I’m a bit confused how the comment even relates to mine. I took it to mean that my assertion that laying blame on the weather for this mess is bogus and a lie. But that assumption may be wrong.

He's not wrong. Every airline will attempt to blame operational issues on non-finable causes, such as weather.

So what are the finable causes for flight cancellation?

>cancellations due to weather are not subject to fines and fees from the FAA

I thought this too, but apparently there are no federal regulations other than reimbursement for the direct costs.

"Airlines are not required to provide passengers with money or other compensation for costs that fall outside of the cancelled airline ticket and fees tied directly to the airline ticket (such as baggage fees, seat upgrades, etc.) when flights are cancelled." [1]

"Each airline has its own policies about what it will do for customers on bumped or cancelled flights. There are no federal requirements." [2]

However, there are rules around "bumping" passengers on a flight.

"An airline is required to compensate you after involuntarily bumping you from an oversold flight in certain situations. However, there are many situations where you are not entitled to compensation." [3]

[1] https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer...

[2] https://www.faa.gov/faq/what-are-policies-bumped-or-cancelle...

[3] https://www.transportation.gov/individuals/aviation-consumer...

It is likely both. Scheduling is quite easy when it goes normally. Scheduling becomes a more difficult task when more exceptions happen. That reddit post is by is some boots-on-the-ground employee, not someone who understands the algorithmic details of SWAs somewhat unique routing challenges.

It seems they do their scheduling like they do their seating... it is all Free for All

Should just text all pilots to bum-rush any plane they’re equipped to fly. Why not add the two front seats into the free for all?

You joke, but being able to swap any pilot to any plane is part of the reason their fleet is 100% 737s.

> Scheduling is quite easy when it goes normally. Scheduling becomes a more difficult task when more exceptions happen.

I think some slack/spare capacity or redundancy somewhere would make a LOT of problems less likely to happen. Running lean only works out when nothing goes wrong. I know I should not be shocked by the extent of human stupidity, but why the "business" types do not get this is bizarre to me.

And paying people more would help too.

The airline business is too competitive for labor slack. People fly spirit because it’s $5 cheaper. Any airline that incorporates slack will immediately find itself without customers. If they make it to a catastrophe it would work out, but it’s extremely unlikely that they will be on business that long.

That memo from the VP someone linked earlier seems to indicate their slack / spare capacity has already been used.