I just had a pretty tiring day flying cross-country between Boston and Seattle. On top of an already long travel day, a mechanical issue caused me to arrive over 4 hours after my original schedule. This is my story on how Irregular Operations (IRROPS) took away the first day of my trip.
A few key points
Many things can happen that delay flights. Most often, Mother Nature gets angry and limits air traffic volumes or ground planes. Perhaps the flight crew timed out and a replacement crew wasn’t available. Or maybe a mechanical issue held the plane from departure.
At a high level, IRROPS are separated into two different types: within airline control and outside of airline control. Things within airline control are things like crew scheduling issues, mechanical faults, etc. Things like weather, ATC delays, or acts of war are considered outside the airline’s control. Airlines only really compensate you for delays or cancellations within their control.
What happened?
My flight was scheduled to leave Boston at 7:05AM with a 45-minute connection in Denver and arriving in Seattle at 12:35PM. In fact, it would be the same plane that would take me onwards to Seattle. Right as boarding time rolled around, the gate agent informed us there was a mechanical issue with the plane and we would not be boarding just yet. After a few more minutes, the screens reflected an hour delay.
At that point, my connection time shrunk to basically zero. Normally, I’m not too worried about it. On hub-and-spoke airlines, the next flight out of that hub normally isn’t more than around 1.5-2 hours later. But Southwest operates point-to-point, meaning my options were much more limited. To add insult to injury, Southwest reassigned the onward flight to a different plane. There goes my guaranteed connection…
Luckily, there was a flight leaving Denver at 2PM instead of 10:40AM. So I would still be able to get to Seattle that day, albeit about 4 hours late. The agent actually offered me a route BOS-STL-AUS-SEA. That obviously wasn’t much better. Some others weren’t so lucky. But at the very least, we got to witness a gorgeous sunrise across the apron.
Other headaches
There was a group of 10 traveling to Reno today. They were going to miss their connection in Denver as well, but the next flight 4 hours later was all sold out. So the gate agents had to route them BOS-DEN-LGB–LAS–RNO. Talk about a long travel day! They would arrive in Reno about 9 hours late.
Even that was a little tight! The delays kept piling on and we didn’t leave Boston until about 9AM. Even the folks headed to RNO were once again at risk of missing their rebooked connections.
I sat next to a family that was heading up to Bozeman, MT to ski. Unfortunately their shuttle tickets up to the mountain were nonrefundable, and they were only there for the weekend. Hope they figured out something in the end!
Compensation
The most direct way to ask for IRROPS compensation is to ask the gate agent/customer service desk. Alternatively, you can email the airline’s customer support team with your details and concerns. Most likely they will just offer you some points, maybe a flight credit, and a hotel stay or meal if necessary.
If this were the EU, I would be entitled to compensation under EU 261, given my arrival was 4 hours after the initial schedule and the cause of the delay was mechanical. But the US doesn’t have any sort of law like that. Instead, Southwest gave me a future flight voucher as a gesture of goodwill.
But having the right credit cards may just cover you in IRROPS situations. One thing is the monetary compensation for delays beyond airline control. If rain cancels your flight and the airline doesn’t provide compensation, the Capital One Venture X or Chase Sapphire cards will reimburse you for actual costs incurred as a result of the delay. For me, the Venture X got me into the Capital One Lounge at DEN. I didn’t intend on reviewing this lounge this trip given my 45-minute connection, so I guess that’s a positive that came out of this!
My opinion
There’s a good reason I don’t typically fly point-to-point airlines. There isn’t anything wrong with the service and Southwest is a pretty good (slightly above average) airline. As I called out in my report, Southwest offers some good things like free checked bags and efficient boarding. However, I value flexibility and always having a solid backup plan.
When I fly American, I know my connection in DFW is flexible. In case of IRROPS I can probably get on the flight a few hours before or after the initial one. Heck, if DFW has serious weather, I’ll ask to be rerouted through CLT or PHL instead. Maybe I’ll only get to my destination an hour late. Bottom line, there’s a lot more flexibility.
Today’s delay demonstrates the issue with point-to-point routing. While more locations are served with direct flights (that’s a good thing for convenience), it doesn’t really end well when delays or cancellations happen. A 2.5 hour delay on the first flight quickly made everyone late 4, 6, or even 9 hours to their destination due to there being fewer connecting flights to the destination. This definitely played a role in Southwest’s meltdown in 2022.
Final thoughts
All in all, everything was OK. Sure, I landed in Seattle 15 hours after I woke up that morning. Am I happy about the delays? Definitely not. But I got to check out the Capital One Lounge, I got to chat with a bunch of people during the delay (the world unites in the darkest times, haha), and I still arrived the same day. It does cut my already short trip even shorter, but I guess that just means I’ll have to visit again. But my advice to you, know your options and what you deserve for compensation or accommodations.
This delay has inspired me to build out another potential section on the blog. Maybe it’ll stick 🙂