I’m new to the site/forum, so apologies in advance if this is an incorrect place to post such a question (I read the FAQ and searched around a bit and didn’t find an answer)
A couple nights ago, I was on Southwest flight 2579 from PHX to SAN. It was drastically delayed from it’s original departure of 925pm to 411am (flight data)
Looking at recent history for this flight, it’s apparent that the delays ripple across the 2579’s scheduled stops from Raleigh through to San Diego.
The strange data I’m seeing is near the top of the history list, there is a flight for THIS MORNING (Jul 12) that is scheduled to leave at 334am, even though last night’s flight already made it (late arrival at 1159pm).
This July 12 data point is suspiciously identical to the proposed data for the early morning flight I was on Jul 11 (where the scheduled departure time was changed from it’s original 925pm to 334am - strange how the scheduled time changes instead of the actual when there’s a delay like this). Is this a bogus data point somehow caused by what happened a couple days ago?
I think on your flight they accidentally filed a plan for 7/12 thinking a day ahead when it was already 7/11 (overnight of 7/10-7/11). That flight never happened and will eventually be kicked out of the system.
Looks like they were behind the curve from the start on your flight that day. How did they notify you or handle things?
Thanks for the info. Your answer makes sense - does that mean they filed another flight plan for the “real” flight that I was on?
Funny you should ask - they actually did NOT notify us or handle it in any way. I got off my previous flight, in a hurry to get to this connector and saw a 225am scheduled departure. Thinking it was a typo, hurried to gate only to find the gate agent fielding a ton of questions from about 30 passengers. Basically saying nothing they could do about it and we’ll all just sit and wait. Had I known ahead of time, I probably would have jumped an earlier flight.
The 225am estimate became 335am, then we boarded and closed doors about 350am. I was very surprised to hold adjacent to the active runway for about 12 minutes for unknown reasons before being cleared for takeoff. Could the PHX runway really be THAT busy at 4am?
Thanks again for the info. Love the site and just want to understand it a bit better.
(Was thinking that I should be able to lookup a given flight by tail # when flying next time to see if there might be “linked” delays like this, but have read through the FAQ and some posts finding that this is not possible. Planes switched out, next day same flight #, different tail #, etc)
The airlines have automated systems to file flight plans well in advance, so they probably just filed it again for the same time as they day before. It will expire within 24 hours and be removed from the website.
This looks like the actual flight you were on. http://flightaware.com/live/flight/SWA2579/history/20070711/1111Z/KPHX/KSAN
I’m suprised they didn’t do more to accomodate you as the delay and your eventual arrival time at SAN was very late (or early in the morning). You were supposed to be there at 10:25pm and got in at 5:00am the next day. At least you weren’t stuck on the plane the whole time but still I wouldn’t be very happy! I suggest you write them a nice letter.
