Complete SNAFU at AUS

This is unbelievable. Is this somehow normal or happen regularly at Austin?

Do other airlines pluck people out of line that are in danger of missing their flights?

Sorry, you are dealing with this. For the record, SNAFU stands for Situation Normal: All Fuked up. So this is more likely FUBAR: Fuked Up Beyond All Recognition

I had a flight out of AUS yesterday at 4 pm. Very long lines for SW, but I believe they did a very good job of getting everyone through. I also think TSA and AUS personnel did an excellent job with customer service.

I arrived at the airport 4 hours before my flight was scheduled because all the media reports I saw stated that AUS was going to see record travelers Monday-Wednesday this week. Despite the bad weather around the area and the massive number of travelers at the airport, my flight was only 6 minutes late taking off.

“I told you so” -Dads that leave the house 8 hours before departure time

Eclipse folks.

Lol pluck people out of line that would have been everyone 🤣 😂

Next time if this happens. Best bet is to go straight to security, even if you’re checking bags. You can get a boarding pass at gate, if you don’t use your phone. And you can check bags at gate.

Almost missed a flight due to long checked luggage lines but did the above and made it to my flight with minutes to spare 🤠

I work at AUS TSA. While we were certainly busy this is 1000% southwests fault and half of the problem is with the city. They were standing outside in the line telling people “southwest passengers here” half of these people didn’t even have checked bags, or needed to be checked in for their flight or boarding passes printed out. Meaning they could’ve just gone straight to TSA. But Southwest and the City of Austin airport employees were telling everyone to cue up for checked luggage at the ticket counters. Then Southwest tried turning it around on TSA, it’s our fault. They were still pitching this idea even when our cues were either empty or down to 1-2 rows, meanwhile theirs were still out the door.

Hmm, I was there at 11am yesterday (Tuesday the 9th) and while there was 200+ people in line for bag check, at least we were all inside.

> I have no idea why Southwest staff weren't going up and down the line plucking people in danger of missing their flights.

Because all the people who would be "plucked" are right there in the picture in front of you.

This was a Southwest problem, not an eclipse problem. And it was a nightmare. (I was in that line for three hours and ended up just missing my flight. Rebooked on the first available flight for me is 9 pm tomorrow.

The other airlines were not like this.

Woah man, watch out you’re posting on southwest there’s a lot of people here who will blame you for this. Should have gotten there 2 days ago. How dare you!!?!

I’m just thinking of the sunburn from hell I would have.

5 hours in the bag drop line without a single agent giving any helpful info. Hours of backups created no flights to our airport till Friday evening. We just booked a hotel for $730 for 2 nights. We are missing our sons birthday tomorrow. Thanks Southwest! We'll done.

We were in that line today. A madhouse. After 3 calls to the 800 number they finally rebooked us for tomorrow night at no charge. After a 4th call they gave us each a $200 voucher for our trouble.

They say we should get to the airport tomorrow at least 3 hours early, and we will have to stand in that same line or worse. We'll probably get there at least 4.

Oue last time in Austin we got stranded for 4 days during Southwest's Christmas 2022 meltdown. This is getting old.

WOW. Another reason why I NEVER check a bag

I never fly Southwest anymore because they no longer excel in the one thing they had going for them: logistics. We were supposed to fly to Belize during the holidays and missed our flight because of the 90 minute checked baggage line. Even if we decided to bring our luggage as carry-on luggage, we would have had to wait in the same line for international check in. Then when we were at the ticket counter and were told we could not board the flight and that the next available flight with seats wasn’t for another 3 days, we told the agent to only cancel the outbound fight because we were planning to drive to Houston to catch a flight on United to Belize, and wanted to keep our return flight on Southwest. The agent told us that was fine and that our return flight was secure. Fast forward three days when we were now in Belize and I noticed i had not yet received a refund for the outbound flight and I could not see any info for our return flight in the SW app. I called SW and the person told me the system showed we had taken the flight from Austin to Houston but were “no-shows” for the Houston to Belize flight, so all remaining flights were cancelled with no refund. Like, how do you screw up this badly? So now we had to buy more flights on United to return home from Belize, because, once again, SW fights were sold out for the next 3 days. In the end SW gave us credit for the original tickets, but once we use it up, we will never fly SW again.

Edited to add that SW was the only airline with a long check in line at the airport (in case anyone accuses us of not getting to the airport early enough during the holidays.

Oh, it was a fuggin' nightmare. I'm glad I didn't have any checked bags and could just go straight to TSA. Was insane pulling up to the terminal seeing all of that.

I respect your respect for anonymity

I thought I had it bad at Oakland 2 months ago when the line for TSA was almost to the bag drop at 5AM.

Is this check-in or luggage drop? You can check in from your phone so why stand in a line just to check-in?

Surely some people in that line had carry on size luggage, no?

Welcome to Austin, Texas! Everythings bigger in Texas, the lines and hail!

I was there. Had a flight to Oakland at 5:20 got there at about 3:30 (wanted to be there at 3 but hit traffic on the way) and there were so many people on a line with no end. I asked a worker there, she said the line to check in your bag starts outside. I got on that line and asked around. The people around me were on flights that left even before mine and everyone was just committed to the fact that they would miss their flight.

I stood on this line for well over 3 hours. I tried calling SW to rebook or get on a later standby or something but had no luck. They said everything was booked til Saturday and even that would cost $450 or something. Folks around me were having the same problems. We waited and waited. At about the 2 hr mark a woman came and asked who on this line has NOT missed their flight yet. A few people near the end raised their hands and were allowed to go to the front. We were all like wtf. She said this line is now the line of people who need to be rebooked. We asked why we weren't asked that question 2 hours ago bc some of us could have made our flights. This woman was just like I don't know I was just asked to do this now.

So we continued to wait because we didn't want to pay to rebook and usually at the counter they have more options. Finally some woman on line got through on the phone and apparently the folks at customer service were finally informed of the issue at AUS and were now rebooking on the phone for free. We all got our phones out and of course we're all put on hold. Ultimately, I was able to rebook my flight for Friday at no cost at about 7:15. I waited on line still for a little bc I thought maybe I could get a flight for Thurs if I spoke to them at the counter, or maybe I could get a hotel voucher or something, but I got too tired and hungry so I left.

Southwest could easily have sent a message to all of us in the morning or the night before as they were experiencing cancellations or delays due to the storms. They could have expedited those who were close to still catching their flights or explained to people on line what was going on. They definitely knew every flight was booked solid and it was going to be a busy few days, but they were still unprepared. No other airlines at the airport seemed to be experiencing delays. Some folks flying Spirit had to snake through the Southwest line to get to their counter. This was so poorly handled it's unbelievable. I will definitely never fly Southwest again.

If anyone is still replying to this thread. The cause of this line was from the baggage belts going down around 10am. We couldn’t check in any bags and bags weren’t dropping down to the ramp.

I was there, such a nightmare. SW knew about all of the reservations from the eclipse. The issue I heard was some SW staff went on strike and the airport was short staffed. Also (mentioned in a previous comment) a lot of delayed flights from the storm the night before. We got to the flight 4 hrs early and still missed our flight 😡

It's funny how weather and Eclipse only seem to effect Southwest....

I'm getting there 4.5 hours early tomorrow.

I stood in that line just long enough to realize it wasn't happening today.

We saw this line today, it was just outside the door when we got there and was only for Southwest. Luckily we were flying Alaska, so we had no issue. By the time we got on our plane, the line looked like this picture, it was unreal! This wasn’t just because of the eclipse, a bunch of flights were cancelled yesterday because of storms too.

A similar thing happened to me, twice, out of OAK at 5:00 AM. Not to this extent but it sucked. It’s definitely Southwest’s fault.

SWA is known for including two checked bags with every ticket. That’s where this issue stems from. Certain events, like Christmas, will see more travelers with checked bags. If Southwest had an adequate number of employees at these times to process the customers, this bottleneck at the bag drop wouldn’t exist, or it would move much faster.

The fact that it is happening repeatedly, at different airports, and we aren’t aware that Southwest is doing something about it…well that sucks. I really think this is a solvable problem.

Fly out tomorrow hope they have shit sorted.

Holy hell…carry-on for the win!

I don't usually like to fly late but I was scheduled for an 8:55 pm flight out of AUS on Tuesday. Didn't see any lines like this. I did carry-on, got through security quick and was at my gate in no time. Had a one hour delay because of the storm but no other issues. l was completely blissfully unaware of the chaos earlier in the day.

I mean you did choose to fly a budget airline that has melted down several times and has been fined by the government for its inability to operate during peak demand…

Reminds me of after spring break/sxsw. People weren’t able to check bags or return rental cars in time. I work in travel and I haven’t checked a bag in over 8years

Reason #7 why I avoid flying and nearly all cost now.

What did people expect? It to go smoothly? Hotels started getting booked back in February for these travelers, and the bad weather was known a week beforehand. If you travel out of state and know there's going to be an influx of other travelers, this shouldn't be surprising to anybody that traveled. My only regret was not renting out my place and leaving to the mountains in solitude away from everybody.

This is not normal. I fly weekly multiple times. We kind of had insane weather. And a zillion people in town. It wasn’t just a southwest issue.

My neighbor is a pilot for SWA & his flight today though Orlando was completely cancelled. Big storm system has jacked everything up.

Today is better than that photo but it's still CRAZY. 1.5hr for TSA pre check earlier.

Give yourself lots of time!!!!

It was a nightmare. I was there for 5 hours and they started letting people just walk in the door straight in front of me to the counter before I freaked out and actually got help. I ran to my plane with no shoes on from security barely making my rescheduled last flight of the evening. The misinformation was astoundingly disappointing and their miscommunication was reckless. I WILL NEVER FLY SOUTHWEST AGAIN.

Cheap isn’t good and good isn’t cheap.

It's Southwest...every other airline was somehow able to figure it out.

It was due to an airport-operated bag belt that was down per Houston Chronicle.

Just so you know, this is the airport’s fault completely! They refuse to invest in the infrastructure, especially for Southwest! They want all the money but don’t wanna spend it in the system to handle the loads. Someone’s pockets are getting stuffed….

I was in this ridiculous line. Got there over 3 hours before my flight time on 4/10. The part of the line in the photo started at the top of the hill and by an entrance, moved away from this hill to the next entrance, looped back down to the end of the hill shown in the photo, and then looped back in the direction shown until it entered the entrance farthest away at the top of the hill. We were told by workers by the outside line that extra agents were working inside to move things along once we were in the building. It was about another hour before we were in the building. There were no extra agents. The line looped back and forth upon itself inside before my friend and I finally reached the line that was looping in front of the SW counters. We stood in line for a total of 6 hours! When we rebooked for the next day, I asked the agent if things would move faster the next day. She said we could expect more of the same, so we decided to get to the airport 6 hours early for our 5:10 PM flight. The shorter line inside moved quickly and within 30 minutes we reached a bag check-in kiosk. Then we learned we could not check bags until within 4 hours of flying. Thanks a lot for not telling us this when we were rebooked! We are not frequent travelers, and while I usually read general rules, awareness of this time limit was not on our radar! So we at least found a place to sit outside on concrete ledges with our bags until we could get back in line 4 hours ahead of departure time. I had happily turned 72 years old on the day of the eclipse and enjoyed another day with family on 4/9. And then the two day nightmare for us to return to Chicago began on 4/10! No excuse for this! One broken belt could not create such havoc! I think it's pretty clear that SW goofed up somewhere else. We could have spent the extra time with family in Austin had we been forewarned! One set of rules I am now reading very carefully are Travelers Rights at Dept. Transportation website.

Thanks for reminding me why I don't fly Southwest. (Herb Kelleher is turning in his grave.)

At least Austin weather is nice this time of year. And the bluebonnets. Can’t forget the bluebonnets…

We flew out of Milwaukee on Tuesday (visiting family, eclipse just a bonus) flying to Love Field, then Hobby, then CRP. Nothing looked like this nightmare. There was just a minor delay at Love Field.

Wow, that sucks and I am sorry you and all those folks had to deal with it. Not a SNAFU though. If that was "situation normal", no one would bat an eye.

This is why I never check a bag lol

This, while rare, isn't unheard of. IIRC, it happened with one of the more recent SXSWs.

Was this for TSA or the checked bag line?

I feel for you but I’d do my best to never book during stuff like this if possible. Learned my lesson

I had this happen to me in Seattle several years back. It was a Tuesday, early afternoon flight, and the ticket counters were empty for every airline except Southwest. The line snaked all through the check-in area and a long way outside. They did, however, have employees checking on folks in line. They weren’t letting anyone cut the line if they were going to miss their flight though. The guy that we spoke with told me to go try the ridiculous line at skycap while my husband stayed in the main line. We still missed our flight. But did manage to get on standby a few hours later.

Anyone fly out of Love Field today? Dallas had a lot of eclipse watchers too (I was one of them) but I already left town Tuesday on American instead of my usual Southwest.

Why no one flew from OKC is beyond me

I thought the lightening hit the tree in front yard it was so loud. Looked outside everything was all good. Went back to sleep. Went to take the trash to the curb and it was my neighbors tree that got hit.

I was very, very lucky and am very grateful that my boyfriend flew Delta. We paid the $70 check both my bags under his name. Wouldn’t be home right now if it weren’t for my knight in shining armor.

SW canceled a New Orleans flight for me, but were decent enough to do it 36 hours ahead. That scene is BS.

Never check a bag

Huh, our 4:30pm Southwest flight from SAT today left maybe ten minutes late (and the schedule was padded, so we arrived early.) Flight was full and boarding took a while because it was from a gate that WN doesn't usually use. The bag drop line was long but not horrendous.

General TSA line was longish (~10mins) but it moved and they were proactive about getting more TSOs to the A gates checkpoint. (My gf let her Global Entry expire so she didn't have Pre-Check and I wasn't going to abandon her.) I was impressed at the workers checking in on people in line, telling us what was going on, joking around, and asking about our boarding times.

You do know what SNAFU means right? Apropos

This is Crazy. I flew out of AUS on Tuesday morning (the day before this picture) before any of the weather issues. There were maybe 12 people in front of me to check bags.

Time from arrival at the airport to waiting at the gate was maybe 34 minutes total.

I had a flight at noon and must have just missed this.

I fly out of Austin quite often and while this isn't normal it certainly isn't out of the realm of possibilities. They created that walking lane all the way out there just so they could line people up and it was there before the eclipse day...

Got a united airlines flight out at 7:30pm Friday, hopefully it's cleared up by then...

Apparently this happened in a few places nationwide yesterday - I heard similar stories from KC. Southwest have an outage of some kind?

I’m flying out of AUS on SW later this evening. Not checking a bag and have TSA pre. Any idea how long it’ll take to get through based on that?

If it’s less than 14 hours away by car, I’m driving.

Someone said they saw UFO in the airport area that is why so many police show up and block the airport.

How’s it looking today? We have a flight out at 730pm and will likely go to the airport around 3pm today. Any idea?

My gf and I are currently on a flight out of San Antonio. The line for TSA was at least five times as long as usual. We would have missed our flight if we didn't have Clear.

Because everyone in that line was in danger of missing their flight.

Wow. Glad I flew out on Monday night!!

I imagine they weren't going down the line plucking passengers in danger of missing their flight

Because once the line reaches 2 miles long everyone in it is in danger of missing their flight

I must have been one of the lucky ones. I flew Southwest out of Austin that day, but I arrived around 9am for my 1055 flight and it was a little busy at that time, but nothing like this report shows.

Just another Southworst Airline debacle . I was in this line. I even arrived early expecting more traffic. I’d been in line for about an hour when I saw that my flight was delayed. I was actually happy to hear that (never thought I’d be happy about a flight delay) until I FINALLY got to the ticket counter literally about 3 1/2 hours after that. The line snaked around inside and was LONGER than what this shows outside. No info given, everyone around me (in line of course) didn’t know why this was and what to expect. Didn’t see it happening with other airlines. Needless to say I missed my flight and the next available was two days later. So here I am, typing this in cuz I’m stuck in a hotel near the airport with not much else to do. Wish me luck, I need to get home.

Don’t ask about the Southworst Airline cluster**** over the holidays in 2022 which is when their entire system crashed. All flights were canceled and for that one I FINALLY got home five days later from AUS, I had to book w/ a different airline and pay more. No compensation from Southworst Airline.

Customer service was as useless as t**s on a bull. CEO apologized on the news, woopie!!! Words are cheap and easy. Unfortunately, I don’t have other options when I come here.

People still fly SW after all their SNAFUs the past few years?

I flew out of St. Louis on southwest after the eclipse and had zero issues