How You Can Check Southwest Airlines Flight Status
It seems all my flights are more prone to being changed or canceled last minute than ever they were in the past. Part of that is just a natural impact of so many more flights being operated than there were in decades past, but some of it is a bit shorter term. The aviation industry is still recovering from grinding to an almost full stop in 2020 - it’s not easy to halt something as big as this and just get it going again overnight. Staff shortages, supply chain problems, labor disputes, and more are all making it more likely than ever that your Southwest flight status will end up being delayed or even canceled.
According to a study by Value Penguin, 22.4% of Southwest Airlines flights were delayed in the first half of 2022. Data from the Department of Transportation puts Southwest Airlines’ cancellation rate at 2.66% for the first half of 2022. That might seem like a tiny amount, and it is in the great scheme of things, but when you consider Southwest operates more than 4,000 flights per day, each one carrying 150 or so passengers, you can see that the number of people inconvenienced is going to be huge.
You can stay one step ahead of the game by being up to date on your Southwest Airlines flight status. Knowing what’s going on ahead of time can help you plan your journey better, avoiding hanging around in airports for hours or having to pay through the nose for parking when picking up a friend. Thankfully, there are plenty of very easy ways to do this.
Checking your Southwest flight status with the airline
To check a flight with Southwest, head to https://www.southwest.com/air/flight-status/ where you’ll find a convenient tool to search for upcoming or already departed flights. If you know your flight number, you can just hit that option on the tabs at the top and go straight to it.
Most of us don’t have a clue about our flight number, not without bringing up the booking confirmation anyway. For an easier way to find the flight, or to search for the flight of a friend or family member, use the departure and arrival city search boxes to track down the service. If you know the three-letter code for the airports – great – but if not, you can just type in the city and let the system do the hard work.
Unlike some other flight status tools, Southwest lets you see at a glance flights for today, yesterday, and tomorrow. That’s helpful, because depending on the length of the flight, your departure may not be on the same day as your arrival. This lets you see quickly what’s taking off on that route across multiple days.
You can check the status of the flight using the drop-down arrow on the right of the listing. Hopefully, it says, ‘on time,' meaning there are no expected delays, problems, or issues to worry about. This area also tells you more about the gate the flight is departing from, arriving to, and the airplane that is flying the route.
What else is in this post?
- Checking your Southwest flight status with the airline
- Southwest Airlines flight status is canceled or delayed
- Other useful tools to check Southwest flight status
Southwest Airlines flight status is canceled or delayed
Arriving on a page that says a flight is delayed or canceled is not a reason to panic. Often, the delay will only be a matter of minutes, so it shouldn’t disrupt your travels too much. But there is useful information on the flight status page that can help you understand what’s going on.
The red ‘delayed’ indicator makes it easy to see right away if there has been a disruption. Below that, the larger time in the bold typeface indicates the time the airline is expecting the flight to take off. Below that, is the time it was originally scheduled to take off. Similar information on the scheduled and expected landing times are available on the right.
That’s a very straightforward flight, but what if your trip is more complicated? Because Southwest flies point-to-point rather than in and out of a hub, some flights make multiple stops on route. This one (below), for example, sees the same flight number applied to three different legs, so what does it all mean?
Well, in this example, we can see that the flight departed Chicago this morning with a delay of just over an hour, which meant it arrived in Buffalo around an hour late. The knock-on effect of this is that it was then late leaving Buffalo, and is expected into Baltimore/Washington late also. Its final trip down to Fort Lauderdale is, therefore, also expected to arrive late.
Just as with the single flight, we can see at a glance what time we are expecting to land in each destination. That’s all we really need to know. Airline flight status trackers are never going to tell us the whys or wherefores, but they are a good way to check what time we (or our loved ones) are expected at the airport.
Other useful tools to check Southwest flight status
Here are four more useful tools that can help you check the status of Southwest flights, or see where they are right now:
- FlightAware: See the entire Southwest fleet in the sky at any given time, and use clickable links to further information on specific flights.
- FlightStats by Cirium: See the status of your Southwest Airlines flight, view details about the airplane and airport, get a map of the flight path and check progress of live flights, all in one place.
- FlightRadar24: Get all the details on your flight, including historical performance of the same flight or aircraft. The service also has a free app you can download to your smartphone to check flight status on the go.
- FlightBoard: This is only available as an app, but we love it for its retro interface and data display. Look up your airport and see all the departures and arrivals in real time, using an old style flight board. You can also look up individual flights, so checking your Southwest flight status is still very simple.
Getting a handle on your Southwest flight status is easy when you know how. While the airline’s own stratus tracker offers pretty much everything you’ll ever need, these other suggested tools can add a bit of fun and interactivity to it too.