Since the last incident that Zap is talking about where we had multiple crews basically crash in the lounge, there has been a major change in the way that SWA procures and distributes rooms. It used to be done by extra schedulers manning the “hotel desk”. It is now done by a full time Crew Operations Support team who is much much better at predicting the need, obtaining, and assigning hotel rooms. It was not uncommon 2 years ago to land in an overnight city with no hotel. I haven’t had that happen since they stood up COSA. To SWAs credit, after multiple meltdowns with stranded crews, I think (hope) they have gotten this one right. The Houston hurricane was the first big test of this, and they did a really good job. They even blocked and paid for commuter rooms for two months following the storm.
Our safety valve is also flight ops telling us that if we self procure hotel rooms when not assigned within a reasonable time, we will be reimbursed. I have done this with transportation but not hotels and I got reimbursed within two days of putting a claim in.