The chief commercial officer of Southwest Airlines apologizes in response to the airline currently suffering a meltdown of its operations throughout its system as a result of both the lingering effects of the winter storms and problems with connecting members of flight crews to their schedules, as that issue resulted in difficulty for employees of the airline to access crew scheduling services and get reassignments — and the airline is now offering to customers free changes of flights and reimbursement for reasonable expenses.
Chief Commercial Officer of Southwest Airlines Apologizes; Offers Reimbursement For Reasonable Expenses
“We’ve let our Customers and Employees down, and we pledge to do everything we can to make it right” is what Ryan Green posted to the official Twitter account of Southwest Airlines. “If you still need assistance rearranging your travel, getting a refund, or tracking down your luggage, please visit https://www.southwest.com/traveldisruption/”
We’ve let our Customers and Employees down, and we pledge to do everything we can to make it right. If you still need assistance rearranging your travel, getting a refund, or tracking down your luggage, please visit https://t.co/II3YgdPy7J. pic.twitter.com/64Fdt8jJPn
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) December 29, 2022
Included with that message is a video in which he apologizes on behalf of himself and Southwest Airlines.
This is after Pete Buttigieg — who is the current secretary of transportation of the United States — posted at his official Twitter account that “I’m tracking closely & will have more to say about this tomorrow.” What exactly he had to say is documented in this article here at The Gate.
Meanwhile, a law enforcement officer at Nashville International Airport was reportedly called by someone at Southwest Airlines and threatened to arrest stranded passengers who did not vacate the secure area of the airport.
A lawyer asks the cop to cite the law he was threatening to arrest them under. He cannot. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/unNHgzxYKl
— Brad Batt for TN State Sanity ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾 (@bradbatt) December 28, 2022
At least 2,360 more flights which are operated by Southwest Airlines were already canceled for today, Thursday, December 29, 2022 — which is approximately 58 percent of the entire flight schedule of the airline — and a minimum of 167 additional flights were delayed.
- 2,510 flights were canceled and 428 more flights were delayed with Southwest Airlines on Wednesday, December 28, 2022
- 2,694 flights were canceled and 1,053 more flights were delayed with Southwest Airlines on Tuesday, December 27, 2022
- 2,909 flights were canceled and 777 more flights were delayed with Southwest Airlines on Monday, December 26, 2022
Although other airlines that have experienced their share of irregular operations due to the weather, Southwest Airlines was significantly worse than any of them.
Among the travel alerts which were listed in this article here at The Gate pertaining to the recent spate of historic winter weather this past week was one from Southwest Airlines that was never posted before at The Gate in its history of 16.5 years:
Southwest Airlines has issued travel alerts for all airports which the airline serves throughout its system through Tuesday, December 27, 2022; and Tuesday, January 10, 2023 is the last day on which tickets must be reissued and rebooked travel must begin.
That was a key indicator that more was wrong with the operations of the airline than just weather.
The airline has been slowly stabilizing and improving its operation as more favorable weather conditions have been arriving this week. In the meantime, travel advisories are currently in effect systemwide for:
- Irregular Operations through Monday, January 2, 2023; and Monday, January 16, 2023 is the last day on which tickets must be reissued and rebooked travel must begin.
- High Call Volumes and Busy Signals — Due to the very high demand from the winter weather, hold times are currently averaging greater than two hours and have been as high as four hours.
Southwest Airlines is the fourth largest airline in the United States; but the airline actually is the largest carrier in the United States in terms of domestic flights…
…and as a result of all of those cancellations and delays, thousands of passengers and their luggage are delayed or stranded all over the United States — some of them for as many as five days — as illustrated by the torrent of content which has been posted on various channels of social media by passengers who were affected or impacted by the irregular operations:
Final Boarding Call
I do not believe that Southwest Airlines is offering enough in customer service recovery to its passengers, who have suffered loss of time and finances — and some customers are complaining that the airline still has not compensated them for the irregular operations which occurred in October of 2021.
I also believe that Southwest Airlines could have done more to automate some parts of the process with which passengers should not have had to expend effort, time, or money — such as an automatic refund of their tickets in some cases as one of many examples.
Regardless, if you were directly affected by the recent meltdown of the irregular operations of Southwest Airlines, ensure that you have all of your receipts so that you have a better chance of having your claims fulfilled.
Meanwhile, your best bet is to avoid Southwest Airlines at this time for at least the next several days — if not through the end of the year. If you are ticketed as a passenger on the airline this week and next week, monitor the situation and keep yourself updated so that neither you nor your luggage get stranded unnecessarily.
All photographs ©2022 by Brian Cohen.
