Southwest Airlines
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

Chief Commercial Officer of Southwest Airlines Apologizes; Offers Reimbursement For Reasonable Expenses

Free changes in flights are also being offered — but is that enough?

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/

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.

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
Photograph ©2022 by Brian Cohen.

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.

  1. Living in Denver, Southwest has become the subject of many jokes, but I am surprised when national news channels call them “low cost carriers” (“Sorry that we’re out of breakfast sandwiches today, they were ticketed with Southwest” (Starbucks, 8th and Colorado). Here, their flights are often the same price as United, Delta, AA.
    I had left United after decades for WN, but now will ask for any type of status match and switch back. Why continue with this archaic, expensive airline, with wretched customer service? It wasn’t until the feds began to take note that they offered the possibility of getting reimbursements. I can’t wait to hear what they deny…

  2. I am pleasantly surprised that pockets of the internet are getting the truth out. One of the pilots accurately stated that SWA actually has enough crew and aircraft in reserve — even for their complicated point to point, seven or more flights per aircraft per day business model which they have expanded beyond all reason — but their systems do not allow these reserves to be match and placed in time in recovery periods.

    So there will be capex associated with that fix, along with the short term 2022-2023 loss, but it may not be as massive as adding hundreds of crew and dozens of planes on standby.

    SWA is already too big to fail. They buy too many aircraft from state-sponsored Boeing, their credit cards provide too much business and consumer data that Chase would prefer to keep monetizing for its own benefit, their employees and unions donate to enough politicians to be protected in this era of the protected economy.

    What this means is that the upcoming IT capex and short term loss will require SWA to raise fares, as they are unlikely to abandon markets and retrench their network. In some markets that will take pricing pressure off the big three, who will also be filling limited flights with demand from ex-SWA passengers, and so on average everyone will raise fares. SWA will become uncompetitive in some markets, just as the big three are in others. But that does not mean they will disappear from those markets, just as the big three have not. A less full plane with a higher average fare can still make money, as the big three know. Just another step towards oligopoly.

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