Southwest Airlines is still cleaning up after the meltdown of its operations last week, apologizing to customers who were affected and offering them frequent flier points.
Dallas-based Southwest is sending e-mails with a “gesture of goodwill” of 25,000 Rapid Rewards frequent flier points to customers who had a flight canceled. The points equate to a value of more than $300, the e-mail says.
Separately and on top of that, the airline is also still processing refunds and reimbursements for expenses due to travel disruptions.
“I know that no amount of apologies can undo your experience,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan wrote in the e-mail to passengers.
Southwest’s fiasco began brewing before Christmas weekend when the airline’s Denver operations were declared to be in a “state of operational emergency” due to staff shortages.
The problems snowballed as the airline’s archaic crew scheduling software became overwhelmed by the number of flight cancellations as a massive storm hit many of its largest operations across the country.
Southwest canceled well over 2,000 of its flights a day for a four-day stretch last week — disrupting trips for more than a million passengers during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Its operations returned to a semblance of normalcy last Friday.
After thousands of bags were lost amid the mass cancellations on Southwest last week, the airline is still in the process of delivering bags to their rightful owners. Southwest said it plans to ship or deliver “by midweek” nearly all baggage that was lost.
“Our work continues to repair relationships with our customers,” Southwest said.
For travelers who faced hardships after getting stranded in airports around the country, it’s yet to be seen whether the points, refunds and reimbursements will be sufficient to make up for the experience.
One passenger, Eric Capdeville of Marrero, Louisiana, has already filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Southwest in New Orleans federal court for failing to provide refunds to passengers, Reuters reported Tuesday.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said if Southwest fails to cover travelers’ costs, the Department of Transportation “will investigate and enforce.”
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said “Southwest Airlines failed its customers, point blank. The Department of Transportation will hold them accountable to their commitments to make their customers whole.”
She added that while every major airline faced challenges from the storm, all other major airlines were able to recover quickly.
“So Southwest Airlines acknowledged that all cancellations starting Dec. 24 were controllable — in other words, not weather related,” Jean-Pierre said. As a result, “the airline must cover rebooking, hotel rooms, meals and transportation to and from a hotel,” she said.
Jean-Pierre said Southwest must also pay for coach flights, rental cars and trains to get passengers to their final destinations, and must return baggage “as quickly as possible.” She added that the DOT is watching “to ensure that this all happens and will seek fines from Southwest” if it doesn’t cover costs.
Passengers seeking refunds or reimbursements should go to southwest.com/traveldisruption to submit their information.
Those who face denied or delayed compensation can file a complaint with the DOT.
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