Delays and Cancellations of Southwest Airlines during Hurricane Harvey, and Delta Pilots Planned to Suspend a New Airline Contract

While Southwest isn’t the only airline to experience delays and cancellations, it is by far the worst-hit. In the last two days, more than 5,200 flights were taken off the departure boards by Southwest, compared to 311 canceled by Delta.

Southwest had more canceled flights than Delta did in the same period, with 10 times as many canceled flights. Other airlines have also ordered large-scale cancellations in the past week.

Watterson said in the prepared remarks that a need to addFunctionality to the Crew Scheduling software to solve for a large number of broken Crew pairs emerged as a result of the disruption.

Watterson mentioned that Southwest Crew schedulers worked quickly to put together a new schedule that would match available crew with aircraft that were ready to fly. Southwest has a difficult time scheduling because the FAA strictly regulates when flight crews can work.

“This is worse than it gets for an airline,” Potter said. “We’ve seen this again and again over the course of the last year or so, when airlines really just struggle especially after a storm, but there’s pretty clear skies across the country.”

From Houston, Texas, and Tampa, Fla., to Cleveland, Ohio, and Denver, Colo., passengers are sharing photos and video of overwhelmed baggage claim areas and long lines at reservation counters. The Southwest customer service phone line’s hold times were often over four hours, according to Colorado Public Radio.

Jay McVay, Southwest spokesman, said at a news conference on Monday night that the airline would do everything possible to correct the challenges passengers have experienced, including hotels, ride assistance, vans and rental cars.

Thousands of Delta pilots picketed at major airports this summer, calling for higher pay and highlighting staff concerns as passengers faced flight cancellations during the Fourth of July holiday rush. Last month, Delta pilots voted to authorize a strike after negotiations for a new contract were paused.

The Southwest Airlines Flight Program: Finding an International Number during the Monday Night Flight-Conserving Event. Reply to Watterson and McVay

Relief is still a few days away for passengers booked with Southwest Airlines this week, as the beleaguered airline continues to grapple with what US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has referred to as a complete meltdown of the system.

Airports most affected by the Wednesday cancellations are Denver International, followed by Chicago Midway International, Baltimore/Washington International, Dallas Love Field, Nashville International, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas and Phoenix Sky Harbor International.

Watterson thinks Southwest should have more than enough crew resources to handle the amount of activity it reduces flights by.

“We had a tough day today. Jordan said in an interview Monday that tomorrow would be tough as they work their way out of the situation.

Carlos spoke with frustrated passengers at the Southwest ticket counter at Atlanta’s airport on Monday.

Employees also said they have not been able to communicate with the airline, the president of the union that represents Southwest’s Flight Attendants told CNN Monday.

If you’ve been left in the lurch and can’t find a way to get in touch with a customer service agent, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights suggests looking for an international number.

“The main hotline for US airlines will be clogged with other passengers getting rebooked. To get through to an agent quickly, call any one of the airline’s dozens of international offices,” Scott Keyes said.

Jay McVay spoke at a press conference in Houston on Monday night about how the storm affected larger stations and how many stations had been canceled.

“With those cancellations and as a result, we end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place and not in the cities that they need to be in to continue to run our operations.”

McVay stated that the company’s first priority is safety. “We want to make sure that we operate these flights safely and that we have the flight crews that have legal and sufficient time to operate these flights,” he stated.

“We will do everything possible to get these people home quickly, including hotels, ride assistance, vans, and rental cars,” he said.

“If you’ve already left, take care of yourself, do what you need to do for your family, keep your receipts,” McVay relayed. “We will make sure that they are taken care of.”

Southwest Airlines: An Explanation for the Delay in the Buffalo Airport and the Intercity Bus Service Misalignment Earlier in the Week

An announcement made in the terminal prior to the news conference apologized to customers, and said the next available SWA seats are on Saturday, December 31st and later. Southwest would be sending buses to area hotels and they would have enough rooms for all of them, according to the agent.

The Department of Transportation is investigating Southwest’s recent cancelling and service delays. President Joe Biden said his administration “is working to ensure airlines are held accountable.”

“We’ve been harping on them since 2015-ish every year,” Mike Santoro, a captain and vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told CNN.

“We’ve been having these issues for the past 20 months,” he told CNN. We have had these sorts of meltdowns occur on a more regular basis because of the outdated processes and outdated IT.

He said that the airline was tenth of the size in the ’90s and now uses processes from that time. “And it’s really just not scaled for an operation that we have today.”

The Buffalo International Airport will not be reopening to passenger flights before 11 am Wednesday, as previously anticipated, according to the latest update on its website.

— Greyhound, the largest provider of intercity bus service, issued a service alert on Monday afternoon stating many of its scheduled services in the upper northeast will be canceled or disrupted until further notice due to winter weather. Buffalo, Cleveland and Syracuse are affected.

A winter storm that swept across the US was ill-timed for travelers who had started pushing Christmas week flying numbers back toward pre-pandemic levels.

Southwest Airlines Announces Flight Schedule Changes Immediately after the Pandemic Spread and The Collapse of the Diablon Mobile Phone System (PDF)

The phone system the company uses is unreliable, according to the President of TWU Local 556. “They’re just not manned with enough manpower in order to give the scheduling changes to flight attendants, and that’s created a ripple effect that is creating chaos throughout the nation.”

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan acknowledged and promised Murray in a message to his employees that the company will invest in better systems.

Jordan told employees that part of what they are suffering is a lack of tools. “We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that.”

Later that month, on a call with Wall Street analysts, then-CEO Gary Kelly said the company had made adjustments to prevent a similar meltdown in the future.

“We have reined in our capacity plans to adjust to the current staffing environment, and our ontime performance has improved, accordingly,” said Kelly on October 21. We are hiring aggressively and currently close to our goal of 5,000 new hires by the end of the year.

The airline stated in a statement that it will be flying a third of its schedule for the next several days as it recovers.

This was a long-term event. As the pandemic spread and the virus evolved, demand bottomed out for travel, straining airlines’ operations. To save on costs, and to avoid layoffs, airlines including Southwest offered voluntary buyouts, leaves of absence and early retirement packages.

That failure has attracted the attention of Congress. The causes of the disruptions will be looked at by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

Taylor’s flight from Salt Lake City into Chicago Midway was canceled last Thursday and he has not looked back. He was not allowed to leave until 9 p.m.

McClain’s return to Utah has been even more harrowing. He was scheduled to leave Chicago late Monday. It was canceled. He’s only been able to change it once, for Thursday night.

Traveling to a Point of View: What Southwest Airlines Need to Bring to the Fork: Helane Becker on a Boxing Day Vacation

He’s lucky to be with his parents, but he’s going to burn a bunch of days of vacation and pay extra kennel fees for his dog, because they can’t get him back.

The internal software systems Southwest needs to bring are up to date, according to Helane Becker, aviation analyst with a financial services company.

“We don’t have the normal hub like the other major airlines do,” Capt. Mike Santoro told CNN that he is the vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. “We fly a point-to-point network, which can put our crews in the wrong places, without airplanes.”

Southwest uses a system that they call a ‘point to point’, which has planes flying from destination to destination and picking up staff along the way. Point-to-point systems have their advantages, as they can offer direct and more affordable flights because the destinations they stop at typically have less air traffic, but flight schedules can quickly fall apart once one route gets canceled.

“What you’re doing with Southwest is, you’re checking a bag from the first city to the second city, and then rechecking it into the third city,” he said. In contrast, with American, Delta or United, you’re checking a bag from the origin city to the destination.

Skyler Lenz’s Southwest Airlines Flight Cancellations: “It’s going to be late,” he told NNPR

As a result, “when you get a weather situation like this, you have all sorts of pilots and flight attendants that can no longer get to where they need to be, because quite often flight crews are not based at the same city or they don’t live at the same city that they’re based out of,” she says. Everything gets out of position when there’s bad weather.

One of those passengers, Skyler Lenz, lives with his wife and two young children in Denver. His family was visiting New York City to celebrate a wedding anniversary and his daughter’s birthday.

The family flew out on the 21st, and planned to fly home on Christmas Eve. Just before they left for the airport, Lenz checked his phone app to make sure everything was okay.

It was not good. The flight was canceled. He didn’t reach an agent while he was on the phone. He was able to rebook using an app on his phone. He spoke to an agent on Monday. He asked, “Do you think this is going to be resolved by the time we fly out?”

The flight was moved to the 27th after the agent reassured him. “That’s when everything canceled, including my Tuesday flight,” he says.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/27/1145616523/southwest-airlines-flight-cancellations-2022

The Loss of Southwest Airlines in a Truck Wrecks Them All: What’s Happening? A Tale of Two Families

Finally, the family decided to rent a car and drive back to Denver — a 26-hour drive. There is a place in Illinois that is 13 hours away from both Denver and here. We want to take a quick break at the hotel so that we can go to the restaurant on Thursday night.

Southwest has owned up to its problems as the company has suffered grievous losses for its customers. “From a PR perspective, they’re out in front,” she says. They’re buying for people and putting them in hotel rooms. They’re doing everything they can to get you where you need to go. They’re reimbursing you. The people are buying tickets on other airlines.

But industry analyst Potter says the airlines’ failures mean customers end up paying the price. And that will continue as long as the carriers are allowed to “keep running these razor thin margins where mass delays and cancellations [are] just a storm or a mechanics strike or an IT software issue away.”

The mass cancellations have travelers at airports waiting in line for two or more hours to rebook their new flights, which, unfortunately, won’t occur anytime soon. A number of passengers report not getting new flights until the end of this week or after the New Year, forcing them to sleep on airport floors while they wait.

The Transportation Secretary’s Response to the Southwest Airlines “Falling Down”: A Rejoinder to the Dallas-Based Airline After the Meltdown

As CNN previously reported, Buttigieg spoke with Jordan on Tuesday and warned him that he would hold the airline accountable after its operational meltdown put the Dallas-headquartered company under serious scrutiny.

“I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can’t happen again.”

Passenger Trisha Jones told CNN at the airport in Atlanta that she and her partner had been traveling for five days, trying to get home to Wichita, Kansas, after disembarking from a cruise at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“We were able to rent a car so we could go see my family in the bay area for Christmas, as my family is in the area and lives in Fort Lauderdale,” Jones said. Some families are sleeping on the floor and it just breaks my heart.

The transportation secretary wrote to Southwest’s CEO, Bob Jordan, stating that officials will take action against the carrier if it doesn’t fulfill its promises to reimburse passengers for alternative transportation costs. The department can impose fines as a penalty.

“The airline said to me that they were going to go above and beyond what’s required of them,” Buttigieg said Thursday in an interview with NBC News. We are in a position to impose tens of thousands of dollars per violation per passenger if they don’t do that.

“While all of the other parts of the aviation system have been moving toward recovery and getting better each day, it’s actually been moving the opposite direction with this airline,” said Buttigieg.

It was suggested in the statement that Jordan did not anticipate major changes to Southwest’s procedures in response to the mass canceled flights.

“The tools we use to recover from disruption serve us almost 99% of the time, but we need to double-down on our already-existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now,” said Jordan.

The Southwest Airlines System Behaving As It Is: Plan Your Flights Now Before You Go There, or How You Can Take Time Off During the Holiday Season

“If your chance of finding a seat on an airline is smaller by the hour, that’s because every airline in the country is jam-packed right now,” Potter said.

“Travelers in the thick of this should be sure to save all their receipts: other flights, a rental car, nights at the hotel, meals, anything,” Potter said.

In response to the situation, American Airlines and United Airlines capped prices on some routes served by Southwest Airlines to make their flights more accessible to stranded passengers.

One traveler posted a screenshot showing flights from San Diego to Orlando with American, Delta and United fares that cost more than $2,000. The passenger was looking to rebook a canceled Southwest flight.

“We continue to get people to their destinations as safely and quickly as possible this busy holiday season and our latest effort includes capping fares in select cities to make sure our flights are available to as many customers as possible,” Freed told CNN.

Southwest does not rebook its passengers on rivals flights, unlike legacy carriers that do, like Delta Air Lines and American Airlines.

When the coronavirus pandemic ground the transportation industry to a screeching halt in early 2020, the US government doled out more than $54 billion in aid to help pay employees and keep the systems from buckling.

Southwest Airlines received more than $7 billion from that program. The aviation industry has never seen a system failure like this one, and that is what its system has gone through in the past 18 months.

[The pandemic aid] “is water under the bridge at this point,” said Robert Mann, a Port Washington, New York-based airline industry analyst. There are only a few things that distinguish degree carriers, the most important being if degree carriers can return to paying dividends or higher officer salaries.

Reimbursing passengers for meals and alternate transportation is one thing, but there is also a human cost to the airline’s meltdown, said Katy Nastro, a travel expert with Scott’s Cheap Flights, which alerts members to airfare deals. She said that some people don’t have the flexibility to take time off whenever they want. Your holiday period is the only time you can rely on and plan and save for a trip.

Southwest Airlines Undergone a Re-Updike During the 2021-2020 Payroll Pandemic: Results from a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

The Payroll Support Program was re-upped in 2020 and again in 2021, similar to the Payroll Protection Program which was created to help smaller businesses during the Pandemic.

The federal aid to airlines, which was a mix of grants and loans, came with some caveats: The airlines had to use the funds exclusively to continue paying wages, salaries and benefits to employees; and, for specific periods of time, they couldn’t conduct furloughs or layoffs; issue dividends or stock buybacks; or increase pay for executives.

“It worked,” Gary Kelly, Southwest’s former chief executive officer, said in December 2021 during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing to examine the impact of the PSP.

He said the funds received from each round were used for employee salaries and wages. We did not cut wages; we did not cut working hours; we did not lay off workers. We raised our minimum wages to $15 per hour on August 1, 2021.

Kelly noted that Southwest’s financially conservative approach that put it in a healthy position entering 2020, and the airline’s cost-cutting throughout the pandemic, had it on good footing for the future.

Two Democrats in the House asked the Treasury Department’s inspector general to investigate as Southwest and other airlines struggled with staffing shortages, which contributed to service disruptions when demand returned.

The amounts were calculated using the salary levels of the carriers and pre-pandemic flying levels. According to the US Government Accountability Office, airline passenger traffic plummeted from April 2020 to April 2020.

Mann said that none of the carriers were operating at a 2019 level. Several carriers cut hours and related pay while saying they would not be making layoffs. Many others initiated voluntary separation agreements that paid fewer hours and salary dollars over a defined future period in exchange for early retirements or similar.”

It could have been as simple as fuel, interest payments and other overheads. The idea that the PSS would pay for IT upgrades that the carrier did not need is not realistic.

He said that he believes the carrier has a different view of what IT improvements are necessary. They will use their own money to research, develop and implement new systems.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/28/business/southwest-pandemic-aid-meltdown/index.html

Reply to “Comment on ‘Falling to Catch Up with Southwest Airlines over Holidays” by J. C. Buttigieg

The Democratic senators from Massachusetts and Connecticut said Southwest should pay for the holidays that were canceled.

After days of trying to operate as much of their full schedule as possible, we reached a decision to drastically reduce our flying to catch up.

It would be unfair and deceptive to refuse to reimburse alternative travel for passengers, according to Buttigieg.

They will be expected to go far beyond the letter of the law in terms of how they treat passengers and make sure they pay for all of their travel expenses.

Employees were not required to use their own devices. He told NPR’s Morning Edition that they weren’t given the tools to do their jobs and that they lacked the leadership to answer questions and provide solutions.

The airline industry has long been wary of regulations, saying that they ultimately put the cost burden on the customer. And Murray agrees that Southwest is better suited than, say, the DOT, to decide what needs to change.

The airline will have to determine whether it will compensate customers. The Senate Commerce Committee will launch an investigation, its chair said on Tuesday.

Under current DOT rules, if a passenger’s flight has been canceled, they are eligible for a prompt cash refunds for the full price, as well as any additional purchases such as bag fees or seat assignments.

Southwest allows customers to rebook or travel without fees for travel through Jan. 2, 2023. The company has opened a self-service portal for those who want to pay in cash.

On the Meltdown of December 21, 2012: The American Economic Liberties Project’s Steady Side of the Connection. The Buckley-Flug Case

“I’ve never seen a meltdown of this size, it’s the worst I think we’ve ever seen,” said William J. McGee, a senior fellow for Aviation and Travel at the American Economic Liberties Project.

We are encouraged by the progress we made to realign crew, their schedules and our fleet. “We know even our deepest apologies — to our customers, to our employees, and to all affected through this disruption — only go so far,” the statement read.

Customers are still waiting to get their luggage back. It’s been over two weeks since Southwest cancelled Brittney Buckley’s flight from Denver to Chicago on Dec. 21. She doesn’t know where her luggage is.

The luggage they had was able to make it to Denver without them. The father-in-law of Murphy’s wife was able to find two suitcases while driving to the airport. Murphy’s medication and Christmas gifts are still in the pile.

While Murphy is waiting to be able to get her suitcase, she still has to pay for travelling to and from the airport and replacement of some of her belongings.

The Airline Industry Isn’t: A Case Study of a Newly-Regulated Airline System and its Role in Transportation Policy

The point-to-point system, in which planes fly from one small airport to another, was the norm until 1978, when the federal government deregulated airlines. Most major airlines follow a hub-and-spoke system where routes are connected to a hub.

The lack of oversight of the airline industry is an issue that has been raised. The Department of transportation is the industry’s sole regulator, and model legislation was published in September by the American Economic Liberties Project.

A flight from Denver to Chicago was canceled but Buckley was able to rebook another flight that would get her there before Christmas.

Although the airline told her that her bags would be waiting for her in Chicago, the airtags, a tracking device by Apple, on her luggage — containing winter clothes, Christmas presents and her prescription medicine — showed that that they were still in Denver. She believes that they’re buried under some of the bags at the airport.

“I’m just one of many millions of people waiting in this corporate machine to get an answer,” she said. “And I know we don’t have that much power. I’m just waiting until a few days have passed so I can get another update on my luggage. At this point, I have written it off.

The Southwest Airlines Disaster During the First Three Months of the Pandemic: A Statement of Insensitivity and Rejoinder with the Southwest Airlines

The airlines flying in the same conditions recovered from the storm disruptions that hit much of the Lower 48 in the days before Christmas.

“We know even our deepest apologies — to our customers, to our employees, and to all affected through this disruption — only go so far,” the statement read.

An industry-wide disruption during the early months of the Pandemic in 2020 can be attributed to the high cancellation rates among airlines due to weather and other factors.

The bureau has only released data for 2022 through September. CNN analyzed the carrier’s data from January toSeptember in previous years to ensure a fair comparison.

United, American and Delta typically fly from smaller markets to hubs, requiring passengers flying between small cities to change planes. It has the advantage of being able to quickly fly crews and planes out of the hub to where they are needed.

Watterson noted that manual scheduling left Southwest building an incredibly delicate house of cards that could quickly tumble when the company encountered a problem.

They would make great progress then there would be some other disruption and it would ruin their work, said Watterson. “So, we spent multiple days where we kind of got close to finishing the problem, and then it had to be reset.”

When did Southwest rebook United Airlines? A frustrated passenger, Michael Quidort, says the airline is “resolving everything they can”

“I had to rebook on United,” said Michael Quidort, 32, who was traveling home from Raleigh, N.C., to Chicago when his Southwest flight was canceled. He tried to submit a claim but the Southwest system crashed after he tried to pay for his original flight. He said he was not optimistic that he would get reimbursed. He said he didn’t have a lot of faith in their ability to turn the situation around.

Southwest is making a pledge to do everything it can and to work the whole night and day to repair its relationship with you, said a message from the airline to its customers on Thursday.

“We are encouraged by the progress we’ve made to realign Crew, their schedules, and our fleet,” the company said in a statement. With a holiday weekend full of important connections for our valued customers and employees we are ready to return to normal.

The airline’s chief commercial officer Ryan Green offered his apologies and promised to rebuild customer relations, which had sunk to their lowest levels because of the collapse of services.

“My personal apology is the first step of making things right after many plans changed and experiences fell short of your expectations of us,” Green said in a video issued Thursday.

His remarks followed earlier apologies from the airline CEO, as the Secretary of transportation called the situation a “meltdown.”

When asked what he thought about the lack of lines at the Southwest counters at the airport, Hister said: “Maybe speaks to the improvements that they’re trying to make, because there’s not long lines, people aren’t here complaining. So, maybe you know, the efforts to redeem themselves are working.”

As extreme winter conditions swept much of the country last week — including important airports in Southwest’s network — Southwest’s plan for “irregular operations” passed the breaking point, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.

They and the airline itself described an internal process that requires multiple departments to manually redesign the airline’s schedule — a system that works “the vast majority of the time,” the airline said in a statement.

When something goes wrong, Southwest software leaves a lot of the work of rebuilding that network to be done manually.

Brian Brown, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 530, said that if flights are canceled, they cannot see the best way to fix it. “It requires a lot more human intervention and human eyesight or brainpower and can only handle so much.”

Brown said that airline officials don’t know where the crews are or where their planes are. Crew schedulers in another department are manually checking which pilots and flight attendants meet strict federal rules on work hours — rules meant to keep inflight safety professionals from excessive fatigue.

The Southwest Airlines breakdown was called a failure of unbelievable proportions by Elaine Chao, who served as secretary of transportation during the Trump administration.

Buttigieg said that the system has completely melted down. “I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can’t happen again.”

Kristin Proveaux’s Jet arrives in Memphis, where she’s been waiting for the last minute of her trip to the Twin Towers

The wedding of bride-to-be, Katie Demeko from St. Louis, was put on hold after her Southwest flight was canceled at the last minute.

“We went to the the airport, our flight was on time, and when we were getting ready to board, the captain came out, gave a speech and basically told us the flight was canceled,” she told CNN.

“While Southwest is being vague on how much they will reimburse, I would avoid any expensive hotels or restaurants. You can use the internet to find hotels near the airport.

“Do a few Google searches such as ‘free things to do near me.’ I doubt Southwest is going to reimburse tours or other paid activities, so I would not book any expensive excursions that you cannot afford.”

It was a breakdown in the airline’s old computer system that has lead to an “unprecedented” airline meltdown.

The family had packed their winter coats and warm clothes, but it was 3 degrees in Denver when they woke up. When they finally got back home to Memphis and stood in line with dozens of others to check on their luggage, it turned out their bags had been in Denver the whole time.

Given all the chaos she’s witnessed this week, Proveaux figured she’d never see her bags again. But on Wednesday night, to her shock, the luggage was delivered to her door.

How Southwest Airlines Incrementalized Flight Schedules and Scheduling Helped a Long-time Southwest Airlines Customer, Hillary Chang, 29,

Southwest apologized late Wednesday for the disruptions, and on Thursday said passengers can apply online for baggage returns, flight refunds and travel expenses.

The company has faced criticism for its outdated scheduling software and communications systems, and the impact that has — not just on passengers but also its employees.

She had to take him off her plane when he was trying to go home to see his family so that he could go work another flight.

Randy Barnes, president of the Transport Workers Union’s Local 555, which represents Southwest employees, said in a statement Wednesday that many Southwest ground workers had to work 16- or 18-hour shifts during the holiday season and were getting sick and experiencing frostbite.

One of the most powerful things about social media is that you can get into a situation instantly, like a Lizzo concert or a political rally.

This video was posted by Hillary Chang, 29, a longtime Southwest Airlines devotee. “I am a very loyal Southwest customer,” says Chang, who travels frequently with her boyfriend. I own a Southwest credit card. Southwest is where we only fly.

How much does the Southwest look like? When Chang and her fiancé had to go on a road trip through the night to LA

Chang does not expect to see her ring box again. If they’d seen what I saw at the Houston airport, they wouldn’t tell me to stay positive. “I can hope that maybe it will appear in a few weeks, but at this point, I think mentally I just have to be like, ‘It’s gone and that’s OK.’”

“This is what the Houston airport looks like,” she says in the TikTok, panning over hundreds of unclaimed suitcases. It’s enough to make any frequent flyer’s blood run cold.

Magnifying the black eye for Southwest is social media. Images and videos of people’s harrowing travel experiences have been posted on social media all week.

“Don’t fly Southwest folks” and “Southwest is going to be destroyed over this” have millions of views and comments.

He says that they have the best reputation for customer service. They’re usually pretty good at responding to crises and I’m surprised by all this.

Chang and her fiancé realized they would need to fend for themselves in Houston when they were stuck there, staring at the expanse of rollerboards and giant line of frustrated travelers.

They rented a car and drove the 21 hours back to LA. Chang posted a short TikTok of the road trip, which involved driving through the night in order to be back to work on the morning of Dec. 27. The TikTok yielded some fruit, but one of Chang’s friends sent her $50 for gas to wish them well on their trip.

I’m Not Doing With Southwest, but I’ll Do It Them: A First Look at a Major US Airlines System After the Big Weather

I have over 50,000 miles with them and I have been thinking about it. I’m not done with Southwest but I’m open. I’m open to dating another airline.”

Everyone is wondering about can Southwest now deliver? As air traffic picks up Friday morning, the picture will become clearer.

If those planes are back up in the air and the mounds of stacked-up luggage are reduced, it certainly would be a relief for passengers — and for the company. There is a mark on its back.

To say the least, top US government officials are disconcerted about what happened to Southwest in the aftermath of the huge winter storm that every other major US airline had to deal with.

Williams said that he would still use the airline in the future. I like Southwest. I mean, the bags are free,” Williams said.

Mr. Mann stated it will be a case-by-case basis. Booking an expensive flight might indicate to the airline you had a serious obligation you couldn’t miss, he said. “My advice is to hold onto your receipts, use the Southwest tool, and see how it goes,” he said.

Ms. Nastro also wondered whether passengers who incurred nonrefundable expenses — including for Airbnbs and all-inclusive hotels — would be covered under Southwest’s vague reimbursement policy. “I don’t know,” she said, “but there are a lot of cases like this.”

The Southwest Pilots Christmas Debattle: Why They’re Still Frustrated and How They’ve Been Put ‘Tilted’

People are stuck at the airport for Christmas. Flight attendants and pilots are sleeping. Vast piles of luggage — some with presents inside, some with medication — stuck in the wrong airport. And frustrated travelers stuck on hold for hour after hour.

The president of the Southwest pilots union told NPR that he wasn’t surprised by the Christmas debacle, despite the fact that he called it “catastrophic.”

And of course, there’s no reimbursement for missing Christmas with your family, or spending a night on an airport floor with a cranky toddler and no luggage.

“Gary Kelly still reigns supreme on the board of this Company despite having overseen the decisions and setting the conditions that made this most recent fiasco possible,” Captain Tom Nekouei, vice president of the Southwest pilots union, wrote. “I, for one, am tired of seeing my Company’s good name, and in some cases our fellow employees’ reputations, dragged through the mud in national media.”

“I can’t say it enough how sorry I am for the impact these challenges have had on our employees and our customers,” he said. “We have a long and proud record of delivering on expectations, and when we fall short, we aim to do the right thing.”

You can get CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter by signing up. Get news about destinations opening, inspiration for future adventures, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.

The Dallas Love Field, DFW, and Oklahoma Airports “Wilson’s Last Cut”: Management of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airports, Weather, and Transportation

The airline, which had an operations meltdown over the holidays, extended the waivers to eight airports in Texas and Oklahoma on Monday. The waiver applies to travel from January 30 to February 1.

American Airlines issued a waiver on Sunday for Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) that applies to travel from January 29 to February 2. A number of US flights were canceled by American on Monday.

Dallas Love Field has a team that’s ready to treat and clear surfaces to allow for safe operations. DFW is also preparing for weather.

Another round of freezing rain and ice was expected throughout much of Texas at daybreak on Tuesday, forecast to head to Oklahoma by mid-morning, then move to Little Rock, Memphis and Nashville through the day.

“I encourage Arkansans who are experiencing winter weather to avoid travel if possible and heed the warnings of local officials,” Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted on Monday.

A winter storm warning is in effect for a large portion of Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The fiasco prompted a wave of blowback from fliers and employees, sparked a Department of Transportation investigation and cost the company as much as $825 million.

He also touts several mitigation efforts that he says are already in the works, including improvements to electronic communication tools between crews and crew scheduling teams — a key point of weakness during the travel meltdown.

And the carrier has added more flights in 2023, which officials say will make it easier to re-book customers if and when flights are disrupted because of bad weather or other issues.

Watterson says the airline has hired Oliver Wyman, a management consultancy firm, to make recommendations on how to improve performance on bad weather days, among other areas. The two reviews will dictate “what sequence of improvements is most appropriate in terms of supporting our Customers, Employees, and technology infrastructure.”

The COO ends his testimony by telling the story of the people who were affected by the unprecedented flight cancellation.