Southwest Airlines issues another apology, announces resources for reimbursements, lost luggage
TAMPA, Fla. - Cancelations of Southwest Airlines flights continued to snowball Thursday. Travelers who counted on the airline to get them home are suffering another wave of canceled flights.
The airline’s CEO said it could be next week before the flight schedule returns to normal. Southwest Airlines issued a second apology Wednesday night. In a video posted to Twitter, Southwest's Chief Commercial Officer Ryan Green announced new resources for customers dealing with flight cancelations with no opportunity to rebook to those waiting for lost luggage.
Directing customers to the "Travel Disruption" webpage, Green began by stating all customers affected by the cancelations will be able to rebook in the original class of service or travel standby without paying any additional charges through Jan. 2. Customers can also request a refund for their canceled flight(s) and/or reimbursement for most travel expenses accrued while experiencing a cancellation or significant flight delay.
The website can be found here: www.southwest.com/traveldisruption.
On the webpage, the company said it will "honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel and alternate transportation" between Dec. 24, 2022 and Jan. 2, 2023. To utilize the service, customers need to email receipts to Southwest Airlines for consideration.
"You know by now all of the flexibility and planning that we put in place to deal with the storm just wasn't enough," Green said.
Green also said customers separated from their luggage who have not been contacted yet can fill out a form on the webpage to help expedite the reunification process.
The president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association weighed in on the thousands of flights canceled by the airline during an appearance on FOX News. Capt. Casey Murray, the president of the union, started off by apologizing to Southwest customers for flight cancelations.
The arrivals and departures board displays canceled and delayed Southwest Airlines flights at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport in Glen Burnie, Md., on Wednesday, December 28, 2022. Southwest Airlines canceled thousands of flights over the holidays. (Bil
"At the end of the day, Southwest wasn’t prepared," Murray said. "And unfortunately, this has been a decade in the making. We have sounded alarm bells, we have tried to get them to change processes. It’s a combination of processes, outdated technology and infrastructure."
Edward Lawrence asked for clarification about the "processes" mentioned, which Murray then said was the "way they use pilots and flight attendants."
"It’s how when one domino falls, it creates so many other issues," the SWAPA president continued, going on to say that "we start each day with enough pilots, flight attendants, ramp agents, customer service agents there to do the job." Murray said that when an interruption happens, it is the "processes that caused the need for so many more people."
FOX News and FOX Business contributed to this report