- A man suing Southwest Airlines says the carrier failed to refund passengers after canceling flights.
- Eric Capdeville said he and his daughter were only given vouchers to use for future flights.
- Southwest says it will refund tickets to passengers and “reasonable requests” for reimbursements.
Southwest Airlines is being sued by a passenger who is accusing the carrier of failing to refund customers when it canceled more than 15,000 flights during an operational meltdown in December.
Louisiana resident Eric Capdeville — who filed the class action lawsuit on Friday — said in the filing that he and his daughter were only given credit vouchers when their December 27 journey from New Orleans to Portland was canceled.
The complaint, filed in New Orleans federal court and seen by Insider, said the flight being scrapped also cost Capdeville the price of the accommodation he booked in Portland but never got to use.
Capdeville is seeking damages for himself and other Southwest customers who had their flights canceled since December 24 but did not receive refunds or any reimbursement for expenses incurred by the cancellations.
Southwest canceled some 15,000 flights in the last week of December during the height of holiday travel, while Winter Storm Elliott lashed North America. Its CEO, Bob Jordan, said the airline faced “impacts beyond the storm.” The airline also attributed the meltdown to issues with its outdated flight scheduling system.
Capdeville’s lawsuit called the debacle an “internally created crisis.” The lawsuit also asserted that Southwest is obligated by its customer service contract to give passengers either a refund or an opportunity to rebook their flight if it is canceled, delayed, or diverted.
This customer service contract doesn’t mention compensating passengers with credit for flight cancellations, the lawsuit added.
Capdeville said he and other passengers affected by Southwest’s cancellations “cannot use their airline tickets through no fault of their own and they are not getting the benefit of their bargain” with the carrier, per the lawsuit.
Southwest said during the wave of cancellations that it is offering a system-wide waiver, allowing customers booked on flights between December 25 and January 2 to rebook the same route with new dates for no extra charge.
In a statement to The Washington Post, the airline said that it is making “several high priority efforts” in an effort “to do right by our Customers.”
The carrier also promised customers on December 29 that it will refund their tickets and reimburse them for expenses like hotel rooms and car rentals, warning investors in the company that this expenditure will have an impact on earnings.
Southwest’s travel disruption FAQ says it will “honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel accommodations, and alternate transportation.”
Representatives for Southwest Airlines and lawyers for Capdeville did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.