- Las Vegas police investigating ‘road rage’ stabbing near southwest valley elementary school Fox 5 Las Vegas
- Woman accused of stabbing man in southwest Las Vegas ‘road rage’ incident near school: police KLAS – 8 News Now
- Man arrested after fight turned stabbing in northwest Las Vegas apartment leaves 1 dead 8 News Now — Las Vegas
- Las Vegas police: Stabbing near Steele Elementary School appears to be road rage KTNV 13 Action News Las Vegas
- POLICE: Road rage suspected in stabbing near southwest Las Vegas elementary school News3LV
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Southwest
Overdose deaths by zip code: Philly’s crisis expands outside of Kensington with rising deaths in North and Southwest neighborhoods – The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Overdose deaths by zip code: Philly’s crisis expands outside of Kensington with rising deaths in North and Southwest neighborhoods The Philadelphia Inquirer
- CRISIS IN KENSINGTON: If ‘good old-fashion heroin’ was back, life would be better, recovering addict says Fox News
- Tranq dope turning up in central Pa., hindering overdose reversal, causing rotting flesh wounds Williamsport Sun-Gazette
- Tranq dope spreading in Pa., hindering overdose reversal, causing rotting flesh wounds Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- Philadelphia mayor candidate: ‘I would shut down Kensington,’ clear drugs and crime Fox News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
FedEx and Southwest planes that nearly collided were ‘less than 100 feet’ from collision, investigators say – USA TODAY
- FedEx and Southwest planes that nearly collided were ‘less than 100 feet’ from collision, investigators say USA TODAY
- Southwest and FedEx jets came within 100 feet of collision at airport in Texas, investigators say CNN
- After ANOTHER near miss at a US airport, how can Americans trust their plane journey will be safe? Daily Mail
- Congress may get briefing on Austin airport’s near collision between 2 planes FOX 7 Austin
- FedEx plane landing at airport almost hits Southwest flight with more than 100 passengers WKRC TV Cincinnati
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sánchez says Southwest rejected her as a flight attendant because of her weight
Fox Business contributor Charlie Hurt reacts to the billionaires taking on the president over inflation on ‘Fox Business Tonight.’
Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sánchez revealed that she was once rejected for a job as a flight attendant because of her weight.
The 53-year-old journalist and helicopter pilot recalled that she aspired to become a flight attendant when she was 18 but lost out on a position at Southwest Airlines in 1989 after failing a mandatory weigh-in.
“Back then, they weighed you, and I weighed 121 pounds,” the Emmy Award winner remembered during an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “They said, ‘You need to be 115.'”
Jeff Bezos’ girlfriend Lauren Sánchez revealed that she was once rejected for a job as a flight attendant at Southwest Airlines because of her weight. (Getty / Getty Images)
Sánchez told the outlet that she would have responded differently if that situation were to occur now.
BEZOS’ GIRLFRIEND LAUREN SANCHEZ GIVES $1M TO GROUP FOCUSED ON MIGRANT KIDS AT US-MEXICO BORDER
The media personality said she would tell the airline, “I don’t want to be a stewardess. I want to be the pilot!”
Until the 1990s, many airlines had strict height and weight requirements for flight attendants and mandatory weigh-ins.
According to Southwest Airlines’ career page, flight attendant applicants’ “weight must be of such proportion to height that a neat appearance is maintained and the physical ability to perform all job functions is not hindered.”
In addition, jobseekers “must be able to lift items up to 50 pounds from floor to shoulder level as required.”
A representative for Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Sánchez went on to become a reporter and anchor at KTVK in Phoenix, Arizona and later worked at Fox Sports Net, Los Angeles’ Fox 11 and Extra.
The 53-year-old journalist and helicopter pilot recalled that she aspired to become a flight attendant when she was 18 but lost out on a position in 1989 after failing a mandatory weigh-in. (Daniel Jack Lyons for WSJ. Magazine. / Fox News)
The New Mexico native, whose parents were both pilots, earned her helicopter pilot license in 2016. She later launched Black Ops Aviation, a female-owned aerial film and production company.
Sánchez said she makes an effort to fly at least three times a week to stay up to date and frequently gets in the cockpit to fly Bezos, 59, and their families around the world.
“I don’t know why more women don’t do it,” she told the WSJ.
The former “View” host explained that she founded Black Ops Aviation when she noted the lack of other female-owned aviation companies.,
“Less than nine percent of pilots are women,” she said. “That’s it! Of that percentage, even less are helicopter pilots. How many women pilots do you see in every movie? What do you see? You see male pilots. And so [women] don’t realize that they can do it.”
Sánchez said other women are surprised and impressed when they learn she is a pilot.
“They’re shocked!” she said. “They’re like, ‘What? You’re such a badass!’ And I want to say it’s really not that hard. I do want more women to get involved in it.”
Sánchez told the WSJ that she is very excited about her plans to lead an all-female mission to outer space on Blue Origin, which will take place by 2024.
“It’s going to be women who are making a difference in the world and who are impactful and have a message to send,” she said.
Five women will join Sánchez on the mission, but their names won’t be announced until closer to the launch date.
The former broadcaster said that working with Bezos on the Blue Origin mission and other projects is the “greatest experience I’ve ever had.” (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images)
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Though Sánchez said Bezos is getting his pilot’s license, she said that the Amazon founder would not be joining her on the mission.
“As much as he wants to go on this flight, I’m going to have to hold him back,” Sánchez said. “He’ll be cheering us all on from the sidelines.”
Sánchez and Bezos went public with their relationship in 2019 while both were divorcing their former spouses, Patrick Whitesell and MacKenzie Scott.
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The former broadcaster said working with Bezos on the Blue Origin mission and other projects is the “greatest experience I’ve ever had.”
“I’ve always had a career very separate from my partner,” she said. “I think now that I can work with my partner, and be with him all the time…. We love to be together and we love to work together.”
Southwest, Tesla, Las Vegas Sands
A Southwest Airlines Co. Boeing 737 passenger jet pushes back from a gate at Midway International Airport (MDW) in Chicago, Illinois.
Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:
Southwest — The airline dropped 2.1% after reporting a $220 million loss for the fourth quarter after the holiday meltdown cost the company millions in expenses and drove up expenses.
Comcast — The media company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations, with earnings per share coming in at 82 cents, adjusted, versus the 77 cents expected from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Revenue was $30.55 billion compared to the $30.32 expected. Shares, however, were down less than 1% in the premarket.
Tesla — The electric-vehicle maker soared 7% after reporting record revenue and an earnings beat. CEO Elon Musk said Tesla might be able to produce 2 million cars this year.
Las Vegas Sands — Shares of the hotel and casino operator rose about 4% despite the company posting weaker-than-expected financial results for the most recent quarter. Wall Street analysts cited upbeat comments about its reopening in Macao on the company earnings call for their positive outlook on the stock.
Levi Strauss — Shares of the denim maker popped 6% premarket on a better-than-expected quarterly report. Levi Strauss topped analysts’ revenue estimates and beat earnings projections by 5 cents a share.
Blackstone — Blackstone shares dipped less than 1% after the asset manager reported mixed earnings results. Total segment revenues fell short of expectations, while distributable earnings beat estimates by 12 cents a share.
Chevron — The energy giant jumped more than 3% in premarket after the company announced a $75 billion stock buyback program and a dividend hike to $1.51 from $1.42 per share. The buyback program will become effective on April 1.
Dow — The chemicals giant posted fourth-quarter earnings, revenue and adjusted EBITDA that missed analyst expectations before the bell Thursday, sending the stock down more than 3% in premarket trading.
IBM — Shares of IBM shed 2.7% after the company reported quarterly results Wednesday that generally exceeded Wall Street’s expectations but included an announcement that the firm will cut 3,900 jobs. IBM reported adjusted earnings per share of $3.60 per share on $16.69 billion in revenue where analysts expected $3.60 per share and $16.4 billion in revenue, per Refinitiv.
American Airlines — The airline gained 1.5% after its fourth-quarter profits beat Wall Street’s expectations, thanks to strong holiday demand and high fares.
Seagate Technology — The data storage company jumped more than 8% in premarket trading after reporting earnings and revenue for the last quarter that beat expectations.
Pfizer — The pharma giant was downgraded by UBS on Thursday, which said Pfizer’s Covid franchise estimates need to come down and its pipeline is too premature. Pfizer was up less than 1% in the premarket.
— CNBC’s Carmen Reinicke, Yun Li, Samantha Subin, Tanaya Macheel and Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
Southwest Starts On Reputation Repair After Cancellations
DALLAS (AP) — With its flights running on a roughly normal schedule, Southwest Airlines is now turning its attention to repairing its damaged reputation after it canceled 15,000 flights around Christmas and left holiday travelers stranded.
CEO Robert Jordan said Thursday that Southwest has processed about 75% of the refund requests it has received. The airline has also returned most lost bags to their owners, and hired an outside firm to sift through requests for reimbursement of things like hotels and meals that stranded passengers paid out of their own pockets, he said.
The massive disruptions began Dec. 22 with a winter storm, and snowballed when Southwest’s ancient crew-scheduling technology was overwhelmed, leaving crews and planes out of position to operate flights. It took the airline eight days to recover.
Jordan said in a brief interview that Southwest is still studying what went wrong, and he doesn’t want to make changes in technology until that review is done. He expressed optimism but offered few specifics about avoiding a repeat meltdown.
Southwest is giving 25,000 frequent-flyer points to customers whose flights were canceled or significantly delayed between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2, and seems to be making progress on refunds, but executives concede it will take many weeks to process the reimbursement requests.
Danielle Zanin is still waiting to hear whether Southwest will cover the $1,995.36 that she spent during a four-day odyssey getting her family of four home to Illinois after their flight was canceled in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Even if she eventually gets the money, it may not be enough for her to try Southwest again.
“It would take a lot for the airline to prove to me that they can fix whatever technology they use to get flight crews and planes where they need to go. It’s just not worth the hassle that I went through,” Zanin said. She said she plans to go back to flying on American Airlines even if it costs more.
Southwest hopes that refunds, reimbursements and loyalty points will persuade people not to switch to other airlines, known in the industry as “booking away.”
“Book-away typically has a short half-life, perhaps as little as a month, given it appears from many accounts that Southwest is being very generous reimbursing not only flight but other out-of-pocket costs” and is serious about fixing the technological shortcomings that made the crisis worse, said Robert Mann, an airline consultant in New York.
Retaining loyal customers is crucial if Southwest is to limit the financial damage of the meltdown. The company has yet to say how much money it lost because of the canceled flights — Jordan promised more information before Southwest reports quarterly results on Jan. 26.
Raymond James airline analyst Savanthi Syth estimated that the storm will cost Southwest about $585 million in lost revenue, plus higher expenses. Mann figures it’s between $500 million and $600 million in cash, vouchers and frequent-flyer points.
Airlines — including Southwest as recently as October 2021 — have recovered quickly from previous meltdowns, whether they were caused by bad weather, crew shortages, IT outages or other factors. Passenger numbers, if they declined at all, recovered quickly.
“The reputational damage is only as relevant as what consumers can do about it,” said Michael Mazzeo, who teaches strategy at Northwestern University’s business school and has examined airline competition. “In a lot of markets, there is little or no competition to Southwest. When there is no outlet for consumers, the damage is more limited.”
Southwest, American, United and Delta control about 80% of the domestic air-travel market. Southwest — it started 50 years ago as a low-cost competitor to big airlines but has gradually become much more like them — has a particularly outsized presence in some big states including California, Arizona and Texas.
Southwest remained relatively quiet for several days even after it became clear that it was struggling while other airlines recovered from the winter storm — and after it came under repeated criticism from consumers, media reports and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
As canceled flights piled up day after day, Southwest gave few updates and rejected requests for interviews with key executives. It posted a video apology by Jordan Dec. 27, followed a day later by a video with another executive. Company executives did not speak generally to the media until Dec. 29, when they announced that Southwest would resume normal operations the following day.
“The company was slow to come forward in terms of corporate PR communications until the government went after them, the (Transportation) secretary called the CEO directly and demanded they move fast to take care of those people,” said Larry Yu, a George Washington University professor who studies crisis management in the tourism industry. “Short-term, it’s big damage.”
But Yu also noted that Southwest has decades of reputation for relatively low fares and good service to fall back on. He praised the airline for promising refunds, reimbursements and frequent-flyer points.
“They have to do something to win back those customers,” Yu said. Now, he added, Southwest must make good on vows to improve its technology, “because you don’t want to equate low-cost with low-tech.”
Jordan said Southwest has good technology, but he said the airline will re-examine IT priorities once it better understands how the December failure unfolded.
The debacle has also focused attention on Southwest among lawmakers in Congress.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Wednesday that he will re-introduce a “passenger bill of rights,” which failed to become law in the last Congress.
“The Southwest debacle creates a moment when the forces in favor of this kind of consumer-protection measure could prevail,” he said in an interview.
The Senate Commerce Committee said this week it will hold hearings on the Southwest meltdown. Blumenthal said witnesses should include executives from Southwest and other airlines.
“This problem (of flight disruptions) is hardly limited to Southwest, it’s hardly the first meltdown in airline travel, and it’s hardly unforeseeable,” Blumenthal said. He said it was baffling why Southwest had not improved its crew-scheduling technology after it had failed during previous disruptions in the summer and fall of 2021.
Buttigieg has said repeatedly that his department is watching Southwest closely and will hold it accountable to treat customers fairly.
Consumer groups have given mixed grades to the Transportation Department’s oversight of airlines. They viewed the Trump administration as a low point, with few enforcement actions taken against airlines even in the face of record consumer complaints. The Biden administration fined Frontier Airlines and several foreign carriers last year for not quickly paying refunds to travelers whose flights were canceled during the early months of the pandemic, but advocates were disappointed that none of the four largest U.S. airlines were fined.
The Transportation Department has the burden of enforcing consumer-protection laws aimed at protecting airline travelers. Several consumer groups are urging Congress to let state officials and private parties sue airlines to enforce those laws — an effort that has been unsuccessful so far.
“The airlines are going to lobby hard to have as little regulation as possible, but with each passing meltdown it becomes more apparent that real change is needed,” said John Breyault, vice president of public policy at the National Consumers League.
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Man Suing Southwest Airlines Says It Didn’t Refund His Canceled Flight
- 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.
Southwest Airlines Shows Progress in Push to Restore Flights
Southwest Airlines Co.
LUV 0.87%
showed progress Saturday in its push to regain credibility with regulators and travelers, especially those whose holidays were disrupted by the company’s meltdown over the past week, but cancellations increased late in the day.
The Dallas-based carrier had 30 Saturday flight cancellations as of Saturday evening, according to FlightAware. Overall, more than 250 flights among all airlines flying to, from or within the U.S. had been canceled. Southwest’s total compared with 15 for United Airlines and 11 for
Delta Air Lines.
A Southwest spokeswoman said earlier in the day that the airline was operating a normal Saturday schedule of about 3,400 flights. Meanwhile, the carrier was seeking volunteers among its employees to help the customer-service staff catch up with requests for refunds and reunite customers with missing bags.
In a video distributed to staff members Friday, Southwest executives were upbeat about the near-term outlook. “I’m just very pleased to share that things are going very, very well,” said
Bob Jordan,
the airline’s chief executive.
Andrew Watterson,
chief operating officer, said that lines had grown shorter and that the airline expected to provide normal service during the New Year holiday period and beyond. In another update Saturday, he said Southwest had deployed “an army” of people to ship bags back to customers, in some cases using
UPS
and
FedEx
to transport lost luggage.
Southwest has ramped up its service after a meltdown that resulted in nearly 16,000 canceled flights between Dec. 22 and Dec. 29. Those cancellations, stemming from the recent winter storm, left thousands of holiday travelers stranded, furious and in many cases separated by hundreds of miles from their luggage.
Though the storm created problems for all airlines, Southwest canceled far more flights and was much slower than others to recover. Executives of the airline have said the scheduling system used to revise crew schedules after storms was overwhelmed by the volume of changes required. Airline staff members fumbled with makeshift manual methods to match up available crew and planes.
Southwest Airlines travelers waited for luggage in Minneapolis on Friday.
Photo:
Abbie Parr/Associated Press
To get back on track, the airline shrank itself for much of this week, operating roughly a third of its typical schedule on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as it worked to get crews and planes back in place. The airline resumed operating its full schedule Friday.
Southwest’s problems are far from over. Regulators, lawmakers and union leaders have said they are monitoring the airline’s response to the crisis. Southwest has apologized repeatedly and promised to reimburse affected travelers.
“As SWA turns the corner operationally, focus must remain on promptly compensating passengers caught in last week’s breakdown,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a tweet Saturday.
One regular Southwest customer who still needs more reassurance is Allison Whitney, a professor of film and media studies at Texas Tech University. She was due to fly home to Lubbock, Texas, from Minnesota on Wednesday, but her Southwest flight was canceled. Facing the risk of being stranded until early in the new year, she booked an American Airlines flight Friday and made it home.
Ms. Whitney likes Southwest’s luggage and easy-rebooking policies and finds that it can be the only good choice for some of her trips. But she said that after this week, she might hesitate to rely on Southwest for longer trips until she is convinced that the airline’s computer systems are up-to-date.
Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com and Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
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Family Going to Tokyo Disney ‘Devastated’ Southwest Cancelled Flight
- Jade Rodriguez said her family had a “surreal” trip to Japan planned for her son’s 21st birthday.
- But after Southwest cancelled their flight from Tuscon to LAX, they missed their flight to Tokyo.
- “Had we just been notified sooner, we would’ve driven and made it,” Rodriguez told Insider.
A family from Arizona was “in shock” and “devastated” after a last-minute Southwest flight cancellation caused them to miss their trip to Japan and left them out thousands of dollars.
Jade Rodriguez told Insider she, her husband, and their two children planned a “surreal” trip to Tokyo, Japan, because her 20-year-old said that was where he wanted to go to celebrate his 21st birthday on January 2. They were going to visit Tokyo Disney and the Pokemon Cafe in Tokyo, take a train to Kyoto and go sightseeing at historic temples.
They planned to take off from Tucson on Christmas Day for Los Angeles, where they’d catch their flight across the Pacific. They say they were notified their flight was slightly delayed but had no indication it was in serious jeopardy of not taking off at all, and were unaware of the ongoing disruptions Southwest was already experiencing.
But when they arrived at the airport in Tucson, they were met with confusion and miscommunication from the airline.
Southwest employees said were still working on assembling a crew, but told passengers they should check in their luggage anyway. “It was just a lot of miscommunication. One attendant was saying, ‘We’re not getting to LAX,’ another was saying to check in our bags,” Rodriguez said. “It was utter confusion.”
After all the conflicting information the flight was finally canceled altogether about seven hours before their American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo was scheduled to take off. The drive from Tucson to Los Angeles was about seven and a half hours.
“Had we just been notified sooner, we would’ve driven and made it,” Rodriguez said, adding they tried everything they could to get on another flight but could not make it work.
Their flight could only be rebooked on Wednesday at the earliest, but it would be 20 hours of travel and would include covering the difference in flight cost. It would also only leave them about five days in Japan, upending their 8-day travel plan.
“We were just devastated. We’re just in shock,” Rodriguez said, adding that as of Friday they had yet to unpack all of their luggage because they were still struggling to process the situation.
Now they are trying to get as much of the trip refunded as they can, including from Southwest, American Airlines, the hotel in Japan, and Tokyo Disney, where they had already purchased tickets, among other expenses.
Rodriguez said they have received conflicting information from Southwest, with one email saying they would be getting a full refund and another saying they’d only be getting flight credits to be used in the future.
They did purchase travel insurance for the American Airlines flight to Japan and are hoping that means the full price will be covered. But Tokyo Disney, which is not owned by The Walt Disney Company, generally does not issue refunds.
Altogether, Rodriguez said they are out around $7,000.
They are still hoping to reschedule a trip for next year, depending on how much they can get refunded or rescheduled, but are unsure when they will be able to make a trip work for the whole family.
Rodriguez is a teacher, so she had this time off work, but would likely have to try to get work off in the spring because her break does not align with her son’s. Her husband, who is a retired member of the military but still teaches classes on the base, took off work for this trip and would have to try to do so again if the vacation is rescheduled.
Rodriguez said her older son is a college student who is “dedicated” to ROTC, a program that trains university students for military service, so he has limited time in which he can take a trip. He is also a big fan of Disney and Pokemon, which would’ve been the big highlights of the trip for him, so when they offered to take him somewhere else at the last minute, he just said “no.”
Rodriguez said that in the future she may consider getting travel insurance for the entire trip, rather than just the big international flights, even though they already have travel medical insurance through the military. She also said she knew some others may have had even more challenging experiences with the chaotic flight cancelations.
“I’m grateful we lived close and were with family,” she said. “But it was devastating really.”
The family was among thousands of Americans who experienced flight cancellations this week after Southwest had an operational meltdown. The airline canceled more than 2,900 flights on Monday, accounting for around half of all canceled flights across the world that day. The disruptions rippled through the travel industry, leading to rental-car shortages and higher flight prices.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Southwest said: “We apologize to all of our Customers who were affected by this disruption. Customers whose flights were canceled are eligible for a refund and are encouraged to submit requests for reasonable reimbursements for incidental expenses. Those will be processed on a case-by-case basis.”
The spokesperson also said impacted passengers can get assistance through a travel-disruptions portal on their site.
Tokyo Disney, which is owned by The Oriental Land Company, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Walt Disney Company, which licenses intellectual property to Tokyo Disney, did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Have a news tip or a travel story to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.
Southwest Airlines: Planes back in the air; apologies keep coming.
(CNN) — The boss of Southwest Airlines has vowed he will “make good” to passengers hit by his company’s disastrous holiday meltdown as the carrier was delivering on its promise to resume better service on Friday.
“This has impacted so many people — so many customers — over the holidays,” CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“I’m extremely sorry for that. There’s just no way almost to apologize enough.”
Jordan said reimbursements for passengers would cover travelers’ costs including “rental cars, hotel rooms, meals, booking customers on other airlines — that will all be part of what we’re covering.”
“We’re offering refunds, covering expenses — we’ll be going back out with even more after that,” he said. “Beyond safety, there is no greater focus at this point than taking care of our customers, reuniting them with their bags, getting refunds processed.”
The airline’s difficulties started with the massive, frigid winter storm, but they lingered — and even worsened — at Southwest as other major airlines recovered. Almost 15,800 flights Southwest have been canceled since December 22 in a disruption that has shaken the company to its core.
“This was just an unprecedented storm for everybody — for all airlines,” Jordan said. “The storm had an impact, but we had impacts beyond the storm that obviously impacted Southwest very differently.”
How Friday flights have been going
Jordan said the airline would fly on Friday its full schedule of around 3,900 flights. It’s working out as promised — things are much, much improved.
The flight tracking site FlightAware shows Southwest has canceled only 43 flights by 6 p.m. ET, or just 1% of its total flights.
In fact, it’s been the best day for flying since the winter storm first barreled through much of the US before Christmas. Only 153 flights total have been canceled for Friday as of 6 p.m. ET. As for delays, there were almost 4,400 in the US. Southwest accounted for roughly 755 of those, or about 19% of its flights.
As for Saturday, there wasn’t a single Southwest cancellation posted as of 6 p.m. ET Friday, and only 23 for the US.
Southwest has set up Southwest.com/traveldisruption for customers to submit refund and reimbursement requests for meals, hotel and alternate transportation; as well as to connect customers to their baggage.
Luggage aftermath
A Salt Lake Police Officer and his K-9 partner inspect unclaimed bags at Southwest Airlines baggage claim at Salt Lake City International Airport on Thursday.
Rick Bowmer/AP
While planes are in the air again, there are still mountains of misplaced luggage scattered across the land.
Take the case of Southwest passenger Lisa Carpenter. She’s finally heading home to Phoenix after she was stranded in Chicago this week. She said she got a call from Southwest on Friday morning with news her missing luggage made it to her original destination and that FedEx would ship the bags to her home.
“My bags made it to Albany, New York, but I didn’t. I don’t know how, but they didn’t have a flight for me. I don’t know how that happened, but I didn’t get there to see my family,” Carpenter told CNN.
She also said she plans to purchase a tracking device for her luggage before traveling again, and she’s looking to fly with other carriers.
“I will be very skeptical about booking with Southwest again,” she said. “I was out here alone and had to buy new clothes.”
DOT to Southwest: Do right by passengers
Top US government officials have been disconcerted, to say the very least, about how Southwest got to this point. And they’re demanding Southwest makes things right — or face financial repercussions.
The DOT formally warned Southwest on Thursday that it will face consequences if it fails to make right by stranded and inconvenienced passengers.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote in a letter to Jordan that officials will take action against the airline if it does not follow through on promises to reimburse passengers for alternative transportation costs, as well as provide meals, hotels, refunds and baggage reunification.
The penalties include the ability to levy fines.
“It would be an unfair and deceptive practice not to fulfill this commitment to passengers,” Buttigieg wrote, specifically referring to alternative travel reimbursements.
“The Department will use the fullest extent of its investigative and enforcement powers to hold Southwest accountable if it fails to adhere to the promises made to reimburse passengers for costs incurred for alternate transportation.”
Those fines could be substantial.
“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. “I’m looking to make sure they actually do that, and if they don’t, we are in a position to levy tens of thousands of dollars per violation per passenger in fines.”
Regrets and repairs
A traveler looks at luggage in the baggage claim area inside the Southwest Airlines terminal at St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Wednesday.
Jeff Roberson/AP
The airline’s chief commercial officer, Ryan Green, offered his regrets Thursday over the collapse of services, promising to rebuild customer relations that have sunk to rock bottom.
“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.
“We’re continuing to work to make this up to you, and you’ll continue to hear about that soon. But for now, we’re focused on restoring the reliability and level of customer experience we expect of ourselves, and you expect of us.”
His remarks came as Buttigieg made his own scathing assessment Southwest’s troubles, calling the situation a complete “meltdown.”
“You’ve got a company here that’s got a lot of cleaning up to do,” he said.
People want to know: What caused this?
Ask Southwest Airline employees about their company’s technology. You won’t get many raves.
While Southwest grew from a Texas-based discount airline operating three planes into one of the nation’s largest, union officials representing Southwest workers say the company did not keep pace with technology changes. And they say they’ve been raising concerns for years.
“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.
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, the Southwest software — including the crew scheduling system tool — leaves much of the work of rebuilding that delicate network to be done manually.
Some understanding passengers
Some passengers were taking all of this in stride and showed some sympathy for Southwest.
Several people at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport spoke to CNN’s Nick Valencia on Thursday about their travel experiences with Southwest this holiday season.
“I mean, it’s just par for the course. This is flight travel, everyone’s trying to get everywhere at the same time. Unfortunately, Southwest took the brunt of this year’s travel unfortunate situation,” Roderic Hister told CNN.
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.”
Winston Williams, standing near Hister, said he intends to still use the airline in the future. “I like Southwest. I mean, the bags are free,” Williams said.
Damaged reputation
Bride-to-be Katie Demko talks to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about missing her wedding in Belize after Southwest airlines canceled thousands of flights.
But plenty of folks are still taking a hard line with Southwest.
Elaine Chao, who served as secretary of transportation during the Trump administration, described the Southwest Airlines breakdown as “a failure of unbelievable proportions.”
She told CNN it was “a perfect storm of all the things that have been going on with the company. It’s going to take them a very long time” to rebuild trust with consumers, she added.
Phil Dengler, co-founder of the travel advice website The Vacationer, concurs.
“It is going to take a long time for Southwest Airlines to earn back public trust. While the extreme weather affected other airlines, Southwest experienced a true meltdown at the worst possible time,” he said Thursday in an email to CNN Travel.
“A large portion of Americans only fly once per year, and they want a problem-free experience. I believe many people are going to pause when booking their next flight and they see Southwest Airlines as the cheapest option,” Dengler said.
“While the low prices are enticing, this meltdown is going to cause many travelers to explore other low-cost options.”
What customers should do
Dengler cautions to proceed carefully regarding these promised refunds.
“Southwest says, ‘We will honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel and alternate transportation,'” he said. “While Southwest is being vague on how much they will reimburse, I would avoid any expensive hotels or restaurants. Use Google Hotels to find nearby hotels near the airport where you are stranded.”
And he also cautions about piling up a big tab.
“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.”
CNN’s Andy Rose, Andi Babineau, Adrienne Broaddus, Dave Alsap, Nick Valencia, Devon Sayers, David Goldman, Leslie Perrot, Carlos Suarez, Karla Cripps and Ross Levitt contributed to this story.