December 18, 2023
Flying Southwest and your flight is delayed? You could soon be entitled to a $75 dollar credit just for your trouble…not including the other things you get. That’s because of a massive fine the Department of Transportation just handed down to the airline today.
So here’s what’s going on.
Do you remember that Southwest meltdown that canceled flights and impacted more than 2 million passengers between Christmas and New Year of last year? Well – today the DOT said after an in-depth investigation — Southwest is going to pay for that. To the tune of a $140 million dollars in a civil penalty for several violations of consumer protection laws because of the operational failures of the airline in 2022. You may remember — initially those flights were canceled because of bad weather but then they continued to get canceled and delayed and it got way worse because once the weather cleared up — Southwest’s operations couldn’t manage the backlog, their planes were all in the wrong places and their operations just fell apart. Then to add insult to injury southwest customer service was non-existent and thousands of passengers did not promptly get their refunds.
So now – the DOT has ordered Southwest to put the majority of that $140 million fine – about $90 million into a compensation system for future passengers who are affected by significant delays and cancelations when it’s Southwest’s fault. So if you have a Southwest flight and your arrival time is delayed by three hours or more because of something that’s within the control of Southwest including mechanical issues with their planes – Southwest is now required to provide you with a transferrable $75 voucher for future use on the airline. This is on top of the free flight rebooking, hotel and food vouchers you may also be entitled to.
It’s important to understand – if weather is the reason for the delay or cancelation you do not get this voucher.
More about this Southwest fine here.
More about the passenger bill of rights for all airlines here.
