TAMPA, Fla. — Southwest Airlines continued to cancel and delay thousands of flights across the country Wednesday after a massive travel nightmare over the past few days.
As of Wednesday evening, Flight Aware reported Southwest canceled about 2,500 flights, with about 100 Southwest flights canceled at Tampa International Airport alone.
It was the holiday travel headache Scott Fike never anticipated.
“I’ve been booking flights every day ever since and getting canceled every day until today,” said Fike.
He’d been trying to get from Baltimore to Tampa. Six canceled Southwest flights later, Fike was tasked with finding his bag that had been at Tampa International since Saturday, and eventually, he was reunited with his luggage.
“I was thinking we were on a wild goose chase for a minute, but [it] worked out,” said Fike.
Southwest said they were fully staffed and prepared for the holiday weekend when severe weather swept across the country.
“Southwest is a unique airline,” said Sheldon Jacobson, a professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois. “Part of it is the fact that they use a point-to-point system as opposed to a hub and spoke.”
The airline explained they build their flight schedule around communities, not hubs.
Jacobson said Southwest turns their airplanes much quicker than other airlines. He explained when you have a disruption, computer software and algorithms are being used to reposition everything from planes to crews and get flights back up.
“For some reason, the situation for Southwest this time basically collapsed, and their software did not deliver,” said Jacobson. “Part of it is not knowing where the equipment and the crew were, and if you have to start to deal with this manually as opposed to using computer algorithms, it’s a very slow, arduous process.”
Jacobson weighed in on how long it’s going to take the airline to get back on track.
“They have to figure out where everybody is, where all the planes are, and where all the crew are, and then once again coordinate all this so that their algorithms can work. This could take several days,” said Jacobson. “I would not be surprised if we don’t see improvement until the beginning of the new year.”
Southwest has a form online to request a refund. The airline also said if you’ve been impacted by a cancellation or significant delay between Christmas Eve and January 2, you may submit receipts for consideration through the “Email Us” option on its website.
Southwest said they’ll honor reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotels, and alternate transportation. Experts suggest people try the airline's international lines if it’s hard to reach a customer service agent on the domestic line.
Katy Nastro with Scott’s Cheap Flights said to keep following up because you’re entitled to your refund and compensation.
“Save your receipts. That’s first and foremost so you can have proof,” said Nastro. “Develop a backup plan. Waiting five days to be able to get home or get to where you need to go is pretty brutal, so if you can and have the means, rebook yourself on another airline and do it immediately.”
