Southwest Airlines will reimburse passengers following mass flight cancellations

Southwest Airlines will refund tickets and reimburse passengers for other related expenses they incurred as a result of the mass cancellations a few days back. Thousands of people were left stranded across the country after the airline scrapped around 2,000 airlines as the winter storm raged in the U.S. On Wednesday, at least 2,600 flights were cancelled due to bad weather, of which nearly all of them belonged to Southwest. The rest of the US airlines together account for a little more than 100 of those cancellations, reports CNN.

Southwest Airlines' chief commercial officer, Ryan Green, told reporters on Thursday that the payments will take several weeks but will cover the costs people incurred when they were forced to make alternative travel arrangements. This will include the money they spent on meals and gas. The company will also pay to ship people’s baggage to them.

Also Read | Southwest Airlines cancels over 2,000 flights amid winter storm

Other airlines, including American Airlines and United, said they would place a price cap on the tickets to help those affected by the cancellations. Southwest Airlines planned to return to normal operations Friday, with minimal disruptions.

While Delta has implemented “walk-up fare caps in US domestic markets”, Alaska Airlines told Axios that it will also cut fares in certain cities, even though it already has a ceiling on its tickets. 

The airline cancelled 2,363 flights on Thursday, data from Flightaware.com indicates. On Wednesday, Southwest cancellations stood at 2,510. Federal authorities said they will investigate the matter.

"With consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable," Southwest had said in a statement.

While a major part of the U.S. was battling a historic winter storm, leading to holiday travel being disrupted, Southwest cancelled flights even in places where the storm did not have an impact, such as California.

There were reports of long queues, days-long delays and stranded passengers contending with Southwest agents who seemed helpless, some on the verge of tears.

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