Southwest Airlines continued to extract itself from sustained scheduling chaos Thursday, canceling another 2,350 flights after a winter storm overwhelmed its operations days ago.
The airline said in a statement Thursday that it plans to return to normal operations on Friday, after previously warning that cancellations could continue for days.
The company also said it has set up a website link at Southwest.com/traveldisruption for affected customers to submit refund and reimbursement requests for meals, hotel, and alternate transportation. They can also seek assistance in finding lost or waylaid luggage at that site.
The Dallas carrier acknowledged it has inadequate and outdated operations technology that can leave flight crews out of position when adverse weather strikes.
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Southwest was the only airline unable to recover from storm-related delays that began over the weekend when snow, ice and high winds raked portions of the country.
As has been the case every day this week, the vast majority of flight cancellations nationwide, are Southwest flights.
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According to the FlightAware tracking service, there were 2,451 flights canceled before noon Thursday in the U.S., and 2,357 were Southwest routes or about 58% of its entire schedule.
The airline has warned that cancellations will continue for days.
The federal government is investigating what happened at Southwest with total cancellations soaring past 10,000 early in the week.
Southwest added a page to its website specifically for stranded travelers, but thousands of customers remain unable to reach the airline.
Laurie Hirschfeld Zeller was among those tallying receipts.
She said she and her husband waited in line for hours in the Cancun airport on December 27th before booking their own way home on a different carrier after Southwest told them they wouldn't get out until January 5th.
“If we hadn't been able to stand for that long, if we didn't have a smartphone, if we didn't have a good credit rating, I think we'd still be camping out on the floor of the Cancun Airport," said Hirschfeld Zeller.
Instead, the couple spent nearly $3,000 on two flights and one more night in a hotel.
After submitting receipts to a customer service representative who responded to her plight on Twitter, Hirschfeld Zeller is waiting to find out if they’ll be fully reimbursed.
“I'd like to see them make a real effort to make it right,” she said.
But while Southwest has pledged to do so for its impacted customers, attorney Sid Scheinberg said their promise is more of an act of goodwill than a legal obligation.
"They really are not obligated to pay you for meals, transportation," said Scheinberg.
Scheinberg said that's according to a 55-page contract of carriage passengers enter into when they purchase a trip with the carrier.
In it, customers waive their right to file a class action lawsuit.
Still, Sheinberg said cases will likely pop up in small claims court.
“It’s not a carte blanche to think that you have a right to sue them and say, ‘Oh, I missed Christmas.’ And it's kind of a logical thing. You know airline flights do get canceled all the time. So, you miss a job interview to get the job or you miss your son's graduation who's graduating school. How can you pay somebody back for that?" he said.
Still, with Congress and the Department of Transportation now calling for an investigation, Scheinberg said protections for consumers could grow stronger.
For now, he encourages those impacted to gather receipts. And like Hirschfeld Zeller, hope Southwest stands by its promise to make things right.
"I'm hoping I will be a happy Southwest customer again, but I don't know," said Hirschfeld Zeller.
