SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Southwest Airlines is trying to make it up to flyers left stranded for days because of a scheduling meltdown last month.
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The airline is expediting refunds in hopes passengers will forgive and forget the chaos.
The cancellations and bungled flight schedules around the end of 2022 left many scrambling to rent cars or paying exorbitantly high last-minute flights, or else risk sleeping in the airport during the holidays.
"I mean, I don't have a complaint, really," said KCBS Radio Bejan Siavoshy, who had his flight canceled around that time.
"I got home, and maybe two and a half weeks later I got the entirety of my money back," he said. That included flights for him, his parents, and the expenses that he’d racked up staying longer than planned.
All of that was reimbursed along with tens of thousands of complimentary airline points to fly Southwest again.
He laso managed to get his money back faster than he would have with a paper check by using the popular app, Venmo.
Brett Snyder, the President and so-dubbed "Chief Airline Dork" of the airline industry blog, Cranky Flier, recently spoke with the CEO of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, over the debacle.
"He said, as of last Friday, 93% of refunds had been processed and they’re turning them around within three days," said Snyder.
Jordan knew it had to be done in order to restore some goodwill with customers, according to Snyder.
But he believes it’s unlikely people will stop flying with Southwest altogether, no matter how angry they might have been last month.
"We've seen many airlines meltdown before," said Snyder. "Granted this is bigger and more spectacular but it has happened many times and it is rare that is has any long-term impacts."
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