Are Airlines Capping Fares To Help Stranded Southwest Passengers?
To say Southwest Airlines is having a bad week on the PR front would be an understatement. Customers are seething after the airline’s widespread flight cancellations in the wake of the massive winter storm that disrupted holiday travel across the country, far outpaced those of its industry peers. Southwest has canceled more than two-thirds of its flights each day since Monday, while its competitors are only canceling about 2% due to inclement weather.
Rival airlines were not off the hook for a potential PR black eye when customers looking for alternative routes took to social media to complain about other airlines’ high prices on routes hit by the Southwest meltdown. Now the great Southwest meltdown of 2022 has done the unthinkable: it has caused capitalist airlines to cap fares on some affected routes and feel sorry for all those stranded passengers.
In response to the moves, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg tweeted Tuesday night“As travelers want to rebook due to Southwest’s cancellations, other airlines should cap fares on these routes to help people who need to go home.” Noting that United and American Airlines have implemented fare caps, Buttigieg added, ” I am encouraged to see that several airlines have now committed to this step – all should do so.”
Complaints below his tweet indicated the level of frustration among passengers. A traveller tweeted on Wednesday: “@AmericanAir doesn’t care. They are price-boosting villains.”
American responded via tweet, “We’re doing our part to get people where they need to be and we’re capping fares for select cities.”
wealth contacted American but didn’t get an immediate response. The Department of Transport when contacted by wealthShe referenced Buttigieg’s Tuesday tweet. The agency will conduct an investigation into why Southwest has had such problems.
In another scathing comment, a traveller tweeted on Tuesday“This should be illegal…I was on a canceled @SouthwestAir flight so I’m trying to rebook something so I can fly home this year (literally…no Southwest flights until January) and flights today are TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS ONE WAY ?!? !?”
She shared a screenshot showing multiple airline ticket prices in excess of $2,000 for a one-way flight between San Diego and Orlando.
Another user answered“This is absolutely disgusting and unethical on so many levels.”
United replied wealth: “We continue to get people to their destinations as safely and quickly as possible during this busy holiday season and our latest efforts include capping fares in select cities to ensure our flights are available to as many customers as possible.”
Southwest shared a statement wealth read in part: “While Southwest continues to operate approximately one-third of its schedule for Thursday, December 29, we plan to return to normal operations on Friday, December 30 with minimal disruption… Our sincere apologies – to our customers , to our employees and to everyone affected by this disruption – go only so far.”
It pointed to a “travel disruption” website where customers can submit refund and reimbursement requests for meals, hotels and alternative transportation, as well as get help locating lost luggage.
Cowen Inc. analyst Helane Becker noted in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Wednesday that Southwest has had years of warnings about its outdated technology, which it should have updated well before the storm this month.
“People have a right to be really angry and annoyed,” Becker said. “They should have invested in these systems years ago, but they just didn’t.”
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