TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — While many airlines were forced to cancel flights because of the winter storm, Southwest faced the most issues. Southwest has canceled thousands of flights over the holiday weekend, causing a meltdown in service.
The airline said it now plans to fly one-third of its schedule for the next several days. It comes as bags are piling up in baggage claim. Police have been seen in the baggage claim area monitoring this situation making sure there are no baggage thefts.
Southwest blames “operational challenges” the meltdown in service is far from over.
“We get to Denver, it was a nightmare people everywhere, flights canceled delayed,” said Billy Magill, from Venice. “We wind up sleeping on the carpet for three nights with no compensation.”
That was on Dec. 21, as Billy and Donna Magill were trying to return home to Venice after a dream trip with their son visiting national parks.
According to Flight Aware, 2909 Southwest flights were canceled Monday and another 2,600 were canceled Tuesday. On Wednesday, 2477 are already canceled.
“Southwest told us they couldn’t get us home until after the holiday,” he said.
This forced the Magills to spend another $1,600 on new flights with United, but into the Fort Myers airport on Christmas Eve, stranding them without their car.
“Don’t let them tell you that it was weather related because that is nonsense,” said Magill. “There is something going behind the scenes it was, it was pilots were getting timed out.”
On Tuesday morning, the Magills picked up only two of their four bags.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is getting involved to investigate. DOT said in a statement it’s “concerned by Southwest’s unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays & reports of lack of prompt customer service. The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”
Southwest said it implemented a site where travelers can rebook or request a refund Southwest.com/traveldisruption. Also, its Travel Advisory is still in effect to offer travelers flexibility with rebooking.