Southwest fine overview:
- Who: Southwest Airlines received a $140 million civil penalty related to 2022 holiday flight cancellations from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
- Why: The cancellations came because the airline canceled 16,900 flights and stranded over two million passengers over the holiday and is in addition to $600 million in refunds and reimbursements for passengers.
- Where: The impacted Southwest flight cancellations were across the United States.
Southwest Airlines received a $140 million civil penalty from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) related to 16,900 canceled flights that left more than 2 million travelers stranded over the 2022 holidays.
The Southwest Airlines fine, which is 30 times larger than any previous DOT fine, is in addition to $600 million in refunds and reimbursements the DOT made Southwest send to passengers who were impacted by the operational meltdown, the DOT said.
The airline previously said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it expected the DOT to levy a fine.
“Today’s action sets a new precedent and sends a clear message: if airlines fail their passengers, we will use the full extent of our authority to hold them accountable,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Taking care of passengers is not just the right thing to do — it’s required, and this penalty should put all airlines on notice to take every step possible to ensure that a meltdown like this never happens again.”
Southwest Airlines fine will go to future passenger delay compensation
The Southwest Airlines fine will mainly go toward future compensation for Southwest passengers impacted by cancellations or delays caused by the airline, the DOT said.
The DOT issued a consent order related to the Southwest Airlines fine that detailed failures that violated consumer protection laws.
“An airline’s practice of not providing adequate call center assistance when the carrier cancels or significantly changes a passenger’s flight is unfair as it causes substantial harm to consumers,” the consent order says. “Consumers are substantially harmed when they are stranded and need help to rebook flights and are unable to reach a customer service representative at all or in a reasonable amount of time by phone.”
In September 2022, the DOT had asked Southwest Airlines to make changes to its customer service plan for delays that entitled delayed passengers to reimbursements for meals, hotels, ground transportation and other expenses if a flight is significantly delayed or canceled due to an airline issue.
Those changes meant that the airline was responsible for those reimbursements when the 2022 holiday Southwest Airlines cancellations occurred.
Were you impacted by the 2022 Southwest flight cancellations? Let us know in the comments.
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7 thoughts onSouthwest fined $140M over 2022 holiday flight cancellations
One of the worst experiences ever, we felt so defeated, anxiety was over the roof, emotional distress. Truly a horrible experience, not only did it take 3+ hours just to get in contact with some one. Given the round about each time, felt bad for some of these employees because they just work for the company, you can tell they were thrown into the wolves. Moments we can’t take back, we missed my nieces first Christmas! Waking up from panics stack from the thousands of dollars that were just gone, with no response! It took them 34 days to reimburse any money at all and let me tell you they did not make it easy one bit that I felt so defeated. I no longer dare to fly during any holiday or special event due to the fear of our flights being cancelled. SW handled this very unprofessional, this strats at the top!
Our flight was canceled. We were left in freezing cold weather with NO help from Southwest! We had to stay in a nasty Hotel, the ONLY hotel we could find for a few days. No medicine for my boyfriend who is diabetic, no clothes for the freezing cold weather. On hold on phone for over 6 hours to try and get help from Southwest to no aval. (Yes, I did stay on hold that long. I was determined to try and get us some help.) Missed Christmas with our family and work, only to wait for a rental car to drive back to Texas.
Our flight for 4 was canceled on Christmas Day. The lines were so long, they did not get us a room, e had to rent a car an extra day. We rescheduled for the next day and that flight was delayed 7 hours. Then on New Years, we got stuck at our layover for about 10 hours. That’s 3 occurrences.
My Christmas was ruined and I have been back and forth with Southwest Twitter over this debacle. The only thing they compensated me was $132 of food I had to eat. And 25000 points given by the president of the airline. By DOT standards we are supposed to be compensated up to 400% or $1550 max. None of that has been done so far. I hope someone helps us and holds us accountable.
They wouldn’t let my grandson board the plane from New Orleans to Orlando Florida even though we paid for a chaperone. He was 6 years old. We lost over $7000 on a hotel room at the Contemporary Hotel. Southwest refunded his ticket only.
Family was Impacted, my husband had to drive from Nashville to Tampa Florida and back to drop off our son whose flight was canceled. Our son had to get back to work and next flight out wasn’t going to be over a week.
Yes me and my family were on a cruise and when we returned to port we received text messages saying our flight had been canceled.