Southwest Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights in the past week and lost thousands of luggage.
Image Craig Hastings/Getty
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Image Craig Hastings/Getty
Southwest Airlines canceled more than 15,000 flights in the past week and lost thousands of luggage.
Image Craig Hastings/Getty
One of the most powerful things about social media is that it can put you right at the heart of a situation: A concert by Lizzoa political protest, a Florida emu farma picnic where a young man expressing devotion to corn…
Or the Southwest Airlines baggage claim area at Houston airport on Christmas Day, where a sea of suitcases stretches as far as the eye can see.
This video was posted by 29-year-old Hillary Chang, a longtime fan of Southwest Airlines. “I’m a very loyal customer of Southwest,” said Chang, who travels often with her boyfriend. “I have a Southwest credit card. We actually only fly Southwest.”
At least they did.
Chang and her boyfriend were booked on a Southwest flight on Christmas Day, from Baltimore to their home in Los Angeles, with a connection in Houston. They arrive in Houston hours late, only to find out their flight to LA has been cancelled. They were asked to take their bags and try to put them back.
They rushed to the baggage claim area, where the TikTok scene unfolded before them. What Chang didn’t mention was that her boyfriend had recently proposed and (while the ring was on her finger) the ring box was in her checked luggage bag and she was hope to keep it as a keepsake.
“I won’t lie, I shed tears,” she said with a laugh. “I was. I cried.”
Hillary Chang and her boyfriend were recently engaged. Chang was wearing her ring, but the ring box was in Chang’s checked baggage on Southwest Airlines, which she feared was lost.
Hillary Chang
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Hillary Chang
Hillary Chang and her boyfriend were recently engaged. Chang was wearing her ring, but the ring box was in Chang’s checked baggage on Southwest Airlines, which she feared was lost.
Hillary Chang
Trying to get any help from (or even being heard by) Southwest is futile, Chang said. There are hundreds of people waiting in line to serve customers. However, Chang can have a voice and find empathy on social media.
“Houston airport looks like this,” she said on TikTok, scrolling through hundreds of unclaimed suitcases. It was enough to make the blood of any regular passenger go cold.
Last week, a series of major winter storms hit the United States and nearly shut down holiday tourism in some parts of the country.
All airlines have had cancellations and delays, but none like Southwest Airlines, which has canceled more than 15,000 flights — 10 times more than any other.
It was a public relations disaster for Southwest, not to mention a huge financial hit. Citigroup estimates Flight failures during the holiday season can cause significant losses to an airline’s earnings.
Magnifying the black eye for the Southwest is social media. All week, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok were flooded with photos and videos of people’s difficult travel experiences, making the scope of failure a lot clearer.
One woman tweeted that she had been stuck at the airport for days with two toddlers and a baby.
Posts like this get millions of views and comments, such as “Don’t fly @SouthwestAir folks” and “Southwest will be destroyed for this and rightly so.”
Even the White House piled on, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeting defaming the airline.
A week since the storm made landfall, every airline except one has recovered. Overall, we see about 3% of flight cancellations, with the exception of Southwest’s unacceptable performance – 59% canceled yesterday. USDOT is investigating and we are enforcing customer service standards.
– Minister Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) December 29, 2022
Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, with Aerodynamics consultingsays he was shocked by the Southwest crisis.
“They’ve got the best reputation for customer service and management agility,” he said. “They’re usually pretty good at responding to crises and I’m really surprised by all of this.”
However, Aboulafia thinks Southwest Airlines can win back those customers if it handles the situation properly. “As bad as this weekend, no safety issues,” he said. “I think customers can forgive them.”
Southwest loyalist Hillary Chang isn’t so sure.
Stuck in Houston, watching sprawling skateboards and a huge stream of frustrated tourists, Chang and her fiancé realized they needed to fend for themselves.
They rented a car and drove 21 hours back to LA. Chang posted a short TikTok about the trip, which involved driving through the night so he could get back to work on the morning of December 27. TikTok has yielded some results – one of Chang’s friends had send her $50 for gas, wishing the couple well on their long trip.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan posted a video on social media of his own, calling the week-long crisis a “huge puzzle” and pledging to get to the bottom of what happened. And although thousands of customers are still stranded, Southwest said it expects to resume normal operations on Friday and will take new bookings for the first time in days.
In the face of widespread disruption, we are working hard to safely restore our operations and support displaced Customers & Crew. We know this is unacceptable and sincerely apologize. If your trip is affected, explore self-catering options here: https://t.co/B6L8HR9Yqc pic.twitter.com/mLWndYMned
– Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) December 28, 2022
It was cold consolation for Chang, who said she had questioned her longtime loyalty to the airline.
“I have 50,000 miles with them… and I’ve been thinking about it, believe me. I’m not quite done with Southwest, but I’m ready… I’m ready to date another airline .”
Chang never expected to see the suitcase (or her ring box) again. “People keep telling me to stay positive, but if they had seen what I saw at the Houston airport, they wouldn’t have done it,” she said. “I can expect that maybe it’ll show up in a few weeks, but at this point, I think in my head I just think, ‘It’s gone and it’s okay.'”
