Several days into the Southwest meltdown, customers are still in line for lost luggage. It’s plenty of time to compare horror stories about what's unfolded over the past several days.
Taylor Humphries booked a flight with her husband from Spokane to Denver, where they were stranded for about 20 hours. Humphries said she made the decision with her husband to book on another airline.
“What he had to do is run from terminal to terminal, all over the place in Denver airport trying to find us a flight home,” she said.
Customer advocacy experts like those at flyersrights.org say that should never be the case in situations like this.
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Flyersrights attorney Andrew Applebaum said establishing and enforcing a reciprocity rule would give customers added protections.
“The Southwest meltdown really reveals that a reciprocity rule s beyond due,” said Applebaum. “Where an airline will put passengers on the next available flight regardless of airlines. And this would match stranded passengers with other seats on airlines.”
Southwest Airlines does not have agreements with other major airlines to place passengers on competitors' aircrafts. And it's simply not required by the Department of Transportation. If it were, Applebaum said it would change the landscape of the airline industry.
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“We used to have a reciprocity rule before deregulation,” he said. “If there were a reciprocity rule, airlines would have to compete on reliability.”
In his latest letter to Southwest Airlines, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg reminded the company's CEO of its obligation by law to refund customers for canceled flights.
The letter reads in part:
“This means Southwest must provide refunds within seven business days if a passenger paid by credit card, and within 20 days if a passenger paid by cash, check, or other means. The Department will use the full extent of its investigation and enforcement authority to ensure Southwest complies with its refund obligations."
“The airlines say things should be left up to the market and left up to competition. But without the reciprocity rule there really is not much competition,” Applebaum said.
In hindsight, Humphries said having the airline place them on a different flight could've been a game-changer.
“I was devastated,” she said. “Pregnant crying for like 20 hours straight. So, it would've been a lot easier if that would've been done for us.”
She said perhaps her holiday memories would be just a little more pleasant.
