Video of Southwest Airlines Cancellations Is Absolute Chaos
Southwest Airlines canceled a ridiculous number of flights Monday night, leaving passengers stranded, and the company claimed the airline is "frozen" and can't rebook anyone. Video from those situations is now coming available and it looks like absolute chaos.
Here's a look at San Diego, where all Southwest flights leaving town are now canceled. People had to go through piles of bags to find theirs.
#SOUTHWEST NIGHTMARE: All flights leaving San Diego tonight are canceled, announcement just now over the intercom says the airline is “frozen and not able to assist with rebooking.” People are told find their bags in these piles. Several are in tears. @10News pic.twitter.com/cpUfblhV5t
— Laura Acevedo (@10NewsAcevedo) December 27, 2022
In Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, the company announced 90 percent of its flights had been canceled because there was no crew to work the flights. The announcement further claimed the airline would not be able to get anyone out for the next four days.
Here is the video of the intercom announcement.
— Michael Doudna (@MichaelDoudna) December 26, 2022
Speaker says staffing issues have led to the cancelation of 90% of Sky Harbor Southwest flights. They say they cannot get anyone out for the next 4 days. https://t.co/eULewj44Zm pic.twitter.com/fnlay8sBw5
This was the Southwest line in San Francisco.
This is the Southwest line at SFO… passengers stranded as airlines - especially Southwest - continue to deal with disruptions today.
— Max Darrow (@MaxDarrowTV) December 26, 2022
Southwest has cancelled more than 2,600 flights nationwide today, per FlightAware.
MORE >>> https://t.co/cJdBCmwIJU @KPIXtv pic.twitter.com/hhKMB0OPjE
At this time last year, Southwest had 440 flights in the air. According to flight radar, on Monday night the company only had 38 planes flying.
Southwest had 440 flights in the air at the same time last week, compared to 38 right now. pic.twitter.com/0RDFkHh8XS
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) December 27, 2022
To make matters worse, Southwest on site in Phoenix is not offering any refunds or assistance to passengers, only a voucher to rebook in the future. Southwest's corporate office claims it will offer refunds but that is not getting translated to the ground.
We had multiple people in line tell us Southwest was not offering any refunds, or other help, only a voucher or an ability to rebook later.
— Michael Doudna (@MichaelDoudna) December 27, 2022
Corporate Southwest did email us and say they are offering refunds, but there seems like there may have been a disconnect at some point. https://t.co/NGFJtEENCE
Just absolute, insane, Lord of the Flies-style chaos.
Happy Holidays, everyone!