Is Southwest Still Canceling Flights? (And How to Ensure You Receive a Refund If Your Flight Was Canceled)

Last month, Northern California resident Joanne Marzan and her seven-year-old son took a brief trip to Southern California to celebrate Christmas with Marzan’s family. Their return flight from Orange County to the Bay Area on Southwest Airlines was scheduled for Monday, December 26, marking the beginning of their travel troubles.

“When we arrived at the kiosk at John Wayne Airport, it indicated that our flight was canceled and advised us to speak with an agent. The line wrapped around the terminal, and the customer-service phone line was perpetually busy. So, I quickly reserved a rental car as a backup in case I couldn’t rebook our flight. I’m really glad I did. I could never reach Southwest. The rental company mentioned I was fortunate to secure a car since they were turning others away,” Marzan recounts.

Southwest wasn’t the only airline experiencing delays and cancellations during the holiday season. Disruptions affected the entire country leading up to and over the December 25 holiday weekend due to severe winter storms and unusually cold weather across much of the United States. However, while operations normalized for other major U.S. carriers, Southwest continued to face challenges and cancel flights in the days after Christmas.

In total, Southwest canceled over 15,000 flights from Thursday, December 22, to Thursday, December 29, which accounted for more than half of its scheduled flights during that period, according to flight data tracking service FlightAware.

“We were among the fortunate ones who had the option to drive back. I still haven't managed to reach their customer service,” says Marzan, who hopes to secure a reimbursement from Southwest for the $400 car rental (the airline has committed to refunding canceled flights and covering travel expenses).

Marzan isn’t alone in facing a holiday travel “flightmare” following Southwest’s operational disaster over Christmas weekend and the days that followed.

Mae Hamilton, an assistant editor at Dinogo and a self-described “loyal Southwest customer,” also faced holiday flight disruptions while she and her husband tried to fly from Los Angeles to Dallas for Christmas.

They departed from Los Angeles International Airport on December 22, when the initial signs of trouble began. “An announcement came over the speaker indicating that the ground crew was struggling to find one last flight attendant. Their scheduling system was down, forcing them to resort to the much slower method of calling the company to locate the final crew member,” Hamilton recalls.

Ultimately, the flight took off just 30 minutes after its originally scheduled departure, and Hamilton thought, “That should be the end of it.”

A few days prior to their scheduled return on December 28, after seeing news reports about the extensive Southwest disruptions leaving many customers stranded, “We realized we likely wouldn’t be flying back to Dallas on Southwest at all and hurried to book another flight home. We found one on American Airlines, but it was several days later than our original departure, and [the flights] were quite expensive. Fortunately, since we were staying with family, extending our visit by a few days was not an issue,” Hamilton explains.

Hamilton has submitted her extra expenses for the American flights to Southwest for reimbursement and is currently awaiting a response regarding any compensation from the airline.

Federal regulators have promised a thorough investigation into what occurred at Southwest, particularly focusing on outdated crew-scheduling technology that left flight crews out of position after the storms, effectively paralyzing almost all of the airline’s operations.

“Here’s why this complex puzzle is taking us several days to resolve,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan stated in a press release on December 27. “Our network is intricate, and the functioning of the airline relies on all components, especially aircraft and crews, staying on track to their designated locations.”

Jordan further remarked that the airline is dedicated to getting “all components back in order to conclude this ongoing struggle. The recovery tools we utilize work well for us 99 percent of the time; however, it’s clear we need to intensify our existing plans to upgrade systems for such extreme situations so that we never face a crisis like this again.”

Is Southwest still canceling flights?

Fortunately, Southwest returned to a largely normal flight schedule on Friday, December 30, and the airline claims on its website that it has now reinstated its “full schedule of flights with minimal interruptions.”

Over the New Year’s weekend, Southwest canceled only about 1 percent of its flights, based on data from FlightAware.

How to ensure you receive a refund

With operations back to normal, Southwest is now dedicated to addressing the needs of the over 1 million travelers estimated to have been impacted by last week’s disruptions.

The company announced that it is developing a “multi-faceted plan to regain trust and restore relationships with those who rely on Southwest.”

Here are some options for securing refunds, reimbursements, and other forms of recourse provided by the airline.

A dedicated website

Southwest has created a dedicated website containing information about the holiday flight disruptions: southwest.com/traveldisruption.

Flight refunds

For those whose flights were canceled or significantly delayed for travel scheduled between December 24, 2022, and January 2, 2023, you can request a refund (not just a future flight credit) using an online form.

Reimbursement for travel expenses

To request reimbursement for expenses incurred due to a flight cancellation or significant delay for travel scheduled between December 24, 2022, and January 2, 2023, Southwest asks customers to complete an email form (be sure to select “Expense Reimbursement Request”). Travelers should attach copies of their expenses to the email form for consideration. Southwest has stated that it will honor “reasonable requests for meals, hotel stays, and alternate transportation (such as rental cars and tickets on other airlines).”

Tracking lost luggage

If you're trying to find lost luggage, please complete a dedicated online form, which offers the option to have your baggage delivered to a specified address.

“We expect nearly all baggage delayed during the recent holiday travel week to be shipped or delivered by midweek,” Southwest announced in a statement on January 3.

Enhancing customer relations

Beginning January 3, Southwest is reaching out via email “to every ticketed customer significantly affected last week,” according to the airline's latest update.

“Our teams are dedicated to returning baggage, processing refund requests, and reimbursing specific incidental expenses related to the travel disruption in a continuous effort,” Southwest stated.

The initiative to “ensure this never happens again”

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is currently probing the incidents at Southwest. A Senate committee has also pledged to conduct an investigation. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has previously criticized airlines for disruptions, remarked that “meltdown” was the only term he could find to describe last week’s occurrences at Southwest.

In response, Southwest stated that “urgent efforts are ongoing to enhance processes and systems that will strengthen our ability to recover effectively from large-scale disruptions of our operational plans.”

In a December 30 interview on Good Morning America, Southwest CEO Jordan recognized the difficulties the airline faces in recovering from the holiday travel crisis.

“This has affected so many people, countless customers during the holidays. It’s impacted our employees as well. I’m profoundly sorry for that. There’s almost no way to express enough apologies,” Jordan said, adding that “there will be many lessons learned to ensure this never happens again, because it must not happen again.”

Associated Press contributed reporting.