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Southwest Airlines is offering compensation to the customers affected by the thousands of flight cancellations over the holidays in what it is referring to as a "gesture of goodwill."
The Points Guy's Zach Griff shared an image on Twitter showing an email addressed to "Valued Southwest Customer(s)" from CEO Bob Jordan announcing that the airline was giving 25,000 points to people whose flights were cancelled or delayed more than three hours between December 24, 2022 and January 2, 2023, which will include 25,000 points for each paid and ticketed flier on their reservation.
"On behalf of Southwest, I want to let you know we're so sorry," Jordan wrote in the email. "Our Purpose has always been to connect our Customers to what's important in their lives. And this holiday season, as you made plans with us to do just that, we fell short. For that, please accept my personal apology."
Southwest had canceled the majority of its scheduled flights on several days during and after the Christmas weekend as technical issues coincided with Winter Storm Elliott.
Southwest Airlines employees were unable to communicate with the airline due to technological issues, TWU Local 556 union president Lyn Montgomery told CNN's Pamela Brown on December 26.
“The phone system the company uses is just not working,” Brown said. “They’re just not manned with enough manpower in order to give the scheduling changes to flight attendants, and that’s created a ripple effect that is creating chaos throughout the nation.”
Southwest Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson said the company's outdated scheduling software was the main cause for the massive cancellations -- which continued even after Winter Storm Elliott cleared in most parts of the country -- as some crew members were left stranded and Southwest's crew schedulers attempted to put together a new schedule, which was complicated by the Federal Aviation Administration's strict regulations.
“The process of matching up those crew members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology,” Watterson said via CNN.
Captain Casey Murray, the president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told CNN that the airline has been dealing with "these issues for the past 20 months" and said "these sorts of meltdowns occur on a much more regular basis and it really just has to do with outdated processes and outdated IT.”
Murray said the airline's operations haven't experienced many changes since the 1990s, which has led to numerous issues prior to the winter storm.
“It’s phones, it’s computers, it’s processing power, it’s the programs used to connect us to airplanes – that’s where the problem lies, and it’s systemic throughout the whole airline,” Murray added via CNN.
Jordan acknowledged Murray's concerns in a message to employees obtained by CNN that promised the airline would make technological improvements.
“Part of what we’re suffering is a lack of tools,” Jordan said. “We’ve talked an awful lot about modernizing the operation, and the need to do that.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg referred to Southwest's issues as a complete meltdown of the system while speaking with CNN at the time.
"I made clear that our department will be holding them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to get them through this situation and to make sure that this can't happen again." Buttigieg said.