Denver Airport Will Investigate Airlines’ Holiday Shit Show

“And I’m hoping Southwest will refund my car and my hotel for tonight and then [provide] compensation for all of this,” Bailey says while driving near Wichita Falls, Texas. “Thank goodness I had my bags with me. I was smart enough not to check my bags…because who knows where those would be?”

Bailey was one of countless Southwest Airlines customers whose flights have been canceled over the past week. Other airlines experienced similar issues with flight cancellations because of freezing temperatures and snow, but Southwest’s entire system seemed to collapse under the weight of crews and planes getting behind schedule and an outdated infrastructure. People traveling for the holidays were then faced with deciding whether to travel via rental car, pay price-gouged tickets for other airlines, or miss out on family celebrations.

But the issues for Southwest have compounded even after Christmas. Since Monday, December 26, Southwest has canceled an additional 10,000-plus flights.

“Our network is highly complex, and the operation of the airline counts on all the pieces, especially aircraft and crews, remaining in motion to where they’re planned to go. With our large fleet of airplanes and flight crews out of position in dozens of locations, and after days of trying to operate as much of our full schedule across the busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flying to catch up,” Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a December 27 video statement.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced that it will investigate Southwest’s cancellations. And now Denver International Airport plans to launch its own examination of Southwest, in addition to Frontier and United airlines, to figure out what the hell went so wrong.

“I believe it’s critically important that we seize the opportunity to learn from every incident. I have conducted [after-action reviews] on a regular basis throughout both my military and transportation career,” says DIA CEO Phil Washington.

The after-action review will ask the airlines a series of questions: What was supposed to happen? What actually happened? Why did it happen, what went well, what did not go well, and what are we going to do next time?

But Washington may also need to ask the airlines what they’re going to do to make their screw-ups right with customers whose plans were ruined and who now have larger travel bills heading into 2023.

“I think what Southwest did is criminal,” says Cathie Beck, a Denver-based writer who was attempting to travel from Phoenix to New Orleans on December 26. That flight was delayed repeatedly until it was finally canceled. Beck then had to pay $800 to land a one-way ticket to New Orleans. She also missed out on one night in the hotel room that she had already paid for. And because her original Southwest flight was canceled, Beck missed out by 200 points from reaching 200,000 points on her Southwest account, which is the level needed to hit the company’s A-List. Those on the A-List get first access to the plane when it boards and can snag a seat toward the front and easily stow overhead baggage.

“The way that they brand and set up, it works pretty well. But when it goes wrong, it goes really, really wrong,” Beck says of Southwest, unsure whether her January 2 flight from New Orleans back to Phoenix via Southwest will actually take place.

In the early-morning hours of December 28 at DIA, the cordoned-off Southwest section of the baggage claim looked like a graveyard of lost baggage that filled an area much larger than any of the lost-baggage sections for other airlines. Plenty of passengers were waiting to file claims at DIA with the Southwest lost-baggage desk, which still had especially cheery holiday decorations on its office windows, obscuring the gloom that many were feeling on the inside. Some people were sleeping on the ground near the baggage claim using makeshift pillows.

Reports show that DIA has been one of the hardest-hit airports for Southwest cancellations.

In his announcement about the review of the three airlines, Washington adds, “Though airline accountability is imperative for this latest event, we want to determine why flight disruptions and delays happened and how we can improve the overall operations here at DEN going forward for the good of our flying passengers. In the meantime, we have asked the Denver Police Department to increase security around the baggage claim area until passengers can be reunited with their bags, and we are continuing to provide blankets, diapers and other amenities for stranded passengers.”