New York (Trends Wide) — Many Southwest customers have been desperately trying anything to get back home. However, some passengers were horrified to find that other airlines have advertised last-minute flights to their destinations but at a cost of thousands of dollars.
United and American Airlines say they have a solution: The airlines will impose price caps on travel to and from select cities, the companies told Trends Wide.
While not specifically mentioning Southwest, American hinted that the price caps were designed to help customers of the collapsed airline return home.
Price caps vary by location in the areas affected by the cancellations, an American Airlines spokesperson told Trends Wide. Southwest did not respond to Trends Wide’s request for comment.
American Airlines notified customers of the price caps in a series of tweets targeting people who posted screenshots of $1,000 flights.
A traveler posted a screenshot showing flights from San Diego to Orlando with American, Delta and United fares costing more than $2,000. The passenger was looking to rebook a canceled Southwest flight.
“We are doing our part to help get people where they need to be and are capping rates for select cities,” American tweeted.
another person tweeted to American Airlines asking for help with delayed flights and no rebooking options (by adding a hashtag #southwestdebacle).
“Please send us a DM with the booking code, and we’ll be happy to check out the available options,” American replied.
United Airlines also says it is capping prices on some routes served by Southwest Airlines.
The price limit is extended through Saturday and applies in many of the US and Latin American markets where Southwest also flies. United spokesman Josh Freed could not immediately specify a dollar amount for the limit.
“We continue to get people to their destinations as safely and quickly as possible this busy holiday season, and our latest effort includes capping fares in select cities to ensure our flights are available to as many customers as possible,” Freed told Trends Wide.
Cancellations are piling up
The price caps could be a welcome relief for Southwest travelers stranded across the country.
Southwest canceled 2,507 flights for Wednesday, by far the most of any airline, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. The airline canceled 2,694 on Tuesday and has already canceled another 2,348 flights for Thursday.
To make the travel nightmare worse, Southwest has a policy of never rebooking customers on rival airlines. Southwest Airlines does not have interline agreements with other airlines that allow their agents to rebook passengers on a different airline, reducing options for stranded passengers.
“Southwest is unique in the industry in that we don’t have codeshare partners,” a company spokesperson said. “That’s just part of our business model.”
In a video statement released Tuesday, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan spoke to frustrated customers and said, “I’m so sorry.” Jordan blamed the airline’s mass cancellations on record low temperatures across the country that made flight routes difficult. “[D]After days of trying to operate most of our full itinerary over the busy holiday weekend, we reached a decision point to significantly reduce our flights to catch up.”
Southwest is the nation’s largest carrier and the largest carrier in 23 of the top 25 US travel markets, according to the company.
– Trends Wide’s Kate Trafecante and Greg Wallace contributed to this report.
