How Southwest Airlines Is Impacting College Bowl Games
Southwest? How about SouthWORST.
By now we all know about the absolute crap show that Southwest Airlines has been the last few days. Despite every airline being significantly impacted by the same detrimental weather conditions, Southwest still hasn't gotten their act together.
After 90% of flights were cancelled one day earlier this week, another 2,500+ flights have been cancelled today. It's an absolutely absurd, ridiculous, frustrating ordeal that may even have legal implications.
Oh, and Southwest has already announced that ANOTHER 2,400+ flights are straight up cancelled tomorrow. Thursday! The storm stopped on Saturday night for most parts of the damn country. What the hell is going on here, Southwest?!
The company initially said that their delays and cancellations were due to last weekend's winter storm.. We are now finding out that the excuse - surprise, surprise, was mostly BS. More reports are coming in that SWA has known for months that their technology system has been outdated and is resulting in a systemic failure.
Captain Casey Murray, the President of Southwest Airline's pilots union further explained the situation to CNN. “We’ve seen these sorts of meltdowns occur on a much more regular basis and it really just has to do with outdated processes and outdated IT,” Captain Murray said.
“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."
Shocker. Southwest thought they could just keep kicking the airplane down the runway until finally it would catch up.
FROM CHRISTMAS TO NCAA BOWL GAMES
Not only did SWA's incompetence ruin people's Christmas and holiday plans, but it's also affecting those wanting to attend this week's Bowl Games.
From player's families to fans, people aren't able to attend many of this week's Bowls and some are trying to resell their tickets on social media.
TERRIBLE LOOK FOR SOUTHWEST
Families of the player's have also been affected. Hell, even some university's band members can't get to their destinations. Many band members were already home for winter break and planned to fly out for their school's games.
Garey Williams tweeted about his Southwest cancellation mess and decided to make a 9-hour road trip to see his son Bennett play for Oregon in tonight's Holiday Bowl.
9 hours? My apologies. It took him OVER 16 hours. Look what you've done Southwest.
Other family members had similar disaster stories.
FANS TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS
This Texas Tech fan hopped on some random New York City Greyhound bus and has been hauling ass for 24 hours to get to tonight's Texas Bowl in Houston.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW?
If you're trying to fly Southwest, you're essentially still screwed. Even if you do make it to whatever city is hosting your desired Bowl game, your luggage most likely won't.
The good news? If you are willing to drive or even live near a city where a game is taking place, many tickets are cheap as hell now that so many fans opted out due to both the airline problems and a lack of hotel rooms.
As I wrote yesterday, Southwest is losing the optics war.
The negative perception of them is going to take a significant toll. Add in that Congress and the Department of Transportation are going to investigate and most likely go after them in some way - not an ideal situation to be in.
Once again - socail media runs the world. Southwest is getting absolutely crucified by tens of thousands of people. #Southwest has been trending for days now - not the type of trend the airline was seeking.
The company is going to have to try and do major damage control. It's bad when Spirit Airlines looks more competent than you. I don't know if Southwest ever overcomes this.
However, if you have been affected by the Southwest debacle, OutKick 360's Chad Withrow reported that the airline told him that they will be refunding all affected customers.