As someone who flies a lot for work and typically flies Southwest, I was really excited to see them add international offerings in the hopes of saving some money on vacations.
My wife and I and recently flew to Punta Cana using Southwest for a short vacation, and on the first day we arrived Irma had just started to form. I contacted Southwest twice about moving my flight up so we could leave in advance of it getting near the Dominican Republic (I was basically told just use the website and book your own ticket). We ended up booking a second earlier flight that would get us out of the country in advance of Irma reaching the DR.
Southwest ended up cancelling all service in and out of Punta Cana in the days leading up to Irma (I understand the safety argument, but the weather was fine there until the day of the hurricane and every other carrier flew in and out of the airport with the exception of Thursday).
I called and was told there was nothing they could do as they only have one flight a day and they would be unable to put us on any other airline as they do not have agreements with them. We were told to ride out the hurricane and that they could get us on a flight in the days after it had passed.
Thankfully we were able to book on a separate airline, but Southwest has been totally unwilling to take any responsibility for the few hundred people they stranded there in the days leading up to the hurricane.
It has been really frustrating especially after seeing some of the stories about Delta and Jetblue supporting their customers and I just wanted to make sure people were aware of the risks prior to booking with them (especially internationally).
TLDR: Southwest does not have the quantity of planes, infrastructure, or partner airlines to get you out of these international locations in the event of emergencies.
September 08, 2017 at 08:52AM
