What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - Will Southwest Be Held Accountable?
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2023
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
Over the holidays, thousands of passengers were left stranded or delayed when Southwest Airline’s outdated re-booking software broke down. Who can be held accountable, and why don’t airlines invest more in their own infrastructure?
Guest: Heather Tal Murphy, business and technology reporter for Slate.
Host: Mary C. Curtis
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| 0:25.0 | Profits may be subject to capsule gains tax and the value of cryptocurrencies can go down or up. |
| 0:36.0 | When slate business and tech reporter Heather tall Murphy went looking for travelers whose holiday plans were upended by Southwest Airlines. |
| 0:45.0 | It didn't take long to get results. |
| 0:48.0 | And as I was looking through Southwest Instagram, which is an excellent place to look for lots of angry, furious people who have not found their bags and have not gotten where they were supposed to. |
| 0:59.0 | I saw this woman and what I thought was really remarkable about her is she had actually hosted the Department of Transportation's policy in the Instagram comments trying to help other people understand what they were owed. |
| 1:14.0 | That woman was Andrea minor. She's an informed consumer, someone who knew the ins and outs of airline travel more than your typical flyer. |
| 1:23.0 | And what I learned is that she was trying to get back home and it was important to her to get back home because her mother had not been very well. |
| 1:32.0 | But she was a very experienced traveler. She used to travel all the time for work. And so because of this, she knew her rights really well. |
| 1:39.0 | So when Southwest had issues, she had a backup plan. |
| 1:43.0 | She immediately went to go buy a flight on another airline or she made that plan. And so she said, OK, I would like a full refund. |
| 1:50.0 | And she knew that she was owed that full refund. |
| 1:53.0 | And instead of getting a refund, what happened is the ticket agent printed her out this voucher that she stared with me and we put it in our story. |
| 2:03.0 | And it says the Southwest love voucher and it's a voucher for $200. She gave her one and one for her daughter. |
| 2:10.0 | And this is what the agent offered her instead of a full refund. |
| 2:14.0 | There was also a problem with hotel vouchers. She was told they ran out. |
| 2:19.0 | And though there was a Southwest webpage where consumers could get a full refund, even Andrea did not know about it at the time. |
| 2:27.0 | She wasn't the only one. |
... |
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