What Next TBD: Will Southwest Be Held Accountable?

Slate Technology

Slate

Society & Culture, Technology, History

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

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Over the holidays, thousands of passengers were left stranded or delayed when Southwest Airline’s outdated re-booking software broke down.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 If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next TBD. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think you was real.
0:02.0	My name is Caden Sinclair.
0:04.0	Some people call us American royalty.
0:06.0	We were Liars.
0:08.0	A new series on Prime Video.
0:10.0	We were happy. We wanted for nothing.
0:12.0	Based on the best-selling novel.
0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
0:20.0	No one in my family will tell me.
0:22.7	When you're left for dead, you want answers. We Will Liars. New series, watch now, only on
0:28.9	Prime Video.
0:35.5	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.
0:48.2	And as I was looking through Southwest Instagram, which is an excellent place to look for lots of angry, furious people who have not
0:55.7	found their bags and have not gotten where they were supposed to. I saw this woman. And what I
1:01.1	thought was really remarkable about her is she had actually hosted the Department of Transportation's
1:06.8	policy in the Instagram comments, trying to help other people understand what they were owed.
1:12.6	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.
1:22.6	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.
1:31.5	But she was a very experienced traveler.
1:33.6	She used to travel all the time for work.
	...

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