There isn’t much love being shown toward Southwest Airlines this week.

For an organization that so heartily trumpets its family business status and customer-first philosophy, it sure laid an egg and did a great Grinch impersonation this Christmas weekend.

Maybe there wasn’t enough hype leading up to the holiday, or maybe there weren’t enough media people exaggerating the likelihood of a winter storm for the whole country, but somehow Southwest ended up being the worst example of Scrooge, and without the fuzzy happy ending.

People are angry, and rightfully so. They booked their air travel with Southwest as much as six months in advance and were placing their trust in them. Southwest hasn’t offered much of an explanation beyond “it was the perfect storm.”

Not only was the weather an issue for actual travel, but it also was a big issue for the logistics of staffing. Southwest failed to have people stationed or located where they were going to be needed. One article we read explained they are experiencing growing pains as an airline: expanding quickly from 300 locations to 700.

Apparently, that growth was not maintainable through a peak travel time that happens to coincide with everyone praying and singing for a White Christmas. There was sufficient warning about this storm and what impact it could have on travel. Some people rearranged schedules and left a day early (yes, on Southwest) to return home and honor commitments, quickly jumping off Southwest and onto American Airlines instead.

But most were not that fortunate. Some will have to wait days or even a week to get new flights. That will not go over well with bosses or family that must build their lives around the people missing because of Southwest.

The government has announced an investigation. Isn’t that great? One more debacle which will accomplish nothing. The people, the customers of Southwest, need to hurt them the only place it counts. That would be right square in the wallet. The refund we received when they canceled our return flight was for less than half the cost of the ticket. There was nothing for “pain and suffering” or food and lodging had it been necessary.

Weather happens, but based on the industry you are in, you must prepare. Southwest did wrong by their employees, their stockholders and most importantly, their customers.

— RV