Travel expert Francesca Page joined Cheddar News to break down the Southwest Airlines chaos still unfolding. 

Passengers on the majority of Southwest Airlines flights were still not free to move about the country on Tuesday, and Department of Transportation said it would look into the airline's operations to make sure it was doing as much as possible to get its passengers home. Travel expert Francesca Page joined Cheddar News to break down the chaos still unfolding. "Cancellations just compiled one after the other, and with those cancellations, you end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place and not in the cities they need to be to continue to run operations," Page noted.

Navigating the Southwest Airlines Flight Cancellation Debacle

most airlines have recovered from by monday from a weekend of winter storms that canceled as many as one in five flights. But passengers on the majority of Southwest Airlines flights were still not free to move about the country on Tuesday. And Department of Transportation said it would look into the airline's operations to make sure it was doing as much as possible to get its passengers home joining us. Now is travel expert Francesca. Page Francesca. Thanks so much for joining us this morning to talk about this important story. What do you think of this holiday travel fiasco? What went wrong for Southwest here? Well, you know, according to flight aware dot com, more than 3800 flights were canceled monday. Southwest Airlines owned a majority of those with over 2800 flights canceled, which makes a total of 87% of its total flights that went on monday. So along with Denver International Airport, Chicago O'Hare Hartsfield, Jackson, Atlanta International Airport and laguardia, amongst others. They saw major travel issues this week and essential as the storm continues to sweep across the country, it continued to impact many of the larger travel hubs. And so cancelations just compiled one after the other. And with those cancelations, you end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place and not in the cities they need to be to continue to run operations. So it really becomes about trying to get flight crews back into the cities where they need to be to operate flight schedules for their airline and then re accommodate everyone that they can, you know, Francesca. We've heard from Southwest ceo bob jordans, you know, kind of blaming this fiasco on everything from the winter weather to a shortage in staffing. We've also heard it could potentially be outdated infrastructure or the fact that Southwest is the only airline that isn't really operating on kind of a hub system here. What do you think is the reason behind this? And what do you think Southwest could potentially do to ensure this doesn't happen in the future? We know we did see a similar meltdown in october of 2021. Well I think it's a combination of factors, but the main question that I keep getting asked is how long these delays and cancelations will last as we head into the aftermath of this. Southwest, for example, has said their flight schedules would continue to suffer significant impacts throughout this week and they anticipate additional challenges and changes within or reduced level of flights as we approach particularly New Year's travel. They've also said that additionally, with consecutive days of extreme winter weather behind us, continuing challenges are impacting customers and employees in a very significant way. So taking them as an example, these delays and cancelations are bound to have a bit of a domino effect for a while. Now obviously the Department of Transportation is looking into this to ensure that travelers actually get reasonably compensated. So if a traveler has a flight that does get canceled delayed, what should they do? Well if your flight gets canceled most airlines will rebook you on the next available flight to your destination. As long as seats are available if your flight is canceled and you choose to forgo the planned trip. The latest is that you are entitled to a refund for any unused portion of your flight even if the flight is non refundable and that's according to the U. S. Department of Transportation. In addition you are also entitled to get your money back for any bag fees or extra. Such as seat assignment. Occasionally an airline will also offer a voucher for future travel but be very careful. You want to ask the airline about any possible restrictions with that kind of voucher. Such as any blackout dates or expiration dates booking requirements or if it's limited to a certain number of seats. And finally Francesca. Obviously we're coming out of some very difficult years for the airline industry on the back of the pandemic. So what does this situation say about the overall health of that industry? Well I think the health of the industry is pretty good. I mean the fact they've managed to continue through Covid says a lot but obviously it's been a tough year and it's going to continue to take a bit of time before airlines really run as smoothly as they did before. Covid. Thank you so much. That's Francesca page travel expert. Thanks for your time and insight this. Morning