i've read that they will be reimbursing some people for their meals/lodging/rebooking, which can be a huge burden for people with bad/no credit or savings. i also believe that DOT is only able to provide enforcement of reimbursements or vouchers for southwest because southwest had made promises that they would in the past

i'd like to see all airlines required to provide the sort of compensation that southwest is providing here

Seems like we can still ask for a fine, since having those things paid for doesn’t resolve massive headaches for all those people

I’ll believe it when I see it, I am out of pocket $500 so far in chaining my own flights on other airlines to get to my destination after my SW flight on Christmas Eve was cancelled. They offered a rebooking only on their own routes on the 27th which would have been cancelled again in hindsight. I am finally headed to my final destination today 4 days later on another airline as I didn’t expect SW to pay for any of the extra costs.

Reimbursing for lodging and meals by submitting a receipt at a later date is not the same thing as taking stranded customers out of the airport to a hotel and giving them food vouchers. There are plenty of people who have been stuck sleeping in airports because they can not afford pay peak walk-up holiday rates for 4 or 5 days. Those people are sleeping at the airport. This is happening in Denver, Austin, Midway etc. The news media is chock full full of these no lodging horror stories.

Further Southwest famously does not have interline or code sharing agreements with other carriers that would allow their agents to rebook passengers on a different airline. This is yet another detail of Southwest operations that is exacerbating the situation.

The market can more than solve this, if it's an issue. We don't need to impose yet another regulatory burden on an industry already nearly completely insulated from competitive forces that drive innovation.