Some of you may be aware of news stories relating to Southwest Airlines Contract of Carriage (CoC), and how recent changes to the CoC regarding accommodating Customers during mechanical events are being perceived incorrectly or taken out of context by the media. Your Communications Team has been working with our Director of Customer Advocacy, our General Counsel Department, as well as our media contacts to set the story straight. Here’s the straight scoop, in case you get questions or concerns about this issue from Customers, friends, or family:
Simply put, Southwest had never before defined Force Majeure Events in our CoC. In our latest update, we offered our Force Majeure definition (which can be found in its entirety on SWALife >Tools >Policies >Contract of Carriage > page 2) which states that "Force Majeure Event means any event outside of Carrier’s control" and so the "mechanical difficulties" we refer to as Force Majeure events would be those outside of our control, such as airport mechanical difficulties (e.g., the airport de-icing system breaks) or Air Traffic Control issues (e.g., airport or regional tower goes down). We are not referring to our own aircraft maintenance difficulties, which would clearly be under our control. Our policies and practices confirm this interpretation. None of our procedures have changed—we still accommodate Customers exactly the same as we did previously in the event of our own aircraft maintenance issues occur.
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