Southwest Airlines Is Having A Week, And America Is NOT Happy About All The Cancelled Flights

Anybody trying to fly this holiday season is all asking the same question: What the hell is going on with our airline industry?

Although some parts of the country are still suffering from bad weather that are causing delays and cancellations, many airlines have been able to resume relatively normal service.

Essentially everyone except Southwest Airlines.

SWA has over 4x the amount of cancelled flights as any other airline today.

According to Flight Aware, nearly 2,600 Southwest flights have been flat out cancelled today. That's followed by China Eastern at 638. As far as American airliners go? The next one after Southwest is Spirit with 88.

Southwest hasn't really given an explanation as to why they are more of a mess than the other airlines. Earlier today they released a statement that wasn't too reassuring to stranded passengers. The company blamed the weather for the "operational conditions" that forced "daily changes to our flight schedule at a volume and magnitude," that they are still recovering from.

PEOPLE ARE LOSING IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Southwest has been trending on social media for days because of an inordinate amount of flights not only being postponed, but cancelled altogether. And unfortunately it doesn't look to be getting better anytime soon.

People all across the country are losing their absolute minds, and rightfully so. This would be terrible any time of the year - but especially during the Christmas and holiday season when people have limited time to travel.

Even OutKick 360's Chad Withrow got stuck in chaos - having to drive 13 hours with his family as if he was part of a new National Lampoons Vacation movie!

And good luck trying to get in touch with any SWA representative. People are waiting hours at the airports just to essentially be given no information, or worst yet - that their flight is cancelled with no backup options.

The official Southwest Airlines Twitter account has this lovely message which you KNOW nobody is answering that phone call.

You literally may get to your destination quicker if you just walked than by the time you speak to an actual human being and not that AI crap that never gives you a full answer.

WILL THE GOVERNMENT INTERVENE?

Normally I shudder whenever the government gets involved in anything. However, maybe this time they should. Already we're hearing from various Senators including Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. They have both called for Southwest to actually PAY back the affected customers with a full refund.

Meanwhile, somebody woke up President Biden who tweeted out earlier that his Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation will be looking into it.

PEOPLE JUST WANT TO GET TO THEIR DESTINATIONS

Regardless what excuses are made for why this happened, it doesn't make things any better for the actual people being affected by what's happening.

Not only were people stranded for hours, or had to rearrange their travel plans entirely, but the luggage has been an absolute disaster as well.

From luggage being boarded on wrong flights, to not being able to find it in general - the situation is a colossal collapse - with literal life or death implications, as some reported that they don't have their medication that they need!

Oh and even if you are fortunate to find another flight to your destination on a different airline, good luck paying for it:

JUST A MESS EVERYWHERE

And once you finally do get to your destination... just look at this absolute mess:

WHAT'S NEXT?

The priority needs to be for Southwest to safely get things back up and running again. But all signs - including the number of flights already delayed, point to that not happening in a quick manner.

Will Southwest economically survive this as a company? Based on the social media responses below and already threats of class-action lawsuits, they are going to have their work cut out for them. People are PISSED and rightfully so. This makes the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle look like an appetizer compared to the crap show that is happening right now. Southwest is going to learn the hard way not to mess around with people's holidays.

Social media runs the world these days and Southwest's reputation is in the damn gutter.

As I wrote above, Congress is already planning on getting involved and I wouldn't be surprised at some investigations. However, that of course will probably lead to more regulations, which isn't always the best answer.

But Congressional investigations won't happen till further down the line. As of right now, people are LIVID about their current travel dilemma.

Godspeed to the 20-something-year-olds that are running the Southwest social media accounts.