Southwest passenger suing airline over failure to provide refunds

NEW ORLEANS - The recent mass cancelation of Southwest Airlines flights has now resulted in a lawsuit.

A Southwest passenger is suing the airline over its failure to provide refunds.

The plaintiff is a man from Louisiana who was one of the hundreds of thousands of passengers who were affected by Southwest's cancelation of more than 16,000 flights last week.

He is accusing the carrier of breach of contract. The suit was filed in a New Orleans federal court and proposes to be a class action.

It alleges that Southwest did not provide passengers with other flights or quick refunds as it halted more than half its operations.

The plaintiff says when his flight was canceled, he and his daughter were offered a credit for use on a future flight.

The airline's tickets, however, include a contract of carriage which empowers passengers with a full refund, if they can't be accommodated with the next available flight.

SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 32 ON YOUTUBE

In recent days, the company has launched a website to help customers with refunds and compensation. 

However, some experts say it's a little too late. 

"Not in my years of being a travel advisor I've never seen this, ever," said Dilworth Daley, a travel advisor.

This week, CEO Bob Jordan wrote a letter apologizing to customers about the chaos and offered those impacted 25,000 frequent-flier points, which is equivalent to about $300. These are in addition to customers' reimbursements and refunds.

However, many customers say they are now facing delays on the airline's website when trying to apply the points to their account.

Southwest has yet to reply to the lawsuit.