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How To Get Reimbursed From Southwest

Some customers have already received funds
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Photo: Jeramey Lende | Shutterstock

The Southwest Airlines delays and cancellations during the holidays led to many upset passengers and stranded fliers. Customers are beginning to get refunds, along with multiple apologies from the airline. 

According to WFAA, some customers have already received refunds for their canceled flights and other expenses from their trips. Additionally, frequent flier miles have been awarded as an extended apology for this mishandling of the Christmas-time issues. The company has partnered with PayPay to refund those costs. 

"We're making great progress by processing tens of thousands of refunds and reimbursements a day and we will not let up until we have responded to every impacted customer," Southwest CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement

Other issues during the rapid flight cancelations such as lost baggage have also been dealt with, and most fliers have recovered their luggage. 

Here’s how to get reimbursed:

Passengers must submit receipts through the airline's travel disruption web page. Once Southwest is able to process and approve the receipts an email from Southwest will link them to Hyperwallet, a service provided by PayPal. Once their payments are approved, passengers will receive a Customer ID to access their awarded funds. 

“Once again, we are truly sorry for the inconvenience you experienced,” WFAA reported that the email to customers read. “Reasonable requests for reimbursement for meals, hotel accommodations, and alternate transportation (e.g., rental cars and tickets on other airlines) were honored. Any other request such as lost wages, credit card interest, expenses requested with handwritten receipts, etc. were not honored.”

Jordan also explained in the statement that Southwest spends approximately $1 billion per year on technology and they will continue to upgrade their processes so this will not happen again in the future. 

Local Profile has reached out to Southwest for comment. This story will be updated pending response.