The Department of Transportation said it has penalized Southwest Airlines for failing to respond in a timely manner to “a large number” of disability- and consumer-related complaints from June 2011 to January 2012.
The DOT fined Southwest $150,000 but will credit the airline $115,000 for refunds paid to those who logged complaints.
According to the consent order, Southwest said that “an inadvertent technical problem had caused consumer complaint inquiries entered on its website to be misrouted.”
After discovering the error, Southwest contacted customers who sent complaints, but the DOT said Southwest failed to address the specifics in each complaint. The airline said its main priority was to respond to each consumer as quickly as possible given the delay that had already occurred, according to the consent order.
Southwest said it refunded the full amount of each affected customer’s ticket regardless of the merits of the complaint. Also, the airline said it has taken measures to ensure that similar website routing errors do not recur.
The DOT said its Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings uncovered the violation during a “regulatory compliance inspection” at Southwest’s headquarters in Dallas.