Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 landing in San Diego | © Greg Gross
Southwest Airlines says yes, and there’s a good chance the rest of the airline industry will agree. Sound like a bad joke? It is — and if you’re a member of the flying public, it’s on you.
The punchline is buried in the fine print of that paper ticket that most of us don’t get anymore. The airlines call it a Contract of Carriage, and it governs every ticket sold on every flight of every air carrier.
Basically, it spells out what an airline can and cannot be held liable for. What it legally cannot be held liable for are what’s known in legalese as force majeure, French for “acts of God.” Up to now, these have included things like natural disasters, riots and wars.
(I’m not sure I’d call any war or riot an act of God, but that’s a whole different discussion — and I think we could cut the airlines some slack on that point.)
DIVINE MECHANICS?
Comes now Southwest Airlines, which has decided to add mechanical difficulties to the force majeure list of exemptions. That’s right, folks: In the view of Southwest, when one of their planes breaks down, it’s an act of God.
So if you end up having your trip delayed, disrupted or destroyed as a result of broken-down planes and/or bad mechanics, you’d better look to Heaven for compensation, because you’re not getting jack from Southwest.
If you’re like me, the first thought that crosses your mind when you see something like this is, “They can’t possibly be serious.” But they are. The folks at Smarter Travel break it all down for you here.
I can only wonder how God feels about being called an iffy aircraft mechanic, but I have absolutely no intention of asking Him.
Over the last few years, we’ve come to expect this kind of commercial slapstick from the airlines — just not this one. Spirit Airlines, the people who are going to be charging you for your carry-on luggage and seats that actually recline? Sure. Ryanair, the folks who want to install pay toilets on their airplanes? Absolutely. But Southwest? Somebody say it ain’t so!
Sorry, but it is.
AIRLINE EVASION
Clearly, this is about money, but why now and why this?
You just have to connect the dots.
The other dot in this case was inked earlier this year, when the federal government rewrote the rules that govern how the airlines have to compensate you for things like bumping and long tarmac delays.
You can read the previous IBIT article on this topic here.
Given the current ragged, uneven state of airline operations, these new rules figure to take a sizable bite out of their bottom line — and under the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation has made it clear that they’re siding with the flying public on issues like this.
It was only a matter of time before they started finding ways around DOT. It looks as if this is how they plan to do it.
If I were a betting man, I’d be on my way to Las Vegas right now to wager that, even as you’re reading this, just about every airline in America is adding this cynical little codicil to their own Contracts of Carriage.
But I’d be making that trip by car.