the storm hit where southwest flies. some is because they have the point to point model instead of operating at hubs like the other major airlines do. therefore, once the storm hit you ended up with staff and airplanes out of position and it's hard to get back on schedule, but you simply cannot ignore the fact that southwest airlines allowed their technology to get out of date. >> this will go down as possibly the largest ever meltdown, certainly in southwest's history, maybe in the entire u.s. aviation history. it just does not happen that airlines cancel 60, 70% of their flights days and days in a row. >> part of the scene with the mess with hundreds and hundreds of bags, and a line stretching around baggage and these are individuals who are just walking into baggage, there's a path carved in the center of the bags and they look through one by one flip through the tickets, and hope their bag is there. and a woman in nebraska had never been to chicago but her bag made it here. anita, back to you. >> anita: i can't imagi

rebooks you on southwest. we had a hypothetical passenger trying to get them from san jose to atlanta. look at this screen. unavailable, unavailable, unavailable. on monday, unavailable. on tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. the earliest we could get that theoretical passenger from san jose to atlanta is saturday. >> who pays for your hotel? who pays for you to stay someplace? >> you do. so the thing is southwest at this point is attributing all of this to weather. the question is what's actually happening in the background. here's what i think we have to look at. the legacy of this meltdown happening at the holidays is whether regulators are going to get enough complaints from passengers like you to do what other countries do. they require the airlines to rebook you on other airlines. delta and america and alaska and others do that. southwest does not. >> because they have to pick up the tab because they don't have an agreement? >> of course. they call it an interline agreement. look for that in the future

. >> i've been loyal to southwest. their system did not work this time. >> i was going to get on one flight. they said there's still two sides. and click click. sorry. there's 148 people on stand by for that same plane. >> passengers fired up, baggage piling up as the meltdown at southwest shows no signs of letting up. southwest's ceo issuing an apology but that won't help the stranded. the stock driving 10% in the last two days. i'm edward lawrence in for neil cavuto, this is "your world." we're all over it with mike tobin in chicago's midway airport. jacqui heinrich with the president in st. croix where the administration is vowing to get to the bottom of this and nancy mace on the billions in aid airlines received and the southwest airlines union head fuming over what he calls a catastrophic failure despite all of it. he's here. fox to mike tobin in chicago where it's all going down. mike? >> well, going down certainly is one way to put it. going downhill. you have this mass of bags standing as a visual example of t

and looking into the southwest debacle. what exactly is causing this issue at southwest where other airlines were fine. how do you fix this? joining us justin george, transportation reporter for "the washington post." justin, thank you so much for being with us. explain to us why is southwest such a mess right now? what happened? >> yeah, it's pretty staggering. it's basically a perfect storm of what happened here. you had antiquated sort of older scheduling systems. you have so many things, so many variables, you're working with when you talk about flights. you're talking about positioning airplanes and cries and pilots and runways and gates. and all of those things sort of have to work together. well, according to employees, according to the union, according to analysts, southwest has been long working with out of date equipment. and they've been urging the airline to make an upgrade like many airlines have. and they haven't yet. they've been slow to do so, for whatever reason. and they've gotten by in the past, past stor

the ceo of southwest airlines saying that this problem, which is unique to southwest airlines, was causedy a myriad of issues including staffing shortages, that winter storm as well as the antiquated system that the airline functions, making them susceptible to this kind of problem. passengers don't care. they just want their luggage and they want to care their clothes and get to their financial destination but they'll have to wait a little bit longer. >> and it doesn't seem like a quick fix either. nick, thank you. we'll check back in with you. >>> so the southwest flight attendant and pilots have warned the company for years about the technology that left the airline so vulnerable to a meltdown just like this. southwest pilot's association writing that more than a decade leadership short comings and safeguarding have led to disappointed passengers and millions in lost profits. the airline has not been clear about what they have done in re re recent years to update that technology. we welcome anybody to join us on the program. pete buttigieg spoke to southwest union remembers and here is

there are southwest and at sfo. 38 out of 47 flight cancellations, our from southwest. all right. let's take a live look oakland's this looks like the people checking in and getting a bag check to stephanie just said they're not too far behind sfo. they've also had a a lot of cancellations today. not getting a lot better. >> a lot of frustration. i'm sure from different passengers stranded at the airport. >> kron four's justin campbell is live for us at san jose airport. and justin, you've been following this story pretty closely the last few days. tell us a bit about what you're seeing now. >> yeah, that's right. stephanie and catherine, you can see here at the airport, one of the biggest things that they have 147 flights have been canceled today, like you said. but when you look behind me, you can see all of these this is what it looked like yesterday. and i'll let you look at some video that we shot just a little while you can see what the lines look like now, how that looks different yesterday. the line the line was on the way that e- outside of the building. so today it seems

southwest did get more than $7 billion for the u.s. help shore up operations in the pandemic. it paid a quarterly dividend for years before the covid crisis, signaling the airline had cash to spare. in other words, given a choice, southwest put investors ahead of customers and crew. and we took a look at the 2019 annual shareholder letter in which southwest wrote this, quote, during 2019, the company continued to return value to its shareholders. the company returned $2.4 billion to shareholders through $372 million in dividend payments and $2 billion through four separate accelerated share repurchase programs. those are the facts. let's bring in claire tate a former manager at southwest airlines she worked for years planning and scheduling crews and in charge of updating the technology that handled some of the scheduling systems. he was bound by an nda while a manager at the airline so she can't get into the deep specifics but she has knowledge about this. thank you very much for joining us this morning. >> thank you, poppy. thank you

the southwest -- the president of southwest ceo apologizing to customers saying they haven't handledecretary of transportation pointing to them there may be some questions coming the other way as well. >> lots of baggage, bret. >> bret: yes. exactly. well done. >> and maria cantwell has been saying she plans to investigate. she is a senate democrat. but you also have republican sam graves, committee for transportation saying that southwest has a lot to make up for there are pretty horrific images of bags and bags piling up over the weekend and holidays of people who were not able to make their flights even though their bags were checked. this is something you can see both democrats and republicans getting on board is when you see a business completely fumble, especially at such a time when weather was not the only thing as the biden administration noted that came into play here. and i'm sure you're going to see some of that playing out next congress. >> bret: hopefully playing out and everybody gets home to destinations in coming hours and days. stand by if you would. up next, the pa

systems that southwest airlines uses that are unique to southwest airlines, and they would be able to operation when massive cancellations occur. however -- and our ceos have reported to us -- our ceo has reported and our c.o.o. has reported that they can't keep up with the demand, that these systems can't do things quickly enough. and we've been promised that they're putting enough into the systems, that they've spent enough money. but they started so late in trying to update these systems that even all those efforts really haven't come out to make any reasonable changes. >> the ceo of southwest airlines tonight put out a statement. he said, "i have nothing but pride and respect for the efforts of the people of southwest who are showing up every day in every way. i'm apologizing to them daily and they'll be hearing more about our specific plans in the future." what do you want from him? >> we're so tired of apologies. we're so tired of southwest airlines just getting through one major catastrophe and then going on to the next one and saying oh, we're sorry again. we need to see an ac

all southwest. have to flights delayed were southwest. sky 7 was above oakland airport today as planes sat near the southwest terminal. we went inside where several rows of luggage wait to be claimed look at this, goodness. many people were separated from checked bags as southwest flights were canceled or rerouted. we spoke to a san leandro man who rented a car to drive home from colorado rather than wait for a flight. >> this is chaos. i'm getting no answers. i have tried to call multiple times. no one to talk to. i would love to be reimbursed for everything. and lost wages from work. >> right? despite the chaotic tourney, he told us he would fly again with southwest. at sfo it is a similar site, luggage outside baggage claim. southwest ceo says it is doing everything it can to return to or more operations by the end of this week. to san francisco international airport, a live look, 47 flight cancellations in total, 80% of those are southwest more than 120 flights were delayed. >> southwest's problems are not just limited to the passenge

but the southwest pilot's association says there's more to southwest's problems than ice and snow. >> snow that hit last week was the catalyst to this, but what went wrong is that our i.t. infrastructure for our scheduling software is vastly outdated. >> reporter: southwest executives acknowledge that in a message attained by cnn, saying matching up crew members with the aircraft could not be handled by our technology. our system today cannot do that. >> they don't know where they are, they don't know where the airplanes are. >> reporter: travelers stuck in snaking lines or on hold for hours. >> phone calls were busy. it's awful. >> reporter: trying to track down their luggage. pam is diabetic, and needs the medication in her bags. christmas with her family never happened. now she's just trying to get home. >> i love my family. i really had my hopes up that i was going to be able to see them. and it hurts. >> reporter: now, southwest say they are offering customers a full refund for a flight credit. but the reality for some travelers, they tell me they've spent hundreds, even thousand

what exactly is causing this kind of issue at southwest? airlines were fine, how do you fix it? joining us now, justin george, transportation reporter for the washington post. justin, thank you so much for being with us. explain to us how southwest is such a mess right now. what happened? >> it's pretty staggering, it's basically a perfect storm of what happened here. you have antiquated older scheduling systems, you have so many things, so many variables that you're working with in flights. positioning airplanes, crews, pilots, and runways. all of those things have to work together. according to employees, according to the union, including to analysts, southwest has long been working with out of date equipment. they have been urging the airline to make an upgrade, like many airlines have. they haven't yet. they've been slow to do so for whatever reason. they've gotten by in the past, because they've been very centralized, centralized instate, and their systems can recover from that. they can do that pretty quickly, or in a matter of days o

the southwest ceo offered an apology last night, signal doing everything the day -- today, southwest rolled out a new website specifically for travelers to submit requests for refunds. the entire thing is such a mess that the washington is getting involved. transportation secretary told our colleagues at msnbc nightly news yesterday that he's going to sow hold southwest accountable, and make sure they give financial compensation to their customers. top members of the senate commerce committee have vowed to look into the southwest debacle. what exactly is causing this kind of issue at southwest? other airlines were fine, how do you fix it? joining us now, justin george, transportation reporter for the washington post. justin, thank you so much for being with us. explain to us how southwest is such a mess right now. what happened? >> it's pretty staggering, it's basically a perfect storm of what happened here. you have antiquated older scheduling systems, you have so many things, so many variables that you're working with in flights. positioning airplanes, crews, pilots, and runways. a

you hear this apology from the president of southwest airlines.lking about some of the largest airlines -- southwest airlines in the country. your union has said come the pilots union has said, that you have been warning southwest about this for years. talk about the problems that has caused this meltdown that other airlines do not seem to be experiencing. 90% of the cancellations of all airlinesre southwest. >> good rning. thank you for having me. there is -- it is unconscionable to me that we a sitti here today in 2022 whewe heeen unding t alarm, along with our pilots union and other unions, that our technology issu are absolutely going to lead us to this ple. we have seen this before. this is not the first time it is the first time has happened over christmas and affected so many, but we have had issues. spending the night on airport floors. sleeping in hallways. yet we are still showing up. we are still ready to service our passengers even under those conditions. at our union and the pilots union and i'm sure other unions have been asking our

and of those, more than 90% of southwest flights. the company says it is been forced to scale back its flight schedule to get operations back on track, and get crews in the right places. southwest ceo says it is the largest scale event he has seen. meanwhile, passengers are stranded at airports struggling to get answers on when they will be able to reach their destinations. we have seen incredibly long lines at the airline counters, and tons of luggage piling up baggage claims. southwest has said these cancellations and delays could go on for several more days. meaning maybe that weekend before many passengers can even revoke. here's more from southwest spokesperson. >> obviously facing some operational challenges this evening with winter storm elliott has moved on to include some challenges with our flight crews being stuck at locations not where they need to be along with the aircraft, as this point we are working to accommodate our customers as best we can, and offer the most options we can to get folks back home, or to their vaca

it's southwest airlines. what more can you tell us about that situation you had with the ceo of southwest airlines and what is he doing? what are they doing to correct these major issues? >> well, over the course of the last year, as you know, we've seen a number of issues with the different airlines and in the summer in particular, we pressed them to improve their standard of customer service. they provided commitments in writing including southwest they would go above the previous level of what you do to take care of customers with things like covering the cost, if you get stuck and you need a hotel or a meal in addition to rebooking you to get your on your way. now that we have those commitments that were made to us over the summer, we're going to be using that as a tool to hold them accountable and i made that clear to southwest leadership. now, they did -- the ceo pledged to me they will not only meet but exceed the customer service standards and commitments they made to us in the past and that we're in

. >> southwest travel meltdown. southwest has canceled 2300 flights today. that is about 50 pre--- 58% of its flights but that is down 2500 flights from yesterday and 2700 flights cheers day. we have t most impact with this. >> this airport in san jose is the most impacted airport in the bay area. as you can tell, from what appears to be hundreds of unclaimed bags in the baggage claim area. inside of the air. this flights today. and for context, that is only to less than this time yesterday morning. nationwide, more southwest flights are canceled. marking the fourth straight day that the airline canceled more than 50% of its scheduled flights. there is a new statement on twitter late last night offering three things. an apology from corporate, -- and getting the best service possible. >> g for self-service travel changes through january 2. if you have travel plans before then, you should not have to get on a call, or stand in line, you southwest.com. i hate southwest. i waited nine more hours. i'm upset, i'm stressed. >> that was a passenger in houston after

we're a loyal southwest family. we look nowhere else except southwest.ut this was the first time i've seen it collapse. >> so what about -- >> the people, the workers at the counters, the ground crew, they were awesome. it was just they were trying to get in touch with people that they couldn't talk to. they were on hold for four or five hours. >> they're going through so much, too, those pilots, flight attendants, folks behind the desk, trying to get answers from the airline, too. you say how loyal you guys are to southwest. do you think that remains after this? >> you know, it's hard to say. someone asked me that yesterday and we got a little quick trip in january that is phoenix to anaheim that would be a super inexpensive flight and save a lot of time. i think, well, the drive is five and a half hours and i don't know that we would risk -- it's the time lost. we were at the airport at noontime on sunday. and finally made the call at 10:30 p.m. we needed to go. we could not afford to lose any more time if we were going to drive. and that's what we fac

this appears to be a direct response to the southwest meltdown. they haven't really specified what those price caps are. they will, of course, vary from location to location. but this would certainly come as a relief to people who are just desperate to get to wherever they've been trying to go the last few days, abby. >> all right, well, let's hope some of those folks get a little bit of good news. matt, thank you so much. >>> my next guest has said that this is the worst disruption he has seen in his 16 years with southwest. mike santoro is the vice president of the southwest airline piles association, nearly 16,000 flights canceled in the last 7 days but the ceo, bob jordan, says he's optimistic that the company will be back on track before next week. so, mr. santoro, do you agree with that? do you think it's possible? >> i think it's possible. canceling the flights yesterday, today and tomorrow should do a pretty much system reset. get pilots in the right places and, you know, match up with flight attendants and obviously the aircraft which is

more cancellations tonight for southwest airlines. struggling to recover from that massive holiday storm. more than 13,000 flights canceled and counting. passengers sleeping in airports, scrambling to find a way home. luggage and bags piling up. the ceo apologizing for the travel nightmare, and vowing to make things right. tonight, the transportation secretary promising a full investigation. our alex perez in chicago. >>> in storm-battered buffalo, the death toll still rising tonight. the national guard going door-to-door, checking on residents. officials fearful people living alone without power may not have survived. buffalo police cracking down on looters. mona kosar abdi in buffalo, rob marciano standing by timing out a major rainmaker for new year's eve. >>> news just coming in from the cdc. the u.s. imposing new covid restrictions on all travelers from china, as the country faces a surge of new covid infections, pushing hospitals to the brink. >>> urgent concerns tonight for the health of retired pope benedict. the vatican revea

southwest was viewed at the cool airline. it was huge in the southwest.eat. >> you hop on the la shuttle there. it's like 50 minute flight. you booze up. everybody has a grand old time and you can get it for cheap. i think it was that coolness, that sort of laid backness. well i think we're seeing right now there is a reason that whole kind of model happened. it's because they didn't do the spoke and hub concept. they did a direct flight. that clearly isn't working now. so i think overall they might need an entire reset. one from a pr perspective, two, they've got to figure out how they get person a to spot b when they need to get there and not have these numbers you see. also, one question i think we need to keep badgering all of our guests on, the ones that are in the know, where the did that covid money go? they got $7 billion of a bailout. did it go to stock buybacks? did it go to ceo compensation? it was supposed to go to make sure these airlines, specifically southwest and a others that got the money, did not lay people off, that they kept them on f

if you were not on your southwest flight.s now fired up about this, now it has been going on for 5 or 6 days, now he turns his attention, by the way, i have friends that are supposed to not get to the next flight that southwest has them to until sunday. this has been about a week of pain and my christmas was ruined not because of the baggage but ill blame southwest too. kennedy: you should. anyone who didn't get present they wanted, who didn't have the action per the experience they dreamed up we want reparations from southwest, they skewed it up, a lot of flights canceled, when you are hum humping around 90% o90 those canceled flights, you should not be in, pete buttigieg cannot handle the job. between this, and rail worker strike, he did not divert because he was in portugal. >> i how the these was putting air in bike tires. kennedy: i'm getting a ride on my bike a block away, let me out, scotty martin thank you. >> see yeah. kennedy: yeah. >> next, new york very first legal recreat recreation, cannabis shop opening its doo

bret. >> william, thank you. >>> our all-star panel weighs in on southwest's chaos. >> southwest has a way too really rebuild the trust and confidence. again, they pledged to me they're going to do that. i want to see what that me means. ♪ do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervivenerve relief from the world's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief. request. >> do you see the thousands and thousands of people that come every day. those people are going to need some type of shelter because they have nowhere to go. there's a lot of people sleeping on the streets anywhere from babies, toddlers, teenagers. >> federal government is >>> the federal government is not doing nothing to help these migrants and they talk about having a humane process. >> to see the federal government building another tent, then what? what comes after that? are they going to build and housing them? is that going to be normal for us? >> a lot of concerns along the bord

southwest canceling 2,500 or 62% of flights just today.morrow more than 2,300 southwest flights already canceled so many passengers still in limbo. we will to get to that in a moment first, there is breaking news tonight on a new travel rule involving covid. almost three years that the worldwide pandemic at a time when restrictions and precautions have largely gone away, the cdc has just announced new testing requirements on travelers coming here from china as infections there surge. josh lederman is live from the white house tonight. josh, walk us through how and why this is happening. >> reporter: tom, federal health officials say two things drove this decision. china's surging cases. and u.s. skepticism about the data beijing is reporting. officials say they are worried if a new variant emerges from china they may not be able to spot it in time. starting january 5th anyone two years or older flying from china to the u.s. must show a negative pcr or telehealth antigen test taken no more than two days before the departure the u.s. will ex

will southwest airlines lose a lot of customers? i know you're speaking with a bunch of experts and analyst and if so, what can they do to get them back? >> it's a great question, wolf. i've been wondering the same. on one hand you have a company that prides itself on customer service that is synonymous with customer service in the industry. this is not that. yet, when i have spoken to consultants today, they say sometimes we as consumer haves short term memories so i suppose it depends on how disastrous your experience was. this is certainly not something that the company wants to see as it prides itself on customer service. >> good point. guys, thank you very, very much. >>> coming up, as the january 6th select committee promises to release even more interview transcripts, i'll speak live with a key member of the panel, congressman adam schiff is standing by. we'll be right back. looking for someone with simple needs. just a room, with a view... of rolling portuguese vineyards. a meal... of fresh, seasononal cuisine. exercise... i

misplaced luggage and ruined holidays. >> i hate southwest. southwest, i hate them. hate them. >> how did you make out? >> i was there from 12:00 -- 12:00, still stranded. i need to drive nine more hours. i'm upset, i'm stressed, i'm tired and i hate them. >> okay. >> she did not pull any punches there. cnn correspondent nick valencia is outside of hartsfield-jackson airport, the busiest in the world. nick, what are you hearing from passengers today? is did it sound like what we just heard? >> reporter: sara, they're so over this, having to deal with the delays, the cancellations and the rebookings, and seemings like one more day they'll have to deal with that. with the saga, 15,000 southwest flights have been cancelled. today, 2500, and looking behind me here at the southwest ticket counter you would think there would not be a problem at all, but this really doesn't translate to the mess that the passengers are experiencing. the reason that no one is in line or considerably thinner than we have seen in past days. people don't have planes to get on. even those with a

southwest airlines again canceling thousands of flights today, far more than any other carrier. tens of thousands of passengers stranded. the transportation department and southwest itself calling it unacceptable the airline has already canceled thousands more flights tomorrow and thursday. what is supposed to be a relatively quiet holiday week has instead become a chaotic transportation mess, with mountains of unclaimed luggage piling up. in a moment, i'll discuss what's behind it all and the financial compensation transportation secretary pete buttigieg tells me should be coming to some travelers but we begin tonight with blayne alexander on the travel nightmare after christmas. >> reporter: at airport after airport -- >> now i know why there is a line. my flight was canceled. >> reporter: this is the picture of an unprecedented travel nightmare. >> i've been here at the airport all day. >> reporter: with thousands of flights canceled again today, more than 80% of them are due to just one airline. while major carriers like delta, jetblue, and american together had fewer than 2

and southwest has it especially bad. one of the reasons we've seen southwest particularly struggle this week is because they tend to have shorter turnaround times because they tend to be more of a short haul in short to medium haul airline. so they have more flights on a given day for their play. anytime you have more flights on a given day. that means you have to have those ground turns and that's where things can really really gets out. >> southwest is put out a statement apologizing to customers and staff. >> but a statement from the southwest flight attendants union blames antiquated technology for not being able to keep up with last-minute changes. i think they're short-staffed. >> and i i think they're not invested in are being happy. >> whatever the cause, southwest passengers like this man, he's been trying to get home since friday are frustrated and back in line again, hoping for a holiday miracle. >> they're good people. and they mean, well, i'm becoming tired of this. >> and another good news, bad news scenari

at southwest. and cnn did obtain a transcript of a video message that the ceo sent to employees on christmas day acknowledging operations issues and saying part of the problem was the need to modernize their system and now as you mentioned, the department of transportation is getting involved, examining if these cancellations have been necessary. it is a messy situation. but no one is dealing with a bigger issue than the folks behind me. these passengers. thousands of people stranded, many just trying to get home. >> you got to feel for them. people who are stranded and also those who missed holidays with their loved ones. thank you, gabe cohen. >>> let's turn over to nick valencia at atlanta international airport. i'm sure you're hearing a lot of stories and frustration and you've talked to a couple that is trying to get home for five days. >> these poor, poor people. this is not a way to spend a holiday break but that is exactly what the folks are doing. this line has grown but it is considerable

i'm not flying southwest, thank goodness. >> for those of you who are flying southwest, we certainly feel for you. for those of you home and safe, the fire marshal does advise to take advantage of these breaks between storms to clean your property and clear out the drains and cleanup leaf litter to help maintain the storm drain system. that will help prevent any future damage. dion: reminder. now a reminder to be careful when you are driving and here is why -- rocks crashing down on highway 116 just south of kernville, just one area where the rain because rock slides. keep in mind as the ground gets more saturated, the possibly of rock slides increases even after it stops raining. dan: in san francisco, the stormy weather hit some areas harder than others. the gusty winds and pounding rain cleared out before noon. we took a closer look at the impact of this storm. at sfo, the weather is continuing to create real travel headaches. >> here at sfo, we saw more than 70 flights canceled and more than 200 delays. airport authorities tell us things have dramatically improved. as christmas t

more than 2500 of those were southwest flights. in the bay area, a total of 74 flights were canceled in minette of san jose. 23 in san francisco. dan: while we have heard plenty of nightmare travel stories from southwest customers, now we are hearing from employees as well. ground workers were southwest say the airline made unreasonable demands on them during this meltdown. the president of the union spoke with members of congress. abc7 news reporter melanie woodrow has the story. melanie: as southwest tries to recover from what our calling a meltdown -- what some are calling a meltdown, employees are speaking out. >> when the weather started happening, we started having issues. melanie: the president of twu local 555 represents ground workers at southwest airlines. he says his workers were battling subzero temperatures and ice storms, many working 16 to 18 hour days. >> we are performing one of the most dangerous jobs out of any industry and that needs to be recognized. melanie: he says he pushed southwest to cycle employees in an

southwest cut a few. some airlines had a few cancellations, but they tried to maintain those holiday schedules for the obvious reason, that the one thing passengers won't forgive you is if you don't get them where they want to be. that hit them. they also have a point-to-point network. they're not a hubless spoke like american and delta. they're more of a short haul or short to medium haul. the pilots go to midway, kansas city, houston, to dallas, phoenix, switch crews and they're off to ontario for the night. the issue with that is it's very difficult once those crews, once those planes get out of position, to rejuggle the whole system. it's a little easier in a point spoke and that's a different system than how southwest operates. >> that is interesting because the u.s. transportation department says this massive disruption is unacceptable, which, of course, implies it's avoidable. so let's look at how southwest needs to change to try to avoid this happening again. >> well, one of the things that southw

southwest says they promise it won't.ive report, coming up next. >>> and coming up next, i'll introduce you to a woman who reminds rink. before that drink turns to drinks, make a plan to get home safe. just call a friend, a cab, and get a rideshare. whatever you do, don't let drunk drive. go safely, california. out. hair, done. fit, fantastic! marijuana. not so fast. remember, marijuana and some meds don't mix. a sober driver can cure that. don't let high drive. go safely, california. . >>> welcome back to morning edition at 5:30 on this friday morning. we are kicking off the new year's weekend to rain falling across the region. right now, it is just the precursor to an even bigger storm on the way. that is raising some kevin about the potential for mudslides and flooding. >>> this was the scene in downtown martinez last night. business owners are not taking any chances. sandbags piling in front of shops on main treat. >>> we also saw many of you filling up sandbags in pleasant hill. definitely make those precautions and

southwest canceling 147 flights there today. oakland international has had 124 southwest flights canceled today at sfo. it's better but still not good. 38 cancellations so far on this wednesday. the airline says it will only operate a 3rd of its scheduled flights over the coming days as it scrambles to get thousands of stranded passengers. >> to their destinations, employees within the company say, well, winter weather was the catalyst for the catastrophe, outdated scheduling systems are what kept the problem. our kron 4 correspondent markie martin has more. >> we have some real work to do in making this right tonight. southwest airlines, new ceo bob jordan apologizing for the ongoing travel meltdown crippling holiday plans for hundreds of thousands of customers. but the giant puzzle as he calls it not yet solved our plan for the next few days is to fly a reduced schedule and reposition our people and planes. and we're making headway and we're optimistic to be. >> back on track before next week. southwest canceling some 10,000 f

first up, southwest clearly made mistakes. what does the airline owe to thousands of passengers stranded by what their own employees have described as mismanagement and dated technology? >> well, they need to take care of their passengers and they need to take care of their employees. look, everybody understands that there is extreme weather across the country, but where most airlines saw their performance start to impr has actually moved in the other direction. you've got passengers who are stranded. you've got passengers who can't get ahold of customer service. it's an unacceptable situation. >> secretary, i know you've spoken with southwest airlines. could they tell you how they fix this? >> they told me in their words that they will go above and beyond their written customer service plan. i'm going to be holding them accountable for doing that. >> does that mean financial compensation? >> absolutely. at a minimum, there need to be cash refunds for the canceled flights, and they need to be taking care of passengers where th

we'll talk about southwest's ongoing problems. >>> good afternoon. i'm audrey.t on the travel meltdown. >>> also, a brief break in the rain. but more storms are headed our

what will southwest do going forward?an they make this right, if at all, and how much damage has this done to southwest airlines? >> this is not a good look for southwest, first of all. big reputational damage, but what's really going to matter now is how they recover from this. so are they paying their passengers back for those i incurred costs? are they going to stick to their guns and pay for those booking hotels? are they coming to the rescue of those passengers eventually and making it right? if they don't do that, you're going to see their feet really held to the fire going forward. >> clint henderson, thank you. i do enjoy the points guy. you guys have a lot of good points if you will. >> yeah. >> thank you for being on. >> absolutely. >>> well, the supreme court keeps title 42 in place. customs and border patrol is opening a temporary migrant processing center in el paso to help with the influx. i'll speak to a member of the el paso city council coming up next. >>> and republican congressman-elect george santos is

l book another southwest flight in the future. so executives at southwest are pledging to upgrade the company's technology systems, which some have blamed for making the situation for southwest in particular worse than for any of the other airlines. meanwhile, if you've been stuck in this mess with southwest or have any other flight or travel-related issue down the road, consumer experts are stressing to keep every receipt for everything. you can submit that potentially for any kind of refund or reimbursement. >> good advice. jarred hill in new york. jarred, thanks. >> thank you. >>> a government shutdown has been averted after president biden signed the $1.7 trillion spending bill. congress approved the legislation last week, which calls for an additional $45 billion in emergency assistance for ukraine. the bill also allots more than $772 billion for domestic programs and $858 billion towards defense. >>> six years worth of former president donald trump's tax returns are set to go public today. the democratic-controlled house way

southwest airlines was staffed. its employees were ready to go to work, but when they chose to take flights into the middle of the storm or not plan to cancel enough flights, their systems have not been able to keep up with the rescheduling, the cancellations, the notification to crew members about those cancellations and changes in flights. we have had flight attendants on hold for up to 12, 17 hours in some cases, and unable to get hotel rooms. they have been sleeping in airports, and we've also had issues with being booked, rebooking. there were some issues with the rebooking systems. this is a systems failure led by the executive leadership at southwest airlines and it's time they make it right. >> how do they make it right exactly? >> well, bob jordan today -- yesterday actually sent a message to all employees talking about -- talking about the systems, modernizing the systems and needing to do that. we need more than just talking about that. we need to see an action plan of what southwest airlines is going to

the majority of them coming from southwest airlines. we talked to one loyal traveler who always flies southwest. he says this is the worst in his 20-year history. >> no one knows what to say. even the poor agents sitting behind counters have quietly admitted that this is absolutely insane. absolutely clearly it seems like southwest has lost their ability to control the situation, and there may need to be some type of federal intervention to help them rectify what has caused i'm sure millions of dollars of damage to families that otherwise have been depending on these days just to get some type of r&r. >> reporter: as you can see, some people are having luck. they've been able to find their bags. however, we're told this line here is only for passengers whose final destination was midway. meanwhile, we also heard from another family who drove 14 hours. they drove from dallas, texas, to chicago midway to retrieve their luggage. for now, i'm adrienne broaddus in chicago. back to you. >> and for more on all of this, let's bring in zach grif

southwest airlines was staffed. its employees were ready to go to work, but when they chose to take flights into the middle of the storm or not preemptively cancel enough flights, their systems have not been able to keep up with the rescheduling, the cancellations, the notification to crew members about those cancellations and changes in flights. we've had flight attendants on hold for up to 12, 17 hours in some cases and unable to get hotel rooms. they've been sleeping in airports and we've also had issues with being booked, rebooking. there were some issues with the rebooking systems. this is a systems failure led by the executive leadership of southwest airlines and it's time they make it right. >> we need to see an action plan of what southwest airlines is going to do to make sure that it can operate under regular operations, during inclement weather, storms, hurricanes or they should make better decisions when choosing to cancel flights. we all hate to cancel flights. nobody wants to cans the flights. we all ne

we tired it of apologizes for southwest, the pilots of southwest airlines and our hearts go out to all of our passengers. really does. >> yeah. i can see how frustrating it is. seems like you're saying it's a problem they could have predicted essentially? >> so, yeah. they should have technically canceled more flights coming out of denver that day. you know, wind, weather was really bad there. but -- we have been timing this for years. we have a meltdown like once a year the past five or six years and every year we go in do an after-action, and the union leadership, go in, talk to leadership and tell them you guys need to fix your scheduling software. the scheduling systems and how you operate our schedules. and -- to no avail. they never update. never invest the money and resources they need to, and so we continue to have this, these issues. of course, this is the largest destruction i've seen at my history with the airline. >> largest you've ever seen? >> sure. it's embarrassing. >> seems this is just as much trouble for the pilots, in that i was reading pilots have had to book their

i really want that bag. >> one of the things southwest airlines southwest airlines is unable to do is tracked down and how many reunited with their owners. all they are offering up now is calling on new resources but the links on the website so people can get on there with baggage claim numbers and tracked down their bags. they can also start trying to get some compensation for meals, hotels and things of that nature, cheryl. >> cheryl: mike tobin live in chicago thank you so much. this airline is politician scrambling to get ahead of the issue. the transportation secretary pete buttigieg facing criticism for not acting sooner said this to "good morning america." >> we are past the point where they could say that this is a weather driven issue. the rest of the aviation system is down to a rate of about 4% of flights being canceled. as she reported, we are north of 60% right now when it comes to southwest. so what this indicates is a system failure. >> back in august new york attorney general saw the writing on the wall warning pete buttigieg in a letter, "deep leaf troubling cancellat

we've been very loyal to southwest. their system did not work this time. >> reporter: first visual is all the bags lining up. this line are trying to get into the baggage office try to get an example, get an idea for where their bag is. one local reporter found a number on a bag, called the women in nebraska. told her bag was here in chicago. the poor women said she has never been to chicago but her bag was. back to you, ed. edward: that is unbelievable. purgatory of lost bags, that is the statement of the day. mike, appreciate it. the airlines were given $54 billion in three rounds of congress. paid for airline payroll, cost 1months -- eight 10:00 months of salaries. 26 billion must be paid back. 7 billion went to southwest for their operations. where did that money went. talking about the southwest and all the world's problems, republican congressman brad wenstrup. talk about all the other airlines deal with weather issues, other major carriers got things sorted out on the second day. the situation at southwest seemed

we're tired of apologizing for southwest. the pilots of the airline. our hearts go out to all of our passengers, it really does. >> as we were hearing from gabe sometimes it's the airlines saying it's the winter storm but it's the pilot's union saying it's the outdated software. southwest airlines is acknowledging it didn't have the manpower to answer the volume of calls to rescheduled both the passengers and also the crew. here is what a spokesperson said last night. >> with those cancellations and as a result we end up with flight crews and airplanes that are out of place and not in the cities they need to be in to continue to run our operation. that is where we ended up where we are. we apologize to our customers, we will do everything we need to do to right the challenges we have had right now including while we are willing to offer hotels, ride assistance, vans, whatever that looks like, rental cars to try to make sure these folks get home as quickly as possible. >> here with me to discuss this further is edward russell, the editor at skifs airlin

southwest. most of these passengers we've spoken to have already had their flights canceled. they're in line here hoping to get options for rebooking. those that we have spoken to say they've been here for an hour and a half, perhaps up to two hours. the line may not seem bad but the stories we're hearing are terrible. earlier i spoke with a couple traveling the last five days. that long, they said, since they saw their personal belongings and believe it or not, count themselves among the lucky ones. >> we were able to cancel -- to get a hotel. we've seen a lot of families sleeping on the floor. breaks my heart. >> my boss watching this, yes, it's true. i didn't just blow off the day. i'm actually standing in an airport doing nothing, and i do have a ticket, and i hope to come to work at some point in my life. >> reporter: so there is frustrated passengers here, but most of the anger seen is isolated. most passengers are aware they're going to experience some delays and that they're going to exp

it's mia. >> we ended up completely canceling southwest entirely.ping we will get a refund. >> 2,885 domestic flights were canceled. 86% of them were southwest. 2,509. the southwest pilots union, as well as the flight attendants union say the melt down was very predictable because southwest executives did not invest in and modernize the logistics and communication technology. the ceo of southwest offered an apology. >> the tools we use to recover from this disruption serve us well 99%. time but clearly we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what is happening right now. >> now southwest did receive over $7 billion in federal assistance since the pandemic. a spokesperson for southwest says that money was used for payroll, to prevent furloughs. they still got another 2300 flights canceled tomorrow. back to you in new york. >> rachel: thank you, mike. so while americans are stuck, many are wondering what's the out when's plan to deal with this. jacqui heinrich i

i mean, we had southwest airlines.ght attendants on hold for 567 hours, just like passengers trying to figure out where they were supposed to be on those first couple of days after christmas. also, this is the time when we started to look at the way that southwest operator this is a low cost area. most of them don't have interline agreements with other airlines, meaning they don't necessarily have ways of putting you on a subsequent flight on another airline when there flights get canceled. that's something that maybe needs to be revisited as well. and this point to point system that we've been hearing about all week ali, where southwest instead of having this hub and spoke approach to travel, where airlines and cruise are coming in and out of specific hubs, but instead of doing a point to point that type of operation during the course of the other day, maybe that needs to be revisited as well. so all of these factors compounded by a major weather event. clearly have showcased the fact that southwest has some some work