The U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday detailed the reimbursement protocols it has developed for Southwest Airlines travelers affected by the carrier’s holiday operational breakdown. Meanwhile, Southwest has made several promotions across leadership roles that will “strengthen our operational execution,” the carrier announced Monday.  

The new executive structure comes about two weeks after Southwest had significant cancellations and delays amid a winter storm and internal process failures that could result in Senate committee hearings. Southwest has vowed to make improvements.  

On Tuesday, DOT reported that it had received “thousands of consumer complaints about Southwest,” which the agency is forwarding to the carrier. It also is requiring Southwest to pay back ticket refund requests for flights that were significantly changed or canceled within seven business days for travelers who paid by credit card and within 20 days for those who paid by cash or check, unless the passenger accepted an offered alternative, such as rebooking, according to DOT. 

In addition, the carrier must provide reimbursements for incurred expenses, such as hotels, meals and alternative transportation for those with flights affected between Dec. 24 and Jan. 2. It also must reimburse passengers up to $3,800 for damaged, lost or delayed luggage. Further, DOT is requiring Southwest to provide “substantive responses” to all consumer complaints within 60 days, as required by federal regulations. 

Southwest Promotions 

Dave Harvey has been promoted to VP and chief sales officer, effective immediately. Harvey, most recently VP of Southwest Business, will continue to lead that division as well as all distribution relationships across sales channels. He will continue to report to EVP and CCO Ryan Green. He has been with Southwest since 1999. 

The carrier also promoted Adam Decaire to SVP of network planning and network operations control. He most recently was VP of network planning and will continue to report to COO Andrew Watterson. VP of network operations control Matt Hafner will report to Decaire. “This change creates a tighter feedback loop between schedule design and schedule execution while adding resiliency and reliability to the network,” according to Southwest. Decaire has been at Southwest since 1996. 

Tony Roach is now SVP of marketing and customer engagement, promoted from VP of that role. He has expanded oversight of digital experience, go-to market efforts, the Rapid Rewards loyalty program, as well as ancillary products, according to Southwest. He will continue to report to Green and has been with the carrier since 2001.