How to get Reimbursement and Compensation: Southwest Airlines

If you’ve experienced flight delays or cancellations with Southwest Airlines, you may be entitled to receive up to $650 in compensation per person.

Southwest Airlines’s latest on-time performance data reveals that out of 34496 flight departures in the last 24 hours, 51.92% departed on time.

How many flights were canceled today?

• According to our most recent data Southwest Airlines canceled 3197 flights in 24 hours.

• 9.28% of domestic flights and 8.86% of international flights have been canceled.

• If your flight was canceled and you had less than 14 days notice, you could be owed up to $650 compensation. Check here.

Flight Cancellation Compensation Southwest Airlines

Regardless of whether you're at home or abroad when you find out about your Southwest Airlines flight cancellation, you're going to have a lot of questions and concerns. The first thing to know is that Southwest Airlines should find you a new flight, or offer you a full refund.

But because flight cancellations almost always play havoc with your travel plans, you should check whether you're also entitled to claim Southwest Airlines cancelled flight compensation to help make up for the disruption.

Under UK and EU regulations, Southwest Airlines should pay passengers up to $650 per person when they cancel flights at late notice — that is, any flight cancellation less than 14 days before it was due to depart.

Exceptions:
Southwest Airlines will not have to pay compensation if they were able to offer a replacement flight with similar departure and arrival times to the original. You can check the exact requirements on our flight cancellation compensation page.

Airlines also don't have to pay compensation if extraordinary circumstances were at play. That means that if an unusual situation occurred that was outside of the airline's control but forced a cancellation, there's no Southwest Airlines flight cancellation compensation owed. Typical examples include bad weather or a strike by air traffic control.

How many flights were delayed today?

• Our latest data shows that over a 24-hour period, 221 Southwest Airlines flights were delayed 3 hours or more.

• Of 33661 flights, 0.64% were delayed over 3 hours. That rate was 0.72% for international flights.

• Passengers who arrive at their destination over 3 hours late could be owed compensation. Check your flight.

Southwest Airlines Flight Delay Compensation

Whenever you're kept waiting by Southwest Airlines flight delays, it's worth checking whether you're entitled to compensation for your time. If Southwest Airlines is responsible for the delay, EU regulations say that passengers are owed up to $650 per person when they're delayed by 3 hours or more.

When you're claiming flight delay compensation, Southwest Airlines will check what time the flight arrived at the final destination. That's because for flight delay claims it is the time that you arrived that is important, not the time of departure. AirHelp owns one of the most comprehensive databases of flight stats available, so we can always back up Southwest Airlines flight delay compensation claims with the exact delay time.

Exceptions:
Airlines like Southwest Airlines do not have to pay out compensation if there's some external reason for the delay. That means delays caused by bad weather, an incident at the airport, or air traffic control strikes are not eligible for compensation. These kind of situations are called extraordinary circumstances.

You can learn more about what is and isn't included on our flight delay compensation page.

Even though Southwest Airlines is not a European airline, they always comply with European laws every time they depart from a European airport. That means passengers flying out of a European airport with Southwest Airlines are protected by EC 261, one of the world's most comprehensive air passenger rights laws.

This gives passengers the right to claim flight delay compensation, Southwest Airlines cancellation compensation, or overbooking compensation if Southwest Airlines is responsible for the issue. That's in addition to their rights to a flight refund.

Unfortunately, the same protections don't apply for flights going the other way. Southwest Airlines passengers who land in the EU are not covered by EC 261 if the departure airport is outside the EU. For these flights, you'll need to check what other air passenger rights apply.

Which Southwest Airlines Flights are Covered by EC 261?

Table shows values in € as specified in EC 261. Distances and amounts are similar under UK law.

There are exceptions and special circumstances which may impact how much compensation Southwest Airlines owes in your case. The easiest way to find out what you’re owed is to use our free compensation check.

Flight statistics: delays and cancellations of Southwest Airlines

Punctuality of Southwest Airlines (24 hours):

Total flights: 34496
On-time flights: 17911
Punctuality rate: about 51.92% of all flights were on time
Long delays (greater than 3 hours): 221
Flight cancellations: 3197

The number of flights shown is an estimate based on internal and third-party databases.