Originally Posted by
tusphotog
Well, Chris Elliott has chimed in with a comment from Linda Rutherford at SWA.
Link here
The CoC is worded thus:
Originally Posted by Southwest CoC
Force Majeure Event means any event outside of Carrier’s control, including, without limitation . . . mechanical difficulties . . .
The ellipsis keeps the quote completely in context. That said, holy crap, that's unbelievable.
If Ms. Rutherford is being truthful, then the lawyers were either (a.) trying to pull a fast one on the public, or (b.) completely incompetent.
All they had to do was add the phrase, ". . . mechanical difficulties
with equipment not owned or operated by Southwest (such as air traffic control towers) . . . "
See how easy that was? But Southwest didn't do that. I've been one of their biggest cheerleaders. But I'm beginning to see the writing on the wall that they may be losing their culture and losing their way.
Being a cynic, my first reaction and honest gut feeling after reading this is that they were hoping to keep that clause in their back pocket in case of a lawsuit.
I hope I'm wrong.
And again: I may be wrong, but I feel this nonsense would have never slipped through under Herb.