The Arizona Daily Star has THIS story about Southwest Airlines modifying their contract of carriage to state that mechanicals causing delays are now acts of God.  Southwest now says that mechanicals causing delays are beyond their control. 

Yeah, I don’t think so.  And I don’t think a court would either. 

Southwest says they made the change to limit their liability and fall more within industry standards of practice.  The problem is, a review by the Daily Star of the contracts of carriage for the 4 other major airlines (American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines and United  Airlines), none have such a clause.

Further, Southwest also says they don’t intend to change their current practices.

When Southwest was consulted again, it said this revised contract of carriage section was to cover “airport” mechanicals and such that were beyond their control.  The problem is, that limitation isn’t in the contract and its vague wording seems to cover all mechanicals.  Regardless, an airport mechanical (jetway failing, etc) isn’t an act of God either.   Southwest has made a post on their own blog clarifying this issue.  You can read it HERE.

I can see other major airlines adopting this practice very quickly.  It’s attractive and certainly has possibilities when it comes to refusing responsibility to customers that they already enjoy with weather events. 

But is it right?  If I’m driving to the airport and suffer a flat tire that makes me late and I miss my flight, I’m pretty sure the airline isn’t going to see that as an act of God.   They may or may not choose to help me out but they aren’t going to see this as a contractual obligation to accomodate me. 

It is wrong for airlines to continue down this path of treating customers as an inconvenience to their business.  Regardless of the fare paid, there are obligations on the part of the airline and one of them is to keep their equipment in good working order and be capable of making repairs when something does go wrong in a timely manner.  Mechanicals aren’t an act of God and shame on Southwest for doing this particularly in light of their run-ins with the FAA over their maintenance practices over the past 3 years.

Is a flight that crashes because a mechanic didn’t perform the proper maintenance on a hydraulics system an act of God?  No.  And no court will see it that way either.

But you know what, folks?  This abuse will not be reigned in until you voice your objections.  I get to do so here (and based on the various domains referring traffic to this site, I can count at least 7 major airlines that have readers) but you need to do so with both your voice and wallet. 

Just to make it a little bit easier for you, here is Southwest’s customer service phone number and email:

Phone:  1-800-I-FLY-SWA
email: Go Here.

Just to put my money where my mouth is, I’ve made a complaint via the email form myself.  Go ahead, it took me 2 minutes to fill out it out and express dissatisfaction and it’s worth making your opinion known.

Filed under: Airline News by ajax