“Southwest is hoeing me.” A Southwest Airlines passenger says that’s what an employee told her, after the airline lost her bag, then when it was found it was delivered to the wrong address, and the airline and courier service simply pointed fingers at each other – forcing the woman to get the police involved.
She flew Austin to Atlanta on Southwest but her bag didn’t make it. She got notice that her bag was found at 1 a.m., and that it would be couriered to her hotel. But she discovered at 6 o’clock in the morning that it didn’t make it to her hotel.
Austin Baggage Claim
Instead, she had a photo of the dropoff location… a random apartment complex. She got in her rental car intending to see if the pictured location was nearby. She talked to an off-duty police officer, who escorted her onto that property where her bag was supposedly delivered, but nothing was there. She reported the misdelivery to Southwest.
@sierraherbort get in ladies, we’re boycotting @Southwest Airlines ♬ original sound – SierraHerbort
Her bags contained $5,000 worth of items, she said, from technology from her job to clothes. The maximum liability limit set by the U.S. Department of Transportation for lost, damaged or delayed checked baggage on domestic flights is $4,700 per passenger (since January 22, 2025). That means the airline is legally permitted to cap compensation at $4,700 regardless of the value of contents. This is supposed to adjust biannually for inflation.
Southwest Airlines Gate
While she called every day of her trip, she never made progress. Back to the airport to fly home to Austin, she checked in with Southwest’s baggage office, and they still couldn’t get in touch with courier service.
Atlanta Airport
The airline claimed they’re not responsible for reimbursing her, since misdelivering the bag is on the courier service (that’s wrong, the courier was Southwest’s agent and Southwest is responsible for returning the bag to its customer).
Southwest Airlines Check-in
The courier service, though, offered a claim form to fill out – but fine print on that form says that only the sender (Southwest) can file the claim, and that it has to be filed within 3 days and it’s now been 3 days. Southwest re-opened her missing bag file, but no one will open a claim for reimbursement – telling her to file a police report instead.
First…An AirTag! Second…if you have that much in your luggage, maybe you should buy extra insurance. Third: Send the airline a 10 day demand letter. “You have 10 days to recover and deliver my items… and send it to their corporate registered agent by certified mail, return receipt and the airline’s investor relations department. Fourth: It will cost you some money to start but file a suit in small claims court demanding the value, court costs and punitive damages up to the limit allowed for small claims in the state where the flight originated. Send all of this to the local media…news, television, radio. Dispute the charge for the ticket price with your credit card company. Gawd help you if you booked the ticket through a third party on that one.
She needs to get in touch with Christopher Elliot with the Elliot Advocacy Group. He gets results when no one else is able to.
I agree with Win’s suggestions above. I’m a little confused by the use of the word “hoeing”. Is this standard. I know the word “ho” as an insult, but not “hoeing” in this context.
They ‘hoeing’ us all, lady…
In reality, Southworst just sucks.
John. T. We never say the Elliot name here. That is like saying the orange guy is upright citizen
John. T. We never say the Elliot name here. That is like saying the orange guy is upright citizen.
“Southwest Is Hoeing Me”
What does that even mean?
Great publicity as the economy is crashing and southwest went from first in value and fairness to worst
Now they are playing outright crooks
One question to axe what is hoeing?Is there a google AI definition?
Being a hoe and kicking the can down the street?
According to google it’s digging up plants and weeds no mention of an airline procrastinating to do the right thing and pass the buck
Add an s between the o and e
Southwest Airlines of which I was a near 17 yr employee and my wife still with Southwest 22 plus yrs plus many of our coworkers past and present realized that Southwest Airlines stopped carrying about Customer Service years and years ago. Customers & Employees of Southwest are now considered nuisance from the time Gary Kelly took over as CEO to Bob Jordan the current CEO and now Paul Singer and Elliott Hedge Funds running the show. I hope the person gets reimbursed the entire contents of their bag but the Southwest Airlines of today will spend $50K to avoid paying someone $300 and will think that they are ahead of the game.
Herb is gone. There’s a new Sheriff in town.
The problem with the buy extra insurance bit is that it’s always ridiculously overpriced. And having $5k of stuff in a bag doesn’t exactly strike me as astounding. Typically you will carry on the expensive stuff but that’s not always an option.
File the police report. Then file a small claims action. The sequence of events appears undisputed, it should be a slam dunk.
A perfect illustration of why we need consumer protections at least as strong as those in Europe for airline passengers in the USA.
The only skills that Americans are uniquely good at is pointing their fingers at another party (team, company) and say “this is the responsibility of that party” before hanging up the phone.
flew to Zurich Thurs pm for 10 am Fri business meeting. bag did not make it until Saturday
flew to Berlin for marathon. bag never made it. called airline at airport as did Adlon Kempinski and for 4 days never answered. left to return to US and filed claim. spoke with airline perhaps 20 times and was read same excuse from boilerplate. finally spoke with someone based in NYC and was awarded $1,700 but was promised they would search. this did not come close to cover contents 44 days later while returning from Paris took phone off airplane mode to a notice that bag was on its way back from Frankfurt
went to Seattle 2 of 3 bags made it. after replacing essentials bag eventually located in CA and shipped back to me
need I continue? I have had perhaps 20 such instances. seems it’s part of being a frequent flier
The bag courier is an “Independant Contractor” and therefore liable if they delivered in error.
@Christian — Yes! Thank you. I’ve been preaching for EU261/APPR equivalent here for months and months. Alas, it’ll be a while before our lawmakers in the USA do anything consumer-friendly. We need to keep it in mind for next time!
@WaldoPepper – liable to the airline perhaps but the bag obligation to the passenger is the airline’s and cannot be obviated by the airline’s decision to outsource delivery