Summary: An appeals court ruled that the settlement in a class action against Southwest Airlines was fair despite the passengers only getting a drink voucher.
In what world is it fair that the passengers, except two, involved in a class action lawsuit receive only drink vouchers when the attorneys get $3 million? The two lead passengers in the suit were awarded $15,000 each for their trouble of filing the lawsuit.
Southwest Airlines settled the lawsuit filed against them in 2013 but a lower court cut the legal fees down from $3 million to $1.65 million for the attorneys. The lawsuit was raised when Southwest began making passengers that purchase a Business select ticket including a drink coupon use the coupon on that specific trip and not on a future trip. Passengers complained because the coupon had no expiration date.
Congress changed things back in 2005 so that companies couldn’t give vouchers as the settlement in class actions partially because it wasn’t fair to require customers to continue doing business with a company that already wronged them.
The vouchers are worth barely anything but are only fair since they are replacing a free drink coupon. It would be even more ridiculous if the passengers were awarded anything more than what was taken from them that they didn’t pay for. What is ridiculous is the amount the attorneys were awarded for handling such a simple case.
Now Southwest is careful to make sure their coupons have expiration dates.
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