Southwest Airlines reimbursed a couple for a $500 used car they bought to drive home after their flight was canceled

• A couple bought a used car to drive home after being stranded by Southwest flight cancellations.
• The airline reimbursed the couple $500 for the car.

Over a month after its infamous operational meltdown, Southwest Airlines is being "really generous" as it processes requests for refunds and reimbursements, according to CEO Bob Jordan.

"We're being really generous, as you would expect," Jordan told Axios. "We had an instance where a couple bought a $500 used car to drive home. We covered it and bought them a car, so to speak."

That $500 is one part of the millions of dollars of reimbursements the airline is paying out after severe weather and cascading network failures led to the cancellation of more than 16,000 flights in December, stranding thousands of passengers.

The operational disruptions cost the airline around $800 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Other refunds included giving out as much as 50 billion airline miles to affected customers.

While some customers are benefitting from Southwest's "generosity", others have told Insider they're still waiting for refunds a month after Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg wrote a stern letter to Jordan telling Southwest Airlines to "provide prompt refunds" for all its canceled flights, in 7 to 20 business days.