American and Southwest Airlines face 'meltdown' scenarios

Southwest Airlines had its holiday meltdown last December, it was caused by a perfect storm of weather problems and technology crashes happening at the same time.

Basically, weather caused the initial problems and the airline's systems could not handle all the changes it needed to make to minimize the disruptions. Part of the problem was avoidable. The airline knew it needed to update its software and add more personnel and winter weather equipment. But, as bad as the situation was, customers do understand that inclement weather can lead to flight cancellations.