Olivia Laskowski was in Nashville and expecting to fly home to New York on Dec. 27 when she received a text message from Southwest Airlines the night before that her flight was canceled. Four days and more than $600 later, Ms. Laskowski and her Siamese cat, Pretzel, were finally back home in Brooklyn.The text message from Southwest contained a link where she could look into her other travel options. But when Ms. Laskowski, 25, tried to rebook with Southwest, the next available flight wasn’t until Jan. 11. She ended up purchasing a new plane ticket for $478 (including $125 for Pretzel and $80 for bags) through JetBlue that got her home on Dec. 30. Southwest has told Ms. Laskowski that she will be …
