The ¡Lánzate! or Take Off! Travel Award Program was an annual program offered by Southwest in partnership with the Hispanic Association of Spanish Colleges and Universities. Upon submitting application essays, a selection committee would choose students to award four round-trip tickets to any of Southwest’s domestic destinations. The current webpage for the program says that eligibility was not determined by race, ethnicity or national origin. However, court documents reference an earlier version of the page that said only Hispanic students could apply.
“The Department’s proposed statement of interest affirms its continuing commitment to eradicating racially exclusionary practices across the government and in the private sector,” read a press release announcing the statement of interest.
The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) originally filed the suit after it claimed two members could not apply to the program because they were not Hispanic.
“Every person in the United States should have equal and nondiscriminatory rights to make and enforce contracts, and race should never be a consideration,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. “The Department of Justice is working to end discrimination using all of the tools at our disposal.”
According to a report from KERA, Southwest agreed to end the program to avoid litigation. The airline sent the AAER a singular penny in exchange for voluntary dismissal of the case. The AAER rejected the offer and chose to continue the legal proceedings.
“Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated in our community,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham for the Northern District of Texas said in a press release Thursday. “Our office will continue to enforce federal anti-discrimination laws to address racial discrimination affecting our residents.”
A Tough Stretch For Southwest
The latest suit is another blow to the airline that has been a repetitive headline click-piece. The aviation industry has been under strict scrutiny in general. A Boeing strike particularly affected Southwest, which exclusively flies Boeing 737s. Then in 2024, the airline announced it was ending in-flight services early and abandoning its long-held practice of first-come-first-serve seating. But Southwest loyalists held on to hope, with their two free checked bags in tow. The baggage policy, generous in nature, was one of the only redeeming qualities of the mid-range airline until it wasn’t.
In 2025, the airline backtracked its former promises to keep some luggage free of cost, resulting in immediate backlash and uproar. In the words of a Dallas Observer staff writer: “I am cutting up my Southwest miles-earning credit card as we speak. I don’t want them because if I can’t fly to my destination with two free checked bags in tow in the seat I chose as a free-willed American, what is the point?”
