KENNEWICK, Wash. –
Southwest Airlines has canceled thousands of flights over the last few days.
The airline is still trying to recover from an internal meltdown… triggered by winter storms in the height of holiday travel.
The effects for Southwest passengers continue across the country, here locally is no exception.
Jacquelyn Sandoval is originally from Richland, but now she resides in Spokane.
She came down to the Tri-Cities for a family reason and to spend Christmas with her mother and son who they’ve not seen in six months.
Sandoval’s mother Benjie Allen flew out to Birmingham, AL to see her youngest daughter on a Southwest flight.
Allen was supposed to be back on Christmas Eve and meet her grandson at the Spokane Airport and ride back to Richland together…that didn’t happen.
“My mom was in tears about the fact that my son is her oldest grandchild and he’s here from college. He left ten days after he graduated in June, now she doesn’t get to see him,” said Sandoval.
“My daughter Jackie called and said Hey your flight’s been canceled. So, I came back into the house and I checked and I was able to get another flight immediately that wasn’t going to be leaving until the following Monday,” said Allen.
That flight was cancelled.
“That got cancelled and now I wasn’t leaving until Tuesday, I think it was Tuesday, I think that how that’s working out. I’m all confused and that got cancelled and I got me another flight leaving on Thursday,” Allen went on to say.
The next flight she booked was cancelled as well.
Allen bought a new ticket on Delta and is hopeful to be home on Friday.
Her original trip was only supposed to be 12 days and she’s been gone for three weeks.
Allen says she looks for the positive in any situation.
Kimberly Cothern and her family were also casualties of the flight delays.
Cothern were taking a trip to Ogden, UT for Christmas and had a Alaska Airlines flight from Pasco to Seattle, this flight was delayed.
However, their connecting flight from Seattle to Salt Lake City was cancelled due to the ice in Seattle.
They took matters into their own hands.
“So, we said we’ll drive to Ogden and drove there and made it about 7:30 at night,” said Cothern.
She says that she was frustrated with the situation, specifically the flight cancellation in Seattle.
“It just made no sense to us, if we could get there, then we should be able to leave,” Cothern goes on to say
Southwest Airlines released a statement today saying the airline has a page set up on its website for customers to submit refund and reimbursement requests, so make sure you hold on to any receipts you have.
U-S Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg says the Department of Transportation are looking into the travel delays.
