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Southwest Airlines was the main target of nationwide information reviews about journey nightmares over the just-ended holidays for apparent causes: The provider canceled essentially the most flights, stranded essentially the most passengers over the longest time period and earned repeated chastisement from officers in President Joe Biden’s administration.
However the story of what went mistaken at services throughout the nation — together with Denver International Airport, whose problems proceed to linger (round 300 flights had been canceled January 2, with a minimum of another 24 deep-sixed by mid-day yesterday, January 3) — was extra sophisticated than that, as my household and I discovered via private expertise.
Our yuletide festivities had been upended due to a sequence of issues with a special airline, and my return to Colorado on Southwest really happened as deliberate — although not earlier than a number of glitches and gaffes resulted in plans being modified and altered and altered once more. And when the flight lastly took off, it was — irony alert — almost half-empty.
This is what occurred:
Months in the past, my clan — spouse Deb, son Nick, his accomplice Justin, daughter Ellie, her vital different Nick N., and daughter Lora — organized to congregate in Southern California for Christmas, however our departure dates had been diversified. Ellie and Nick N. left days early as a way to make stops in Phoenix and San Diego, whereas Nick and Justin scheduled a December 23 flight to Los Angeles on Delta. In the meantime, Deb, Lora and I had been booked on a direct Delta flight to Los Angeles Worldwide Airport on December 24. However the entire crew was speculated to rendezvous at an Airbnb on Christmas Eve in Fullerton, California, not removed from Disneyland, the place we had passes for December 26 and 27, so we might spend the subsequent day collectively.
Or a minimum of that is what we thought.
As a result of Ellie and Nick N. had their very own automobile, they arrived in Fullerton as scheduled. As for Nick and Justin, their Delta departure was moved as much as December 22, the day an epic chilly snap hit Denver, however they nonetheless managed to get out of city, albeit after a two-hour delay. However Deb, Lora and I had been knowledgeable that our Christmas Eve flight was canceled.
That is when the scramble drill started. We discovered an alternate route on United departing from Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Routt County, which serves Steamboat Springs, and had been able to drive the three hours to the positioning. Nevertheless, Delta refused to pay for rebooking on one other airline as a result of the delay was supposedly weather-related, despite the fact that the unhealthy circumstances had been again east at that time and nowhere near the place we wished to go. The one different possibility was a Delta flight from Colorado Springs to Salt Lake Metropolis on Christmas Day, adopted by a short wait previous to taking one other airplane to Orange County — and we booked it.
That night, although, the Salt Lake-to-Orange County leg was canceled, too, and the subsequent flight to the world — Lengthy Seashore, particularly — did not go away till late on Christmas night time, necessitating round a seven-hour layover. So we switched our reservations once more and wound up spending the lion’s share of the day within the Salt Lake airport. However a minimum of we had a spiritual expertise of a form: An airline worker basically commandeered a bus transporting us to the terminal as a way to inform us his born-again expertise.
It was riveting.
We arrived in Lengthy Seashore late that night and had been in a position to spend a couple of minutes with our household earlier than sacking out — and the subsequent a number of days went effectively. However despite the fact that the holiday appeared to be again on the rails, a shadow lingered over our enjoyable: Deb and I had been speculated to return to DIA on Southwest late on Friday, December 30 (Lora returned earlier), and the airline was nonetheless nixing flights days after different carriers had roughly returned to regular operations.
Then, on Thursday morning, our worst fears had been realized: Deb checked the Southwest web site and noticed that our flight had been canceled. In response, we organized to hold on to our rental automobile for an additional day in order that we might drive again to Colorado — an eighteen-hour trek alongside previous Route 66 necessitated by an enormous storm over the mountains. The car-rental firm, Nationwide, gouged us for an additional $300 for a single day, and if we did not make it again to Denver by 5 p.m. on Saturday, that quantity can be doubled — and that is to not point out the expense of paying for a lodge room in Gallup, New Mexico, at roughly the halfway level of our journey. However we had been hopeful Southwest would pay for these bills.
Then got here one other twist. That night, we noticed a newscast report that Southwest had lastly pulled its shit collectively and can be up and working once more on Friday — and when Deb checked the airline’s web site once more, our flight was again on. She referred to as the airline to verify, and after a mere forty minutes or so on maintain, an operator mentioned the flight was undoubtedly scheduled; she guessed that the cancellation discover was an error of some kind.
Early on Friday, the Southwest web site nonetheless confirmed the flight, and we spent the day hoping that it will really take off as pledged — which it did. However when 40 p.c of its seats had been vacant, we could not assist however surprise if others had discovered incorrectly that it had been canceled and headed house utilizing different strategies with out discovering the reality.
If that was the case, will Southwest reimburse their further prices? Or will the airline refuse to take action as a result of the flight really occurred? We could by no means know — however we positive hope these of us expertise a belated Christmas miracle.
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