Thousands of Southwest Airlines travelers were stranded at airports across the country on Tuesday morning as fallout from a powerful winter storm that battered much of the country continued to ground hundreds of flights and disrupt construction plans. passenger vacation trip.
Airlines canceled more than 2,800 flights Tuesday morning, the majority of them – 2,526 flights – with Southwest Airlines, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. In California, hundreds of flights were delayed or canceled through the end of the week, making up a big chunk of the Southwest’s schedule.
As of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, at least 60 flights from Los Angeles International Airport were canceled and at least 55 were delayed.
Andy Robinson stood in line at the Southwest Terminal for a hotel voucher after his return flight to Denver was canceled. He and his family had flown to Los Angeles to watch the Denver Broncos take on the Rams at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood on Christmas Day, a game that ended in a crushing loss for the Broncos.
“It just added to our misery,” Robinson said. Robinson managed to clinch a return flight on Thursday that continues to be hustled with cancellations and other delays. “I try to see it in a positive way. I’m in California,” said Robinson, whose relative suggested they go to Denver. “I’m in flip flops.”
Michael Migliorini, an entrepreneur from Portland, Ore., was another deserted flier at LAX on Tuesday morning who tried to look on the bright side after his 5 a.m. flight was canceled and tickets with other airlines ran out. turned out to be too expensive.
“I couldn’t think of a better place to be stranded,” Migliorini said wryly.
At Hollywood Burbank Airport, 18 outbound Southwest flights – or two-thirds of its services – have been canceled, according to mobile flight tracker Flightview.
Orange County’s John Wayne Airport canceled 51 southwestbound flights and seven were delayed Tuesday morning, while San Diego saw some of the biggest disruptions, with 89 southwestbound flights canceled and 28 retarded. according to FlightAware.
Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told the Wall Street Journal the airline plans to operate at about a third of its regular capacity as it tries to regroup and get the schedule back on track.
“This is the most important event I have ever seen” he said.
All flights indicated as unavailable on the company’s website on Tuesday morning. In an email, Southwest spokesman Chris Perry said inventory to book travel is “very low” but there are still flights going.
The nightmare travel scenario unfolded similarly on Monday, in which 4,000 flights were cancelled. Southwest Airlines discontinued Nearly 70% of its scheduled nationwide flights — some 2,905 flights, far more than any other major U.S. carrier — Monday night, according to FlightAware.
A flight board shows canceled flights at the Southwest Airlines terminal at LAX.
(Eugene Garcia/Associated Press)
Southwest Airlines blamed a catastrophic winter storm that swept through the northern half of the country over the weekend for the cancellations, adding in a statement that “our sincere apologies for this have only just begun.” … We acknowledge having failed and we sincerely apologize.
Kate Schelter drove five hours from Oakland to Los Angeles on Monday with her two children after her flight to the southwest was repeatedly delayed. She and her children, aged 9 and 12, struggled to collect their bags before hitting the road.
There was no organization [in Oakland], just bags everywhere,” said Schelter, 43. “I saw old people bent over and sleeping in their wheelchairs. It was really sad.
Schelter, who went to Los Angeles for a vacation, was able to pick up her family’s bags at LAX on Tuesday morning.
Schelter and her daughters had gone to Los Angeles because they had secured tickets to Universal Studios for Christmas. She waited in a long line Tuesday morning for a refund after making the long drive.
Furious and weary travelers with experiences similar to Schelter’s unloaded on Twitter, southwest floods with reports of the headaches they have encountered and continue to encounter. Described passengers wait in long lines which extended outside the terminals, missing baggage only in some cases has traveled despite canceled flights or piled up unclaimed for days, waiting on customer service calls for hours or being disconnected repeatedlyand trying to browse a glitchy website.
Some passengers said they did not receive an email or text about their flight status, and instead learned through a notice on the app from FlightAware’s company or family and friends.
Maria Valenciano Ramos and her husband Geronima Ramos Jr. had hoped to visit their daughter in Nashville this week, but their Southwest Airlines flight on Monday was canceled, they said. They spent three hours on hold with customer service to have their booked flight cancelled.
They finally decided to head to the southwest terminal of the airport on Tuesday morning in desperation. The couple finally re-booked their trip for January. 1, the earliest available flight, with no fixed return date. Other airlines operating a similar route were charging up to $1,600 more per ticket, Ramos Jr. told me.
“It changed our whole schedule, our whole holidays,” Valenciano Ramos said. “It’s sad.”
Many also questioned the airline’s claim that the weather was the culprit, point out that other airlines were operating with less disruption and that part of the problem could be a staffing issue.
The cancellations have even affected the political class of Los Angeles. Newly elected Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath found herself stranded in Las Vegas after her return flight to Los Angeles in the Southwest was canceled. she said on Twitter Monday evening.
Horvath said no other flights were available to book on Southwest and any other flights back to Los Angeles would cost an inordinate amount of money.
Because of @SouthwestAir my only chance of getting home is to spend $400+ one way on another airline and arrive [Tuesday] afternoon (and cancel vet appointments and work meetings). UN. real. Who can afford it? Not working families or young people who come home once a year for the holidays,” Horvath said in a tweet.
The crippling winter storm hit two of the Southwest’s biggest hubs, Chicago and Denver, particularly hard.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said Monday afternoon it wasconcerned about Southwest’s unacceptable rate cancellations and delays”, as well as reports of a “lack of prompt customer service”.
“The department will review whether the cancellations were controllable and whether Southwest is following its customer service plan,” the agency said in a tweet.
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