Southwest Canceled My Flight Home. It Was a Travel Nightmare.

• Brady Goodman-Williams, a recruiter in LA, booked a Southwest flight to see his mother for Christmas.
• Even though he was traveling, Southwest canceled thousands of flights and still left passengers stranded.
• Goodman-Williams put in 41 several hours touring, put in a night in Vegas, and in no way designed it to see his mother.

This as-instructed-to essay is centered on a conversation with Brady Goodman-Williams, a 25-12 months-old recruiter living in Los Angeles. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I’m Jewish, but all I required for Xmas was to go pay a visit to my mother in my hometown of Denver. Lucky for me, it is really only a two-and-a-fifty percent hour flight from Los Angeles, wherever I reside and get the job done.

But when I confirmed up to the airport on Christmas early morning to check into my flight on Southwest Airways, I was advised it was canceled. Minor did I know this was the beginning of what would conclude up remaining a 41-hour journey … proper again to exactly where I started.

I was definitely stunned to hear that my flight from LAX was canceled

I hadn’t been despatched a textual content or email or everything to notify me of the cancellation ahead of time. If I had, I may possibly not have remaining my condominium at all.

But as it was, I made the decision to see if I could get to Denver a different way. I was place on a flight out of Burbank Airport, a different airport in Los Angeles, which took a $50 Uber ride to get to. When I designed it to Burbank, it was a zoo. I started off obtaining actually concerned when I listened to folks talking about how they ended up still waiting to be rebooked on their flights from the working day ahead of. 

My new flight was supposed to consider off out of Burbank at 9 a.m.

The flight was delayed. To start with, the delay was only 20 minutes … then 30 minutes … then an hour. Last but not least, it was announced that my flight was canceled.

I waited in line to be rebooked through Las Vegas. It was not even noon however, so I figured I even now had a very very good prospect of earning it to Denver. I had presently checked my bag, which was stressing, but I figured it’d be waiting around for me in Denver when I obtained there. If I could at the very least make it to Las Vegas, I’d almost certainly be ready to figure it out, given that Las Vegas is this sort of a big hub for Southwest.

I obtained on a rerouted flight to Vegas — but even that could not save me

Although I was in the air, my flight from Vegas to Denver was canceled. I was rebooked for a flight out of Vegas at 8:40 p.m. that night, which would previously carry my whole travel time to extra than 14 several hours.

The Las Vegas airport was a nightmare. Men and women ended up beside by themselves. Toddlers had been crying, persons were being combating with each and every other and with gate agents, and there was nowhere to sit. It felt like the airport staff members did not know what to do with the sheer quantity of travellers. 

It was overall chaos — and then it got even worse

My 8:40 p.m. flight was canceled. I still left the terminal to go back to the examine-in space to test to get rebooked and observed that the rebooking line was the longest line I would been in that day. It took far more than a few several hours.

By that time, it was 10 p.m. and a Southwest employee obtained on the megaphone to convey to us that their procedure was down and they could not rebook any person. The worker stated they would be thinking of refunds, however, and if we preferred to be regarded for a refund, we desired to get started a new line.

Folks dropped their minds in excess of refunds and had been actually shoving each and every other out of the way

Elbows and fists had been thrown. The couple behind me was preventing so terribly that I imagined they could get a divorce.

I at last bought a partial refund on my ticket, with the logic behind the partial refund being that they obtained me partially to my destination by receiving me to Las Vegas, which is on the way to Denver from Los Angeles.

I was offered a $250 voucher for a $350 ticket. I booked a hotel for the night in Vegas and rented a motor vehicle for virtually $300 to generate back again to Los Angeles the next day.

I wasn’t the only man or woman who had the plan to lease a automobile to get household

Ready in line for my rental took additional than a few hrs, and then the drive back to Los Angeles took 7 hours alternatively of the usual four since of holiday break visitors.

When I bought back again to Los Angeles Intercontinental Airport, I went to communicate to another person about my bag, but they failed to have a stable solution. They knew my bag had designed it to Denver, but they did not know when it would come again to Los Angeles. 

I have usually flown Southwest, but this manufactured me absolutely rethink all the things

I am grateful I have ample of a money cushion that I was capable to fork out for a resort and rental car, but I actually truly feel for people today who didn’t have that preference. Southwest claims they’re likely to be reimbursing “reasonable requests,” but I’m not keeping my breath.

This entire predicament was just a large disappointment, particularly as a Southwest model loyalist. I dropped out on a lot-wanted time with my mom all through the vacations mainly because of their scheduling challenges, and I am however waiting around to see if I am going to at any time see my bag once again.