Team coverage: Passengers caught in middle of travel nightmare amid Southwest Airlines cancellations
Most of hobbies cancelled flights are attributed to the ongoing bedlam at Southwest Airlines. The company says the winter weather is to blame, but unions also point to the company itself. We start, though, with the stranded passengers. As of this afternoon, FlightAware lists Hobby airport among the top airports for cancelled flights. Let’s begin our team coverage this afternoon with Ugochi Iloka getting updates on the options for passengers caught in the middle of a travel nightmare. Gochi. Sherman right now Southwest Airlines says the earliest they can rebook people is New Year’s Eve and last check 10 minutes
ago. We saw that today alone they’ve cancelled 2500, more than 2500 of their flights. That is 63% of their flights just today alone. Meanwhile, the airline says they are working to help those stranded at the airport. They’re customers with things like hotel accommodations and ride assistance, however. Several people told us online to KSU 11 news that they’ve gotten no help from them yet. Southwest Airlines claims the winter storm significantly impacted their flight operations and not staffing. However, weather isn’t the only blame for the flight cancellation. Chaos a flight attendant union president says the technology’s flight
attendants use to reschedule flights relies on a phone system that gets overloaded and is quite frankly, outdated. We spoke to 1 customer waiting at Hobby Airport
12 hours. Yeah, and the Adams family made that long drive all the way from Saint Louis, and this has become such a big problem that the US Department of Transportation says they’re monitoring the situation, even looking to review how this all happened, all these issues, how they spiraled out of control so quickly. Sure men. We also reached out to Southwest Airlines to get a response on how they plan to help those who are stranded and how quickly they’ll do it. Lots of people want answers to all of those questions. Ugochi Iloka thank you. Piled up
luggage. More evidence of the pandemonium. Our Michelle Choi picks up our team coverage with the epic Odyssey to retrieve checked bags. There are still rows of luggage here at baggage claim, but I can tell you it is a lot more organized than it was less than 24 hours ago. You can see that the bags that are still here are now grouped into sections. There are also a lot more Southwest agents here on the floor, working hard to assist passengers looking to get their bags back. Among the southwest passengers who showed up extra early this morning
hoping to retrieve their bags was Vivian loan. Her flight in Florida was delayed before she finally made it to Houston last night. She’s been trying to get to Austin to see her. Grandkids. But with no clear answers from Southwest, she decided to drive and waited until morning to get her bags to avoid the chaos. I couldn’t wait in the lines because I have a bad back, so I didn’t want to wait, you know, five hours just to try to find my bags. So I went ahead and rented a car, and then I got a hotel
room myself. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for Vivian, who recently lost her husband. And it’s hard. They don’t know how hard it is. And I’m here by myself, so. It’s very hard. Her prayers are finally answered. When she got her bags back a short time later. We were there as she embraced the Southwest agent who retrieved it. And Vivian cried tears of joy because I lost my husband a few months ago and you know, and I’m just trying to get better. So. And I told them that and they went straight back there and got my
luggage for me, and now I’m going home. Shortly after this heartwarming moment, we ran into Christopher Rosales, who, like Vivian, decided to take a gamble and come look for his bags. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky. He says southwest agents told him his bags were still in an Orlando airport, where he was stranded for three days. I’m one of several people who experienced multiple cancellations. You know, a night in the airport, a night, a Christmas Eve and a random hotel airport. I got no messaging during all of that time, and I think that’s when the message
needs to happen. Christopher says he was finally forced to rebook through a different airline and made it home for Christmas. I made Christmas dinner. That was everything but a southwest. Odyssey still isn’t over. Christopher says Southwest is planning on shipping his luggage, which is filled with Christmas gifts, to his home. Now a longtime fan of the airline, he had this message for Southwest. When the phones aren’t being answered, when the app isn’t working, when the website isn’t being updated and none of these systems are integrated in real time, people feel lost. People feel let down,
people feel defeated. I just hope that they’re able to tighten up their system. You know, communicate with your your clientele, your passengers, especially at Christmas, you know, get the message out. Regardless of how what those shortage of staff is, it shouldn’t be a shortage of a of a clear message to the people that they’re doing what they can. Yeah, that’s exactly what Southwest is hoping to do. The airline says they are doing everything they can to make this right, including offering hotels right assistance and rental cars to stranded passengers. By the way, if you made
any of those purchases out of pocket, keep your receipts and contact Southwest back to you.
