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Couple drove 18 hours to catch flight after theirs was cancelled on Christmas Eve

Home> News

Published 20:24 30 Dec 2022 GMT

Couple drove 18 hours to catch flight after theirs was cancelled on Christmas Eve

A couple had to drive 18 hours and 1,100 miles to catch a flight

Callum Jones

Callum Jones

An angry couple have claimed they ended up driving 18 hours on Christmas Eve to catch a last-minute flight home in time for the holidays.

The 'once-in-a-generation' storm that battered large parts of the US over the Christmas period put a stop to a lot of things, including the travel industry.

Thousands of flights have been cancelled in the past week, leaving many stranded at airports unable to get where they need to be for Christmas.

Alex Kain, 37, told CNBC that he and his unnamed partner were due to fly from Seattle to Denver with Southwest Airlines, but their flight was cancelled at 2:00am.

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He and his girlfriend then drove 18 hours and more than 1,100 miles in a rental car to an airport in Redmond, Oregon, where they got a flight home courtesy of Alaska Airlines.

The winter storm has caused huge travel disruption across the US.
Art Fleury / Alamy Stock Photo

Kain told the outlet that at a minimum he planned to request reimbursement from Southwest Airlines for the hotels, rental car, petrol and the flight he and his girlfriend took out from Redmond.

He estimated the total cost to be as much as $3,000 (£2,400).

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Kain told CNBC: "There’s no amount of money they could give us to make us fly Southwest again."

Southwest has taken much longer to resume normal operations from the winter storm than some of its competitors.

As an example, by midday on Tuesday, 2,549 flights had been cancelled by Southwest, making up a large proportion of 2,950 flights cancelled in the US that day.

According to FlightAware, Southwest cut 57 percent of its flights on Thursday (29 December), compared with Frontier at 5 percent.

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The cancellations have largely stemmed from issues Southwest scheduling tools, including problems with crew staff being at the airports they are needed at.

Southwest Airlines have cancelled thousands of flights in the past week.
Jim West / Alamy Stock Photo

The disruption has been that impacting, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan issued a public apology earlier this week.

In a video address on Tuesday (27 December), Jordan said: "I’m truly sorry … we have some real work to do in making this right.

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"The tools we use to recover from disruption service well 99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now.

"I’m apologising to them daily, and they’ll be hearing more about our specific plans to ensure the challenges that they face the past few days will not be part of our future."

Following the chaos, Jordan to 'lean in and go above and beyond' for customers.

Featured Image Credit: Lee Hudson / Monteny Bruno / Alamy

Topics: US News, Travel

Callum Jones
Callum Jones

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