Across the nation, endless accounts of Southwest customers missing milestone moments thanks to the airline’s historic meltdown. Big events are now a complete bust.
NBC 5 spoke to a bride who escaped disaster and a man who’s making the best of an incredibly bad break.
The moment she spotted her fiancé running to the car at the airport, Wendi Reichstein could finally exhale.
“Luckily my fiancé landed today so that’s a big breath I can take now that the groom is here,” she said.
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The bride-to-be always dreamed of a New Year’s Eve wedding in her hometown Houston. She arrived early last week. The groom, however, was still in Florida just as the Southwest situation started to crumble.
“Every other airline seemed to get better,” she said. “But, as we know, the Southwest situation just seemed to get worse.”
It came down to the wire and talks of a 16-hour drive were not off the table. The plan was to do just about anything to get the groom to Texas in time.
“I talked to him on Tuesday and said, ‘You know hopefully this flight works out, but if this flight is delayed or canceled I need you prepared to get in the car and drive to Houston,’” she said.
Her fiance’s Southwest flight was canceled and Reichstein made a quick decision to purchase with a different airline. With the now groom in place, the wedding will go on. But for the wedding party, there’s a different story.
“I’ve had bridesmaids that are trying to book on another airline,” said Reichstein. “I’ve had friends that are saying we’re trying to rent a car to drive because we just don’t know.”
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
According to the website Flightaware.com, 58% of all Southwest flights were still canceled as of Thursday morning.
The airline said it plans to fly one-third of its schedule for the next “several days” to reposition flight crews who are out of position.
Amid the Southwest cancellation chaos, other carriers have announced they will institute price caps to limit the financial burden on stranded flyers trying to reach their destinations.
And then there are stories like Quincy Thompson’s. He made it from Houston to California after a series of delays and cancellations.
“About two in the morning the screens just went blank, and it was like all flights are canceled,” Thompson said. “I’m 44 and I’ve never really had a holiday like that.”
Sadly, he missed a memorial he’s planned in honor of his grandmother.
“It was kind of a surprise for my mom so we couldn’t even surprise her because it was her mother. So, it was a big damper for what I had planned,” he said.
Despite the letdown, Thompson said he’s relieved to be with family.
Reichstein said she’ll focus on what goes right on her big day and try to put this behind her. Still, she had words for the airline she’s been loyal to for so many years.
“The best I can hope for is that they take this as a huge wakeup call and revamp the entire system so that something like this never happens again,” she said.
Southwest Airlines is currently under the scrutiny of the U.S. Department of Transportation as well as customer advocacy groups.
The DOT called the rate of delays and cancellations unacceptable and said it would closely examine the situation as calls for accountability grow louder.
