But we begin with the travel nightmare
that just won't end as Southwest
Airlines cancels more than 60% of its
flights today along good afternoon,
everybody. I'm Ron Trevino.
And I'm Lauren Talerico,
in for Rica moorage.
Right now, thousands of families
are stranded across the country,
their luggage piling up,
and so is their anger and frustration.
US Transportation Secretary
Pete Buttigieg says today he's
planning to address the massive.
Rate of flight cancellations,
delays, and customer service
issues with Southwest Airlines, so
take a look at this the
FlightAware misery map.
All of the red that you see
shows just how many flights are
canceled or delayed at major
airports all across the country.
And there are plenty of cancellations
right here at Hobby Airport.
We've got team coverage,
including what you can do if your
flight was cancelled or delayed.
Let's get to Adam Bennett.
He's live at Hobby,
where SW carries most of the passengers.
Hey, Adam.
Hey, Ron. So we'll start with the good news.
The lines here in the ticketing
area at Hobby, they're quite a bit
less than what we saw yesterday.
But FlightAware still says
that today 28% of flights here
at hobby have been canceled,
17% have been delayed.
Stuck on the ground at Hobby Airport.
I've been here since 4:00 AM this morning.
Frustration was Sky High for some passengers.
No, because he's so frustrated.
Hadija Holland told me she took
off work to help her son get a
flight back to North Carolina,
where he stationed with Marines.
His two previous flights yesterday and
today were both cancelled, hopefully.
Hopefully that doesn't get cancelled.
Christie Hartman and her
family didn't find out.
Their flight to Vegas was delayed 2
hours until they got to the airport.
I have two tickets under my name and
my husband has two under his and
neither of us got the text messages,
alerts or an e-mail saying we're late.
After being unable to get through
on the phone, Cameron Hajek came to
hobby to reschedule his family's
flight back home to Virginia.
Our flight was leaving at 6:00
tomorrow and tomorrow in the morning,
so I didn't want to be here at like 2
trying to go through all this mess.
Southwest Airlines officials
blamed the disruptions on this.
Recent winter storm but the head
of the flight attendants Union
says there's a bigger issue.
Cancellations just compiled one
after another to 100 to 150 to 1000.
With those cancellations, and as a result,
we end up with flight crews and
airplanes that are out of place.
Obviously, the impact of winter
Storm Elliott created the issues,
but the Southwest airline
systems cannot recover because
we have outdated technology
while Southwest works on a fix.
Steve Kennedy and Caitlin
Williams praised the airlines.
Employees while rebooking
their flight to Miami.
Everybody can have problems,
but in my experience,
Southwest been fantastic.
Many passengers here are doing
their best to roll with the changes.
And Southwest has set up a special
website for customers to rebook or
request a refund. Ron and Lauren.
Alright, Adam, thank you so much.
Let's bring it on. Yelly Ruiz.
Now she's also at Hobby Airport,
speaking with passengers annually.
What are they telling you?
Well, passengers I've been speaking
with today all want to get their bags.
I wanna show you guys behind me.
This hallway here at Hobby Airport has
been turned into a luggage storage.
This is where a lot of the Southwest
Airlines employees are walking with these
passengers to try and find a their luggage.
Now to prevent people from sleeping
here at the airport last night though,
the city of Houston did provide
metro buses for people.
They tell us they shuttled 260 to
hotels all around Houston 100 and.
40 rooms paid for by Southwest and the
passengers will stay in these rooms
until they can find a flight out.
But again, the most frustrating part for
many people has been getting their luggage.
They tell me the lack of communication
from the airline has also been a problem.
So it's been two days since I've had bags.
I don't have any of my stuff.
I had to like literally buy
from everything that you see
here except for this purse.
I had to buy everything.
It's just a lot of of of missed,
disconnected information and
none of it seems to be accurate.
Now some people were told that
Southwest Airlines is asking them
to keep receipts of everything and
they can submit for a reimbursements.
Now while we have been out here,
some people have been lucky enough
to be able to pick up their bags,
but not everybody has been so lucky.
And again, a lot of people are also
telling us that their bags have actually
reached their destination without them.
Again, very frustrating for a lot
of these passengers hoping to just
be able to make it home again.
We'll send it back to
you. Now Anniella, thank you so much.
What a nightmare for so
many people this week.
If you find yourself with a cancelled flight,
there are some things you can
do to get to your destination
or get your money back.
We'll be walking you through
those steps coming up a
little bit later in the shows
and we want to get you as much help
as possible. Text the word travel to
7135261111 will send you back links will
helpful with helpful information on flight
cancellations and rebooking your flights.