It’s certainly been a frustrating few days for holiday air travelers, especially those flying Southwest.
Extreme cold, snow and very busy airports compounded with staffing and computer issues for Southwest to create a massive backlog of cancelled flights and stranded travelers across the country.
Those travelers also include numerous people at Minneapolis-St.
Paul International Airport.
Josh Bernal is trying had a connecting flight to St. Louis, eventually bound for Austin, Texas. The flight to St. Louis was cancelled. Then the flight to Texas was cancelled. Bernal says he has no choice, he need to rent a car and drive to Texas for a medical appointment.
“No options here today, no options here tomorrow, so I’m going to drive to Texas,” says Bernal who says he has to get to Apple Valley to rent a car because there are no more left at MSP.
Bernal says it’s frustrating but he’s doing his best to be polite to Southwest staff knowing it’s out of their control.
“They’re as helpful as they can be,” says Bernal. “The refund process was kind of trouble. Their computer system isn’t working. It sounds like all their flight crews are scattered and a lot of people just called in because of the weather. A bunch of people in line are upset but I was polite so they gave me a bunch of flight credit in the future. It’s frustrating.”
Another passenger tells WCCO’s Paul Hodowanic that she has almost nothing with her and her baggage is lost. She arrived in Minnesota late Monday night from Denver.
“Was told my bag would be on the next flight into Minneapolis with Southwest. I have no idea where that bag is right now,” she says.
Another passenger said he was on his way to Cincinnati and ended up in Minneapolis. Kohen Olischefski says he’s fortunate his schedule is flexible.
“Just had to wait in line and kind of ask for help,” Olischefski says. “They were very helpful, just giving out vouchers and reimbursements and what not. It’s pretty easy. They don’t have any flights going out so they told me to book a flight with another airline, submit the receipt and they’d pay me back.”
Thousands of flight scheduled for Tuesday are canceled, and just as many scheduled for Wednesday are already canceled including all of Southwest's flights into and out of MSP.
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