Many travelers facing pre-holiday nightmare amid record crush
AAA said more than 103 million Americans will take a trip over the next week and a half. That’s the most on record.
Winter storms in the Northwest and Midwest could cause major travel headaches. And hundreds of flights Friday morning are already cancelled or delayed, reports CBS News correspondent Omar Villafranca.
At airports across the country, before dreaming of a white Christmas, many travelers are experiencing a pre-holiday nightmare.
“I’m supposed to be going to Japan but they sent to me San Diego,” said Donovan Ritter, a passenger at Los Angeles International Airport.
If life’s all about the journey -- not the destination -- right now that journey is filled with detours, long waits, and cancellations.
“The flight was bad,” said one passenger.
“We’re stuck,” said another.
“We sat on the tarmac for two and a half hours,” said another.
AAA predicts air travel this year will see a more than 2.5-percent increase. But most travelers -- nearly 94 million -- will be hitting the road, including some stranded flyers.
“People are trying to rent cars, but the rental cars are getting filled up,” said one passenger.
Unusually rainy weather in Los Angeles made the usual airport commute even worse. And just getting to the terminals at Los Angeles International Airport was a hurdle, followed by the inevitable delays.
“We’ve been in this line for four hours,” one passenger said.
Airport officials warn travelers to keep track of their bags and belongings, or risk causing even longer waits due to false alarms.
“We are always going to err on the side of caution. It may cause disruptions, it may cause some slight delays, but it’s important that people know that our priority is their safety,” said LAX spokeswoman Mary Grady.
But it’s not all bad.
“We got in, stood in line for 30 seconds, they helped us right away,” said one passenger.
“It’s below chaos. And that’s a good thing,” said another.
And others, not so lucky, are taking things in stride.
“Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way... sorry all flights are delayed,” one passenger posted to Instagram a video of her little niece singing the Christmas carol.
