Amid SWA cancellations, one family made the journey to visit family on Christmas
FRISCO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) — Megan and Greg Wilkerson, who live in the San Francisco Bay area, were determined to spend Christmas with their family in Frisco.
"It has been quite the journey," Megan said. "It's been a tough year, so it's really important for us to be here."
On Friday, their first Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to San Diego was delayed. But they never took that flight after finding out their second flight from San Diego to Dallas was cancelled because of dense fog.
So, Southwest rebooked them on a nonstop flight from Oakland to Dallas Saturday afternoon...But that also was cancelled.
"So it's panic mode. It's Christmas Eve," Megan explained.
After searching for other flights to North Texas, they found one on American Airlines. However, to get on it, they had to drive five hours to Ontario, near Los Angeles.
They caught the flight early Christmas morning.
"I wasn't going to say anything until we actually took off, but thankfully American got us all on the flight and we landed around 11 a.m.," Megan said.
But while they made it, she said their luggage didn't.
"There [were] some sentimental gifts that were in there that I would have loved to have given my family when we were all together," Megan said. "We had a loss in our family this year, so it was very important that we were here."
And they're not alone.
So many other Southwest customers waiting in long lines at Dallas Love Field and across the country had their own travel nightmares to share.
The airline cancelled two-thirds of its flight scheduled Monday.
Beginning Tuesday, the Dallas-based airline said it would operate at one-third of its flight schedule for the next several days with the goal of moving its planes and crews to their proper places.
Luckily though, progress at Love Field was made and some passengers finally found their missing bags.
One woman cheered, another man said he felt as if he won the lottery.
Traveler Sam Smith waited in line at Love Field to find out where his checked luggage was. They told him it would be sent to Nashville, even though their flight there was cancelled.
So, Smith and his wife drove to Nashville and found their bags Tuesday.
"We're happy to have them," Smith said. "This place is still a madhouse."
The Wilkersons did find one of their six checked bags at Love Field after getting a random text from another woman.
"She was randomly going through looking at tags and texting people saying your bag is here, which is amazing because we were getting nothing from the airlines," Megan shared. Their other five bags are still in San Diego.
But at least one person in the family was happy—Megan's husband.
"I keep joking, good things happen to good people," he said. The couple could finally laugh after a four-day-long ordeal.
The rest of the Wilkerson family was going shopping for clothing Tuesday. They say Southwest told them they would get reimbursed for the clothing and their flight on American.
Southwest says it has set up this website that travelers can go to if they've experienced problems.
