Good luck to all traveling this weekend! Impromptu 1,000 mile drive!

[Jenny-momof3]

Had an amazing spring break trip with just me and my 2 youngest until the fiasco getting back home to Ohio!

Had a 9am Southwest flight yesterday. Got the text that it was cancelled at 3:30am. Couldn't change to another flight online so I called. Waited on hold 2 hours and never got through. Got my kids out of bed and headed to the airport to try and change it there. No flight for us for 3 days. So my DH rented a Jeep for me while I cancelled the flights.

Hit the road at 8:30am. It took 10 hours to go 450 miles! Getting to and through Atlanta was awful! I've made this drive many times ( not ever as the only driver though). This was definitely the longest its ever taken. Since I was by myself with the kids I planned on driving just a few more hours then stopping for the night. Traffic stayed very heavy until Knoxville DH booked me a hotel in Knoxville. Get there and they are oversold so no room. DH calls 30+ hotels while I keep driving Everything is sold out! So I ended up driving straight through to Cincinnati airport, turned in the rental and got my van. Then the next 100 miles home. In total it took me almost 21 hours for a drive that usually takes 15! And we only made 2 10 minute stops to fill up, run to the bathroom and grab a snack. My kids were SOO good though! They had nothing to do but look out the window the entire drive. Traffic was so bad that I really had to concentrate on the road and couldn't play any "find the license plate", etc type games.

Good luck to all of those dealing with the travel mess this weekend! I felt fine the entire drive but today I feel hungover without the hangover part! haha Sooo tired!

 

[Neener16]

Had an amazing spring break trip with just me and my 2 youngest until the fiasco getting back home to Ohio!

Had a 9am Southwest flight yesterday. Got the text that it was cancelled at 3:30am. Couldn't change to another flight online so I called. Waited on hold 2 hours and never got through. Got my kids out of bed and headed to the airport to try and change it there. No flight for us for 3 days. So my DH rented a Jeep for me while I cancelled the flights.

Hit the road at 8:30am. It took 10 hours to go 450 miles! Getting to and through Atlanta was awful! I've made this drive many times ( not ever as the only driver though). This was definitely the longest its ever taken. Since I was by myself with the kids I planned on driving just a few more hours then stopping for the night. Traffic stayed very heavy until Knoxville DH booked me a hotel in Knoxville. Get there and they are oversold so no room. DH calls 30+ hotels while I keep driving Everything is sold out! So I ended up driving straight through to Cincinnati airport, turned in the rental and got my van. Then the next 100 miles home. In total it took me almost 21 hours for a drive that usually takes 15! And we only made 2 10 minute stops to fill up, run to the bathroom and grab a snack. My kids were SOO good though! They had nothing to do but look out the window the entire drive. Traffic was so bad that I really had to concentrate on the road and couldn't play any "find the license plate", etc type games.

Good luck to all of those dealing with the travel mess this weekend! I felt fine the entire drive but today I feel hungover without the hangover part! haha Sooo tired!

Sounds like an absolute nightmare!! Glad you finally got home.

 

[Toolulu22]

That really does sound terrible! No way I could handle driving 21 hours straight. So glad you made it home safely. Rest up!

 

[mamamelody2]

Good grief, that's terrible!
Glad you made it home safely!

 

[Best Aunt]

I've been following this person's thread; they had the same situation (although I didn't pay attention to where the two of you started from):

https://www.disboards.com/threads/southwest-cancelled-our-flight-with-less-than-12-hours-😡.3878174/

 

[sdoll]

Wow!! that is a long day of travel as the only driver. So glad you got home safely. We fly in 2 weeks for our spring break cruise. Hopefully we no issues with our flights.

 

[Disturbia]

We got home this morning (April 4th) at 4 am after a 17 hour drive (plus additional 2-3 for hotel/stops etc), 1 overnight hotel stop ($360 but Hilton garden inn gave a 30% discount as they only had 1 bed, half our party slept in the floor). We were supposed to fly out Spirit April 2nd. We have 3 kids. Thankfully we were in the luggage drop line when someone told us our flight was cancelled (our 2 year old was on the phone as lines were very long). Others were still hunting down luggage 10 hours later (delta kept postponing flights and finally cancelled-per people in the Starbucks line). car rental took us only 2-2.5 hours (line was 4 hours+ when we left). Very limited car availability and we were told they’re almost out of cars (Avis). Had to go buy a car seat and booster from a nearby Walmart. We had to put one suitcase in the back seat below kids feet and it was really tight (no leg room for our 5 year old for the first 4 hours (Honda HrV) 3 big bags, 1 carry on, 1 diaper bag and a joovy caboose double stroller (had to remove canopy and tray to fit) and uncomfortable (keep luggage to a minimum). We adjusted the bags and removed the stroller attachments to get it to fit (lost the tray in the process) in the past 2 years we flew 4 times and all had issues with delays cancellations (we lost money and rebooked on another flight between AA and Spirit), this was the worst.

No hotels at midnight where we chose to break in Georgia. We got one king bed; fortunately we had an iPad with us (cover has a soft handle with Velcro so we used that to attach to the headrest) and when we stopped at the Walmart to purchase car seats we purchased 2 car chargers (portable Charger kept phones going during our 4 hours at the airport). We overheard some people checking in when we checked out the next morning from our hotel. Some people had to sleep in their cars. So first night drove 4 hours (after 4 hours at Epcot; 4+ at the airport); second day drove 13 plus two breaks (3 hours). Fortunately kids did well for the most part despite the circumstances, except the last couple of hours.

People were at the airport since 8:30 am. We arrived at 3:15 pm. Airlines knew that no flights were going to take off. They should have told people before they came to the airport. We could have tried to extend our stay or rent a car outside the airport. At least we had the option to drive; the line for international flights stretched to the main elevators (From the spirit corner)

 

[shafke]

Our saga from the weekend...
Fri... Push back from the gate maybe 10 minutes late. Taxi out to a runway where 4 other planes are sitting... Tampa is shutdown due to storms. Sit on tarmac for 45 minutes. Cleared to take off. Land in Tampa about 60-75 minutes late.

Go to get rental car... long line at AVIS but wait... I signed up for preferred... go down to the garage and get assigned a car. The car they assigned (Chevy Malibu or something) was already given to the people who were in front of me on line. Go back to rental agent and get a different cars... Oh look... it is a Ford Explorer... nice (there are 4 of us). Since we landed late we have to deal with rush hour until we get to I75 (we were heading to The Villages for a wedding).
After a rainy Saturday fast forward to Sunday... receive an email from JetBlue... flight cancelled. No what... no flights available, no Amtrak leaving the area that day it would seem. Go on the Avis app and change drop off to JFK... the cost for that almost balanced out the refund our group should get for the plane. 18 hours later the car is dropped off at JFK.

The best part of this whole thing was getting the upgraded car after the initial mix up. That made the drive back to NY very comfortable.

PS: something needs to be done with I95 in SC. That is always the slowest part of the drive.

 

[matt and beth]

Had the exact same experience but flew Delta. They claim weather related form the day before. But under their breath said they overbooked by 25% and that’s the most they’ve ever done causing all kinds of headaches. So we drove the 20 1/2 hours home

 

[mickeybaby]

This happened to me too. It was quite a nightmare for everyone at the airport. I was on an American flight booked out of Miami. Ended up renting a car (luckily) and driving the 1100 miles home.
Does anyone know if I have a chance at getting my travel expenses - last minute car rental, food, gas, one night hotel - reimbursed?

 

[Jenny-momof3]

This happened to me too. It was quite a nightmare for everyone at the airport. I was on an American flight booked out of Miami. Ended up renting a car (luckily) and driving the 1100 miles home.
Does anyone know if I have a chance at getting my travel expenses - last minute car rental, food, gas, one night hotel - reimbursed?

Ugh I wish! I can't even get Southwest to give me my flight credits! I've contacted them multiple times and there still not in my account Ugh!!