Man rents 10-foot truck, drives over 500 miles home after Southwest canceled thousands of flights

FLIGHTS TO WHERE THEY NEED TO GO. SOUTHWEST AIRLINE OPERATIONS CAME TO A SCREECHING HALT SATURDAY, LASTING INTO MONDAY WITH MORE THAN 2,000 FLIGHTS NATIONWIDE CANCELED. >>TR SANDED HERE AT BWI. REPORTER: THE FRUSTRATION BEING FELT AT BWI-MAHARSLL ONE OF SOUTHWEST’S LARGEST HUBS. >> I WAS IN .ST LOUIS VISITING ONE OF MY DAUGHTERS AND LEFT ST. LOUIS. A DELAYED FLIGHT TO BWI YESTERDAY. I WAS SUPPOSED TO DEPART AT 8:20 P.M. LAST NIGHT FOR BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA. THE FLIGHT WAS CANCELED AT ABOUT 8:00. THE BEST THEY COULD DO WAS TONIGHT. REPORTER: SOME PASSENGERS TOLD US THEY HAD TO BOOK MULTIPLE NIGHTS IN HOTEL ROOMS AND ONLY RECEIVED $200 VOUCHERS FOR FUTURE FLIGHTS. OTHERS SAID THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO BOOK FLIGHTS UNTIL DAYS LAR.TE >> SOMEONE TOLD US IT WAS HAVE NOBODY TO FLY THE PLANES. SOMEBODY ELSE TOLD US THAT WE HAD BAD WEATHER. ISO DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. REPORTER: MANY PASSENGERS WANT TO KNOW WHY THE FLIGHTS WERE CANCELED IN THE FIRST PLACE. SOUTHWEST AIRLINES SAID THROUGH A STATEMENT, ATC ISSUESND A DISRUPTIVE WEATHER HAVE RESULTED IN A HIGH VOLUME OF CANCELLATIONS THROUGHOUT THE WEEKEND WHILE WE WORK TO RECOVER OUR OPERATIO >> WE HAD TO GET A HOTEL ROOM, FOOD, UBER, ALL THAT. WITAS EXPENSIVE. THEY CLAIM THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER AND THE WEATHER, BUT I HAVE MY DOUBTS. REPORT:ER THERE WAS SOME SPECULATION FROM -- JUST LAST WEEK STHOUWEST ANNOUNCED MANDATORY VACCINES FOR ITS EMPLOYEES. THERE WAS SOME SPECULATION FROM PASSENGERS THAT PILOTS HAD WALKED OUT OVER THE MANDATE, BUT ACCORDING TO THE SOUTHWEST PILO T’S UNION THIS ACCUSATION IS EMPHATICALLY FALSE WRITING IA STATEMENT, "I CAN SAY WITH CERTAINTY THAT THERE ARE NO WORK SLOWDOWNS OR SICKOUTS EITHER RELATED TO THE RENECT MANDATORY VACCINE MANDE AT OTHERWISE." AND BACK NOW, YOU CAN SEE A LOT OF RED ON THE ARRIVALS BOARD. BUT THESE ARE DELAYS AND NOT CANCELLATIONS. IT WAS THE OPPOSITE YESTERDAY AND SARDTUAY WHERE YOU HAD PRETTY MUCH CANCELLATIONS DOWN THE LINE. TONIGHT, IT SEEMS LIKE PEOPLE ARE ABLE TO GET ON THESE FLIGHTS TO WHERE THEY NEED TO GO. A FINAL NEOT -- CHECKING ON FLIGHT INFORMATION, WE HAVE LIVE AT BWI WEBSITE.

Russ Melchert and his wife flew from Kansas City, Missouri, to Dallas on Friday to watch his alma mater's football team play the next day at the Cotton Bowl.Melchert was set to return home at 12:35 p.m. Sunday from Dallas Love Field airport on a Southwest Airlines flight, but it was just one of thousands of flights canceled over the weekend due to air traffic control problems, limited staffing in Florida, and bad weather, Southwest said.No rental cars were available to drive outside of Dallas, and booking on another airline would have cost about $1,800, Melchert said. So the couple rented a U-Haul truck, threw their carry-on luggage in the back, and were homeward bound.Melchert estimates spending $900 on the rental truck and fuel."They were super nice and took care of us, and we drove all day. But nine hours later, we're in Kansas City." Melchert said.Southwest, the world's largest low-cost carrier, canceled three of every 10 departures scheduled Sunday, and the disruption continued into Monday, a federal holiday, with 337 flights canceled so far, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.Getting operations back to normal was "more difficult and prolonged" because of schedule and staffing reductions made during the pandemic, the airline told CNN late Sunday.Kate Peifer found herself in a similar situation but had better luck getting a rental car. Like Melchert, she had a 900-mile journey ahead of her after Southwest canceled the second part of her flight Sunday from New York to Phoenix."LaGuardia to Phoenix with a plane stop in Denver onto Phoenix," she told CNN. "The second half of our flight was canceled. No flights out in the next few business days, so we rented a car to drive from Denver to Phoenix."In a tweet, Peifer said it was "not a great way to end our first trip to see family."Michele Wickman, a stranded passenger in Indianapolis, was sitting at the gate ready to board her flight and it got canceled, she told CNN affiliate WTHR."I feel trapped because there's no rental cars, there's no flights. We can't even get a flight with another airline," Wickman said.

Russ Melchert and his wife flew from Kansas City, Missouri, to Dallas on Friday to watch his alma mater's football team play the next day at the Cotton Bowl.

Melchert was set to return home at 12:35 p.m. Sunday from Dallas Love Field airport on a Southwest Airlines flight, but it was just one of over the weekend due to air traffic control problems, limited staffing in Florida, and bad weather, Southwest said.

No rental cars were available to drive outside of Dallas, and booking on another airline would have cost about $1,800, Melchert said. So the couple rented a U-Haul truck, threw their carry-on luggage in the back, and were homeward bound.

Melchert estimates spending $900 on the rental truck and fuel.

"They were super nice and took care of us, and we drove all day. But nine hours later, we're in Kansas City." Melchert said.

Southwest, the world's largest low-cost carrier, canceled three of every 10 departures scheduled Sunday, and the disruption continued into Monday, a federal holiday, with 337 flights canceled so far, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.

Getting operations back to normal was "more difficult and prolonged" because of schedule and staffing reductions made during the pandemic, the airline told CNN late Sunday.

Kate Peifer found herself in a similar situation but had better luck getting a rental car. Like Melchert, she had a 900-mile journey ahead of her after Southwest canceled the second part of her flight Sunday from New York to Phoenix.

"LaGuardia to Phoenix with a plane stop in Denver [no plane change] onto Phoenix," she told CNN. "The second half of our flight [Denver to Phoenix] was canceled. No flights out in the next few business days, so we rented a car to drive from Denver to Phoenix."

In a tweet, Peifer said it was "not a great way to end our first trip to see family."

Michele Wickman, a stranded passenger in Indianapolis, was sitting at the gate ready to board her flight and it got canceled, she told CNN affiliate .

"I feel trapped because there's no rental cars, there's no flights. We can't even get a flight with another airline," Wickman said.

��vlog