It was another miserable day for many at Dallas Love Field.
Hundreds of travelers waited in line, many lining the walls, sitting on the floor with their heads down and an air of exhaustion.
Many remained stranded as Southwest Airlines racked up thousands of cancellations and flight delays from before Christmas onward.
Some are still holding on to the chance that they can see loved ones for the New Year, while others are desperate to get home after the holidays.
Natalie Logan-Sharps and her husband made a three-hour trek to Dallas from Oklahoma City with the hopes of catching a flight home to Michigan on Tuesday morning.
The flight she had in Oklahoma was canceled after she waited three hours at the airport and an employee said that she would have better luck getting a flight from Love Field. That flight was also canceled and the two have been stuck in Dallas ever since.
“Thank God my mom was here, but the drive was kind of pointless,” Logan-Sharps said. “They could have told me to just wait over there” in Oklahoma. “We thought it would be OK coming to Dallas.”
Eventually the Logan-Sharps gave up and bought tickets for almost $300 each to fly American Airlines out of DFW Airport Wednesday afternoon. Now, she’s waiting to get a refund from Southwest.
She said that the mishaps with her travel plans have been tough on their wallet.
“I mean, just think if I had spent all my little money before this, thank God I had enough,” she said. “Now, Southwest has my money tied up and the car rental people have my money tied up.”
Beverly Bruce spent her Christmas with her granddaughter, who recently moved to Dallas. Bruce landed in Dallas last Wednesday and was grateful to miss the freezing temperatures at the end of the week, but she didn’t expect to be stuck in Dallas after the weather cleared up.
“I was thinking that I was ahead of the game because I left Wednesday and got in safely,” she said. “That’s the bottom line for me – I don’t care what they do, I just want to get home safe.”
She was supposed to be home, in Kansas City, by Monday night. Now, she said, she doesn’t know what to do.
“It’s a panicked feeling, because you don’t know,” Bruce said. “I mean, I’d love to stay with her, but not knowing when I’d go home. ... It’s just a panicked state because how could everything be shut down? It’s very scary.”
Fernando Ballesteros, a Love Field employee, has been guiding people as they figure out their travel plans. He said that safety is the No. 1 priority, and the airline will not let planes take off if equipment or weather is not up to par.
“Love Field is a friendly airport and we try our best to be kind to people,” Ballesteros said. “People will always be unhappy when plans change, but sometimes we don’t have enough pilots or workers.”
Dallas native Michelle Caceres has been waiting with her daughter, who lives in Orange County, California, as she figures out her plan to get home. Her daughter’s flight from Phoenix to Orange County got canceled so she’s renting a car to drive home.
“She’s going to have to drive five hours in the middle of the desert to get home,” Caceres said. “As a mother, you don’t want your kid to do that, but she needs to be home.”
Caceres and her daughter have been waiting to redirect her luggage to Phoenix. They’re not sure that the flight to Phoenix will take off, either.
“If they were transparent and told us what’s really going on, we’d make other arrangements and they’d eliminate half of these people waiting in line. It’s a mess.”
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