MILWAUKEE — After nearly 24 hours of delays and cancellations, some local Southwest travelers say they still have no answers from the airline and little hope in making their trips a reality.
Marcus and Andrea Grasenick were gearing up for their dream honeymoon cruise when they say the issues with Southwest Airlines began.
The two Wauwatosa teachers tell us that when they tried to take their connecting flight out of Nashville on Monday, they waited for hours before finally being told it was canceled and their luggage stuck outside in the snow.
Nearly 24 hours later and flying back on a different airline, they made it home without their belongings and no clue when they might be able to take their long-awaited vacation.
“This is the only break we have in common, so we can't even go a different time and make it up, because this is the only one. This is the one shot we had,” said Grasenick.
Selena Pacheco and her family had big plans to spend the holidays in Florida, complete with tickets to theme parks and exciting activities.
She tells us that the issues began almost as soon as she arrived at the airport for her flight on Monday.
After hours of trying to find other options, Selena says the earliest she was told she could get a new ticket wouldn’t be until the end of the week, leaving her with no other choice.
“I canceled my entire trip, yes. I’m home in Kenosha, and I have a very, very sad 13-year-old who doesn't get to go and do all the things that we had talked about for the last year,” said Pacheco.
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Selena, Andrea and Marcus say they’re frustrated with what they call the “radio silence” from Southwest and they all say they’ll think long and hard before booking a flight with the airline again.
“That's unacceptable, period. You are a gigantic corporation. Yes, I understand. Christmas Day. Fine, but there's no reason I couldn't have got an email, or I couldn't have gotten that text, or you couldn't have gotten on the loudspeaker and just said, ‘Here's our situation. We are doing everything we can.’ But this is the end result. Literally no communication at all, and I think that is my biggest issue,” said Pacheco.
While Andrea says she appreciates Southwest’s recent announcement of offering full refunds or travel credits, she says that won’t fix her sadness and frustration.
“It's time, and you can't give that time back. You can give our $4,000 of cruise [sic] that we spent. If you could do that, great. But, the memories that we were going to make with each other and with our friends, that's not something that you can put a price tag on,” said Grasenick.
