TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Patience is running out for holiday travelers who have been stranded for days because of flight cancellations.
Some families are now opting for a road trip instead of waiting for a flight home.
“They ruined Christmas, Bah Humbug,” Kristin Lineberger said.
Lineberger and her family should have been home in Denver three days ago.
“Flights were not ‘til New Year’s Eve,” she said. “Maybe Friday if we were lucky.”
Lineberger said Southwest Airlines canceled their direct flight home on Christmas Eve. The airline rebooked them to fly through Austin on Monday, but that flight never took off as well.
“I never ever would have dreamed we would be in a situation like this, ever,” Lineberger said.
Their situation on Tuesday was a 30-hour, 19-hundred-mile road trip home to Colorado in a rental car. While waiting in line for the car, Lineberger found out her family isn’t alone.
“I hear about 13 other families come up that need to get home to Ohio, that need to get home to Baltimore and these are all one-way vehicles because people are stranded,” she said. “They’re driving home. It was crazy. It was absolutely just insane.”
Sanne Hess and her family from Amsterdam had a 2 ½ hour layover in Boston turn into a three-day stay at an airport hotel.
“It was 20 degrees or something like that,” Hess said. “We weren’t really dressed for it.”
Hess said they are relieved to finally arrive in Florida for their vacation.
“We’ll go anywhere, Disney, Universal,” she said. “Just standard things, swimming, enjoying the sun.”
As for the Linebergers, they are trying to make the most of their impromptu cross country drive.
“We’re trying to make an adventure out of it and enjoy the ride you know,” she said. “We just went through St. Louis. My daughter had never seen the arch before.”
