SEATAC — Allan and Marivic Gaviola of Bremerton had hoped to spend the holidays with family members they hadn’t seen in years.
The reunion is going to have to wait.
The couple and their 16-year-old son spent the past three days hunkered down in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, hoping the series of delays and cancellations brought about by Southwest Airlines’ epic travel meltdown would end in time for the family to be rebooked on a new flight. But that didn’t happen in time for them to make it to Las Vegas.
“It’s painful,” Allan, 62, said Wednesday while still searching for a suitcase packed with gifts for their relatives. “We’ve been sleeping on the chair, we’ve been eating McDonald’s.”
The Gaviolas are among thousands of people who saw their flights to or from the airport delayed or canceled as a result of last week’s winter blast in the Seattle area, the “bomb cyclone” that ravaged much of the rest of the country and Southwest’s unprecedented number of cancellations. Holiday plans were delayed, disrupted or ruined. For many like the Gaviolas, they were canceled entirely.
“We were supposed to spend time with family,” Marivic said. “It was supposed to be a merry Christmas.”
By Wednesday, things at the airport had begun to return to normal — holiday travel normal, that is. Sea-Tac logged 53 flight cancellations by 6 p.m., according to FlightAware, which tracks cancellations and delays. Just five days earlier, the airport saw 719 total flight cancellations.
Southwest, however, was not faring as well. Thirty-five of its flights, or 79% of its total, had been canceled as of 6 p.m., FlightAware reported.
Alaska Airlines on Wednesday said its operations were returning to normal but warned flight loads were extremely heavy. Just 13 flights — 3% of its total scheduled flights — to and from Sea-Tac were canceled and 66 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware.
On Wednesday afternoon, wait times on Alaska’s customer-service line were an estimated 90 minutes, compared with earlier this week, when travelers reported hold times of up to eight hours.
Jose and Angie Garcia, who are traveling from Fairbanks, Alaska, said Wednesday they had been waiting at Sea-Tac for hours after missing a connecting flight to California. They were hoping to spend the New Year’s holiday with family.
“From Cali, we were going to go with some of our family members and drive to Las Vegas,” said Jose, 22, of their plans. “But I don’t think we are going to be able to do that anymore because of the delay.”
The Garcias, who are traveling with their 11-month-old daughter, Eztli, said the holiday season is usually filled with barbecues, parties and fireworks. But, that may change because of the disruption.
“We are really excited,” said Angie, 26. “We haven’t seen our family in half a year.”
The couple said their flight has been rescheduled for Thursday and until then they are staying with relatives. “Luckily, we have family here,” Jose said.
Clint Douthit and his wife took their kids, ages 7-17, to Walt Disney World in Orlando as a Christmas gift. After Alaska Airlines canceled their Wednesday morning flight back to Sea-Tac, the Douthits decided to rent a car and drive home.
Douthit, of Vashon Island, said his family didn’t find out their flight was canceled until they were already at the airport, trying to get their boarding passes. An agent told them the earliest flight out of Orlando would be Dec. 31, and departing flights from the closest airports were all either canceled or unable to accommodate six passengers.
The airline offered hotel vouchers, he said, but the meal vouchers would have required them to eat at the airport, and the travel vouchers they offered would not have been able to accommodate all of the Douthit kids.
“I came up with Plan B, which was let’s go get a minivan and drive back,” Douthit said by phone. “We’re all of sound mind and body. We can make it happen.”
The rental car cost over $600. The Douthits were crossing the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, late Wednesday afternoon, hoping the weather wouldn’t be too bad as they got closer to Washington.
Douthit, who usually travels a couple of times a year for business, said frequent flight cancellations in recent years have him wondering whether driving is the way to go.
“Unless there’s some sort of drastic change in the state of flying in America, I think this was our last flight,” Douthit said.
