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Cancelled flight for a minor after a 6 hour delay!

Gabbysz86
Explorer C

My 16 year old son had a flight from Dallas to Chicago on Thursday the 22nd on December at 1 pm that got cancelled  which I understand was due to the storm. I was lucky enough to be able to rebook him for the same day at the later time so he made it home for Xmas after being delayed at the airport for about 3 hours. He was supposed to leave on the 25th of December at 5pm. We got to the airport on time yesterday even though upon checking it said that the flight is slightly delayed. I stayed with him for as long as I could but had to leave him as I have two more kids that are home including a newborn. His flight kept delaying from original time of take off at 5pm all the way to 1:15 am. After that they just cancelled it. I’m furious. He is a kid that spent over 6 hours on the airport by himself and still didn’t fly out. He was supposed to leave tomorrow from Dallas to Miami for New Years and now he won’t be able to. I just booked him on American Airlines flight for tomorrow and paid 983.00 for one way ticket. Southwest doesn’t have an available flight till Friday and he can’t wait that long. What kind of compensation can I get ? I’ve been flying with southwest for the longest, have their credit card and never had an issue like that ! I’m just so mad that he could of spent more time with us at home instead of being stuck on the airport and getting cancelled out anyways!

1 REPLY 1

Re: Cancelled flight for a minor after a 6 hour delay!

dfwskier
Aviator A

sorry to hear this is happening to your son.

 

Airlines hate to cancel flights. The process alienates passengers, makes a mess of airline operations and costs the airline lots of money.

 

That means that airlines keep delaying flights with the hope that they eventually get out. Sometimes they delay and delay and delay and then finally give up and cancel when it finally becomes obvious the flight has no chance of getting out. That is apparently what happened in your son's case. It's happened to me more than once and it is maddening as hell. I've slept in airports more than  once because of this.

 

1) Verify that Southwest rebooked your son. If so, and your son is not going to take the flight, cancel the thing and request a refund. Alternatively, Southwest will allow a no cost change to any other flight with seat availability between the same two cities. Since people cancel flights all the time, seats might be available now that were not available 10 minutes ago.

 

2) Complain directly to the airline. Use the contact us link below to begin that process. You are likely to get a travel voucher good for future travel $100 or $200.