The Southwest Airlines debacle left one Houston family stranded in North Carolina for nearly a week.
Arguetas showed up at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Tuesday, six days after his original flight was canceled, to find his flight delayed again.
‘Ridiculous,’ says Alex Argueta told ABC13“I mean, they say we have a flight tomorrow, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll actually get on it or even get on the next one.”
Alex arrived in North Carolina on December 22nd with his mother-in-law, wife and three young children.
They were scheduled to go on vacation and depart on December 28, but an operational meltdown forced Southwest Airlines to Canceled over 15,000 flights last week.
The airline also lost two of the Argueta family’s suitcases, leaving the family to basically survive the week on their backs, they said.
In addition to his parents being out of work, Alex said he’s at risk of missing one of his daughters’ first day of school if he doesn’t get back to Houston by the weekend.
Arguetas was stuck at the airport for several hours on Tuesday, spending most of it unproductively on the phone with Southwest representatives.
Alex’s wife, who declined to be named, said she spent three hours on the phone with a representative and then hung up. She also spent an additional hour and fifteen minutes on the phone earlier in the day.
“They just say it’s not their fault,” Alex said. “And that’s pretty much it. I mean we’re stuck here.”
The family showed up for their flight on Tuesday and learned it had been cancelled.
Arguetas is considering driving about 1,200 miles to get home to Houston.
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The family considers renting a car and driving the 1,200 miles (1,200 miles) to Texas, but that decision comes with additional costs. Because he needs to buy 3 car seats for his young children.
“That’s the risk we’re most likely to take,” said Alex. “There are no words because they are unwilling to do anything.”
Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan promised a refund last week Customers affected by the company meltdown. One passenger sued the airline do not keep promiseshe claimed he was only offered credit.
