I Was One of the Thousands of Canceled Southwest Flights

This is my story

Christopher Kokoski
4 min readDec 30, 2022
Image by the Author using Jasper Art and Canva

I recently experienced firsthand the inconvenience and stress of being one of the thousands of Southwest passengers whose holiday flights were canceled.

It wasn’t my first time dealing with delays and debacles.

But it was a trying time — and not just for me.

After spending a wonderful week in Vegas, I was looking forward to finally reaching my home in Louisville, Kentucky.

Little did I know that the plan would change drastically during the next two days.

It All Started for Me In Chicago

When my flight landed in Chicago, I realized that something was wrong with the airport operations.

It soon became clear that Southwest had canceled thousands of flights due to inclement weather conditions across the country. As a result, hundreds of travelers were stuck at the airport just like me, with no help or instructions from the airport staff.

I say “airport,” because the airline staff (pilots and flight attendants) were stuck right there with us.

They did what they could to help but were often powerless.

We stood in line after line for four hours, only to be told that it had been shut down without any guidance given as to what we should do next.

Eventually, we made our way over to another long line for baggage retrieval, though all our efforts seemed futile as our flights kept getting delayed and then ultimately canceled.

Imprisoned in the Airport

The chaos at the airport continued for two days.

I know that others endured longer travel woes with some at one airport or another for up to 72 hours.

Yikes!

During this time, I slept for maybe an hour or two when my body succumbed to exhaustion from standing in lines all day long. I slouched in a chair with my busted neck pillow slowly spilling white beads (I would only figure this out later).

To make matters worse, there was no place to shower or brush my teeth and I had no toothbrush either.

Needless to say, I felt rather gross by the end of it all.

As if it couldn’t get any worse — on day 2 my night flight kept getting delayed again until, finally, I gave up on waiting.

I forked over more money on an Uber ride to the nearest Greyhound station where I took a 7-hour bus journey back home to Louisville instead.

Compared to my airport experience, my bus trip was pleasantly uneventful.

I only had to suffer through listening to two Greyhound philosophers bantering about the existence of time, the Illuminati, and ancient Rome.

If nothing else, it was entertaining while I dozed in semi-sleep.

Oh, and I didn’t get murdered at any of the decidedly sketchy bus terminals.

That’s a plus.

It’s Still Not Over

Upon arriving back home two days ago, I still haven’t received my luggage nor have I heard anything from Southwest regarding my canceled flights or refund requests.

The customer service wait times were up to four hours long.

Which, honestly, just seems like too much trouble given everything else that happened during that weekend.

Overall, this holiday experience was incredibly trying for me and the other passengers who got stuck at Chicago’s Midway Airport due to what appears to be Southwest Airlines’ negligence when dealing with their customer's disrupted plans during these tumultuous Christmas weeks.

This is certainly not what anyone hopes for when they travel on an airline.

Final Thoughts

Update: I woke up today (Friday, three days after I arrived in Louisville) to a call that my luggage had finally arrived.

When I retrieved my suitcase, the attendant informed me that I would receive a $300 voucher for my trouble.

Unfortunately, situations such as these are far too common nowadays and can often be very difficult (and expensive) experiences for those affected by them.

Let us hope such events don’t occur too often in 2023 and beyond.

In the end, I acknowledge that this is a privileged problem. Not everyone has the access or means to travel. Ultimately, I had a great vacation and I’m happy to be home.

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Christopher Kokoski
Christopher Kokoski

Written by Christopher Kokoski

Endlessly curious| proud word nerd| Don’t miss my next article — sign up to my Medium email list: https://bit.ly/3yy18Bc

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