Spring Break has started out as a mess this year, with over 12,000 canceled or delayed flights the weekend of April 2nd and 3rd.
The first real Spring Break season in three years, thanks to the pandemic. And thanks to waning infection numbers and opening borders, travel is booming despite high ticket prices. 4.1 million people cleared TSA checkpoints over the weekend, compared to 3.1 million the same weekend last year, and a measly 130,000 in 2020.
But all isn’t going smoothly. Storms in Florida caused rerouting and long wait times, and a technology issue at Southwest Airlines delayed hundreds of flights.
Southwest is the largest domestic carrier in the US, with over 4000 daily flights and more on weekends. With between 40 and 50 percent of their over 700 plans traveling through Florida any given day, the storms affected them heavily. And on Saturday, an unspecified network issue grounded many flights. In all, Southwest canceled 918 flights over the bus weekend, or about 11 percent of their total operations.
Budget airline Spirit, which is headquartered in Florida, had over a quarter of their flights canceled and failed to sent out notifications, leading to a storm of angry remarks on social media and disappointed passengers all over the country.
JetBlue, which has just made an offer for Spirit during their talks to merge with Frontier air, canceled a fifth of their flights. American Airlines canceled 575 flights, mostly due to the storms.
In the event of a cancellation, regardless of reason, all passengers are due a refund and not only a travel credit, it’s important to know. But a refund may not cover the cost of a pricey last-minute ticket if you’re still far from home. In that case, the best option is to accept the next available flight offered by the airline, even if it’s not the same day or a direct flight.
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