We traveled over the holidays and when Southwest melted down it affected the other budget

airlines too and stranded myself and my family for two extra days on the other side of

the country.

We were fortunate that our trip was to New Orleans from St. Louis so we were able to cancel

before our flight was canceled and just make the drive instead.

After we watched the employees just be left for break that ended up costing us somewhere

in the neighborhood of about a thousand extra dollars.

It added a lot of exhaustion and time to the beginning and end of our trip.

And it left me ultimately stranded with my child's special needs.

When one airlines it has a meltdown.

It actually affects all of the other domestic airlines as well.

Flying has almost always been a hassle but during the past month it's been particularly

challenging.

Millions of passengers experienced cancellations and delays triggered by severe winter weather

between Christmas and New Year's.

Southwest customers were the most impacted with more than 16,000 flights canceled.

Last week the Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes for the first time since 9-11

after finding a technical glitch in their system.

And with a pilot shortage in the thousands the men and women flying our planes demand

better working conditions.

I'm Celeste Headley in for Gen White and you're listening to the 1A podcast where we get

to the heart of the story.

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