SAN ANTONIO — Adam Dambrink had planned to get home on a late red-eye fight leaving Wednesday night. As thousand of flights became canceled on Monday, his flight had remained available. The father of four, who was visiting family in Wisconsin with his kids, went to sleep Monday night thinking everything would be fine.
But at 1 a.m., while he slept, Southwest Airlines sent him a text that his flight had been canceled. He woke up Tuesday morning to find out he had no scheduled flight home and few options.
"It would have been nice if they just automatically put me on the next available flight rather that saying 'go and choose'", Dambrink said. "I had to wait to wake up so there was a seven hour gap by the time I woke up."
By Tuesday morning, the next available flight with five seats was on January 2. That would be seven full days before the flew home and there was no guarantee that the seats would be together. That wouldn't work. And while Dambrink would have liked to explain this to a human being, he said Southwest Airlines was impossible to get on the phone.
"I couldn't get through at all. Every time I called it would either hang up on me instantly or, after I went through the automated system, it would say it would connect to a rep and then disconnect me. When I finally got through, I was hold for two and a half hours and then it again disconnected me," Dambrink said.
That settled it. He was driving.
The trip from Madison to San Antonio was nearly 1300 miles. Dambrink left yesterday, and he won't be home until late tonight. Still, Dambrink said he and his kids needed to get home.
"You miss your own bed you know? You just miss home."
The family did do some sightseeing in Oklahoma city and the kids got to enjoy some new videogames from Christmas on the way home. There also plenty of music to listen to.
"We're just trying to make the best of a bad situation. Trying to make it fun along the way," Dambrink said.
At the same time, he will have plenty of travel receipts to turn into Southwest Airlines when the trip is over. Dambrink said he expects to be reimbursed, but he will be buying additional travel-insurance from now on.