Family Going to Tokyo Disney ‘Devastated’ Southwest Cancelled Flight

• Jade Rodriguez claimed her family members experienced a “surreal” vacation to Japan prepared for her son’s 21st birthday.
• But just after Southwest cancelled their flight from Tucson to LAX, they missed their flight to Tokyo.
• “Had we just been notified faster, we would’ve pushed and made it,” Rodriguez instructed Insider.

A household from Arizona was “in shock” and “devastated” after a last-minute Southwest flight cancellation prompted them to skip their trip to Japan and left them out hundreds of pounds.

Jade Rodriguez advised Insider she, her spouse, and their two kids planned a “surreal” trip to Tokyo due to the fact her 20-calendar year-aged mentioned that was exactly where he preferred to go to celebrate his 21st birthday on January 2. They have been heading to go to Tokyo Disney and the Pokèmon Cafe in Tokyo, just take a coach to Kyoto, and go sightseeing at historic temples.

They planned to get off from Tucson on Christmas Working day for Los Angeles, in which they’d capture their flight across the Pacific. They say they ended up notified their flight was a little bit delayed, but had no indication it was in serious jeopardy of not getting off at all, and were being unaware of the ongoing disruptions Southwest was previously encountering.

But when they arrived at the airport in Tucson, the airline fulfilled them with confusion and miscommunication.

Southwest personnel claimed ended up nonetheless functioning on assembling a crew, but instructed passengers they need to look at their luggage anyway. “It was just a large amount of miscommunication. One particular attendant was saying, ‘We’re not getting to LAX,’ an additional was indicating to look at in our baggage,” Rodriguez explained. “It was utter confusion.”

Soon after all the conflicting facts, Southwest ultimately canceled the flight completely about 7 hours right before their American Airways flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo was scheduled to get off. The travel from Tucson to Los Angeles is about seven-and-½ hrs.

“Had we just been notified sooner, we would’ve pushed and made it,” Rodriguez said, introducing that the household experimented with all the things they could to get on a further flight, but could not make it operate.

Their flight could only be rebooked on Wednesday at the earliest, but it would suggest 20 several hours of journey and masking the distinction in flight expenditures. It would also only go away them about 5 times in Japan, upending their 8-working day travel strategy.

“We were being just devastated. We’re just in shock,” Rodriguez claimed, including that as of Friday, they had but to unpack all of their baggage since they have been continue to struggling to course of action the circumstance.

Now they are attempting to get as a great deal of the journey refunded as they can, together with from Southwest, American Airways, the hotel in Japan, and Tokyo Disney — the place they had by now ordered tickets — amid other charges.

Rodriguez mentioned they have obtained conflicting information from Southwest, with one e-mail indicating they would be having a comprehensive refund, and an additional indicating they’d only be finding flight credits to be applied in the long term.

They did obtain travel insurance policy for the American Airways flight to Japan, and are hoping that signifies the whole rate will be refunded. But Tokyo Disney, which The Walt Disney Business does not possess, normally does not situation refunds.

In total, Rodriguez stated the family is out all-around $7,000.

They are still hoping to reschedule a vacation for subsequent yr, dependent on how significantly they can get refunded or rescheduled, but are unsure when they will be capable to make a trip operate for the whole household.

Rodriguez is a instructor, so she had this time off do the job, but would possible have to attempt to get work off in the spring for the reason that her split does not align with her son’s. Her husband, who is a retired member of the military services but however teaches courses on base, took off do the job for this trip and would have to check out to do so once more if the getaway is rescheduled.

Rodriguez mentioned her older son is a college or university scholar who is “focused” to ROTC, a method that trains university college students for military service, so he has confined time in which he can just take a journey. He is also a big enthusiast of Disney and Pokémon, which would’ve been the huge highlights of the trip for him, so when they available to choose him someplace else at the past moment, he just explained “no.”

Rodriguez reported that in the long run, she could look at having journey insurance for the whole excursion, instead than just the major global flights, while they currently have journey-professional medical insurance plan by means of the armed forces. She also said she understood some other folks could have had even a lot more difficult experiences with the chaotic flight cancellations.

“I’m grateful we lived close and were with loved ones,” she mentioned. “But it was devastating seriously.”

The loved ones was among hundreds of Individuals who seasoned flight cancellations this week just after Southwest experienced an operational meltdown. The airline canceled much more than 2,900 flights on Monday, accounting for all-around 50 percent of all canceled flights throughout the environment that day. The disruptions rippled through the vacation field, main to rental-vehicle shortages and greater flight prices.

When attained for comment, a spokesperson for Southwest mentioned: “We apologize to all of our Customers who ended up afflicted by this disruption. Buyers whose flights were canceled are qualified for a refund and are encouraged to submit requests for fair reimbursements for incidental fees. All those will be processed on a case-by-circumstance foundation.”

The spokesperson also mentioned impacted travellers can get aid via a travel-disruptions portal on the Southwest web site.

Tokyo Disney, which The Oriental Land Firm owns, could not straight away be arrived at for remark. The Walt Disney Business, which licenses mental assets to Tokyo Disney, did not instantly reply to Insider’s ask for for remark.

Have a information tip or a vacation tale to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.