Flyers share holiday travel woes coming into Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Airports saw thousands of delays and cancellations over the holidays as travelers made their way around the country to visit loved ones. Hundreds of thousands of people were left stranded and some without luggage due to a Southwest airlines meltdown.

Now that the celebrations are over and many are leaving Tallahassee to return to life as normal, they’re sharing their travel horror stories from 2022.

Erica Etnyre flew into Tallahassee from Colorado to celebrate the new year and her bachelorette party. She says her flight was originally delayed 30 minutes, only to be delayed again for two hours as crews de-iced the plane.

“I missed my connecting flight right after that,” said Etnyre.

She says what was supposed to be a 7-hour trip to the capital city, turned into 20 hours of travel.

“I’ve never missed any flights or connections. I mean I guess I’ve been lucky, but it’s been... Yeah, rough. I think we had five people coming in for the holidays and every single person got delayed,” she said.

Etnyre was happy to head home Monday, despite work waiting for her back in Colorado. However, she says she’s hoping to never experience holiday travel like this again.

With thousands of stories like hers, and some worse, that wasn’t the case for one lucky woman coming to Tallahassee from Atlanta.

“I only fly Delta. And that’s not a plug for them, but I only fly Delta and I have had awesome experiences,” said Eileen Wales as she headed to her gate.

Wales says the airport in Atlanta was busy, but that she made it to her destination with no issue. While she empathizes deeply with the people affected by all the travel issues surrounding the holidays, she shared it’s actually made her even more grateful to have chosen to fly with a different airline.

“Because I got the TSA Pre-Check, it was that much easier especially leaving Atlanta, although that airport was very busy. Here it’s not so busy in Tallahassee, which is a pleasure,” Wales said.

Several travelers shared they’re happy that Southwest airlines does not operate out of Tallahassee International Airport, which is why many of them did not experience any issues getting to and from their destinations over the holidays.

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