Airport nightmares as people travel for spring break

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.-Delayed flights, missed connections, and long security lines don’t even begin to capture the struggles of air travel this past weekend. 

With locals traveling for spring break, many took to social media to describe the mess they had been through. 

Bowling Green resident Destiny Pippin was flying Southwest from Nashville to New Orleans. Her flights were continuously delayed, rerouted and canceled, causing her to become stranded overnight in a city, eventually paying nearly $400 for a four hour sleep in a hotel room. She says she ended up paying over $1,000 to finally get to New Orleans. 

Southwest Airlines cited weather and travel congestion as well as a technology issue. 

“It’s been horrible. I have never had an experience in flying like I did this past weekend. There was a line, there was no walking up and asking a question, like you’re standing in line with 3, 4, 5 people,” said Pippin. 

Across the country, another Bowling Green resident Lauren Hibbard, was stranded in Florida on Sunday due to severe storms. She says the entire airport shut down and over 3,000 flights were canceled. 

“We called like 30 hotels, waited a couple hours to get an Uber and the Ubers were so expensive. By the time it was all said and done we had paid like $200 for Uber and $300 for hotels and that was before food and everything like that,” said Hibbard. 

Other locals said they resorted to renting a car to drive the remaining distance to their destination.