PHOENIX — For days now, thousands of Southwest Airlines flights have been canceled.
TCU and Michigan fans are battling some of those cancellations, as they try to make it to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl on Friday.
On Wednesday, nearly 200 flights were canceled from Sky Harbor, a majority of those are from Southwest Airlines. The airline itself had more than 2,500 cancellations nationwide that same day.
Christopher Ortiz was hoping he wouldn’t get the dreaded email that his flight from Austin, Texas to Phoenix would be canceled.
Unfortunately, he received it less than 24 hours from his flight.
Ortiz is sad he won’t get to go to the Fiesta Bowl, especially because he won’t get to see his senior TCU student play in the marching band Saturday.
“This one's going to hurt. This one's tough. I really thought that we had about a 60-70% chance that we get out of here and. Yeah, this one's going to this one's definitely going to sting for a while,” Ortiz told ABC15 after he received his cancellation email.
He booked the tickets to Phoenix six weeks ago, when there was a slight chance TCU would make it this far.
He says he has seen his son work hard for the last four years, and now he won’t get to see him play in a big game as a senior.
“It’s pretty emotional right now. I'll tell you. As a father to a son who's put in so much hard work academically and, like I said, to be part of something big, this is what you die as a parent to to dream of,” he said. “We only get this opportunity once in a lifetime to really see our kids be part of something this big.”
Ortiz said he can’t drive to Phoenix since it will take too long and he has to be back in Texas in the new year.
For Michigan fan Alex Gargol, he’s also taken a loss. He sold his tickets after finding out his flight had been canceled.
He told ABC15 it’d be too much to drive with a kid from Dallas, Texas to Phoenix.
“I was super bummed yesterday. I mean, like the emotions welled up to the point where I like thought I was going to cry to be honest with you,” he said.
While some have circumstances that won’t make it easy to travel by car to Glendale for the Fiesta Bowl, others are doing what they can to make it happen.
TCU alumna Sarah Dreier received the texts that her flights were canceled coming from Missouri. That’s when she decided to book some rental cars and a train ticket to get to Phoenix.
“It's probably going to be a solid 24 hours of travel. If I'm lucky, the train will probably be delayed, and so it'll probably end up more than that, but fingers crossed I get there before lunch time on Friday,” she said.
Southwest is considering refunds and reimbursements for people who had to take alternate transportation or stay in hotels because of the cancellations between December 24 and January 2. You can apply for it here.
