CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With Southwest Airlines cancelling all flights from Corpus Christi Tuesday, one family drove 19 hours because of their canceled flight.
The Sandoval family drove 19 hours to get home after their flight from Phoenix, Arizona was canceled by Southwest. James Sandoval told 3NEWS that despite the long drive, he is still trying to remain positive.
"They will not be flying for the next four days up until Friday and that's what they told us," he said. "So we have no choice but to drive. So we have a rental and I have the entire family in a rental because we have to get home asap."
Sandoval said that the cancelation was quick and he didn't have time to prepare.
"It was at five, then they delayed us till six, then they cancelled it completely and they couldn't fly us out until Christmas Eve," he said.
In an effort to prevent their travel plans from stealing Christmas, Sandoval drove the family to Houston to try and make their connecting flight.
"We get to Houston, our flight is cancelled. They gave us a voucher for a hotel. We cant fly out until 9 p.m. Christmas Eve. So we spent Christmas Eve at the airport," he said.
Sandoval told 3NEWS that despite his frustrations, he understands that many flyers are experiencing the same hardship.
"Everyone's situation is different," he said. "For us, we wanted to see family, but other people were missing their wedding. People crying in the terminal. Some people were missing someone's funeral."
Sandoval said that with one of their smallest travelers being just two-years-old, they tried to make the best out of their situation.
When 3NEWS spoke to Sandoval, the family had still had 14 hours left to go on their drive. James said that the family was able to get a rental car without to many issues.
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