SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego International Airport Rental Car Center was packed with hundreds of passengers looking to drive to their final destinations after Southwest Airlines cancellations.
"It's wild. I've never seen this," Cole Brown said.
"I got here at 7:30 last night and they keep on canceling and rebooking the flights," Daniel Pacheco said.
Pacheco is just one of many whose Southwest flight to Sacramento was canceled.
Tuesday morning, he said he got a notification that he wouldn't be able to rebook until December 31.
"That brought my whole world down. I'm just trying to get home," Pacheco said.
Kerry Haugh and her daughter have been trying to get home to Portland, Oregon, from a vacation in Aruba since Christmas Eve.
"We were stuck in Chicago for 24 hours and we were able to get to San Diego. We've been here for two days and our flight got canceled this morning," Haugh said.
They're choosing to make the 16-hour long drive home.
Even some flights to Las Vegas were canceled or delayed, turning what's usually an hour and 15-minute trip into a 4 to 6-hour long drive.
"I don't trust the flights. They told me Thursday but at this point who knows? At the airport, the screens were going dark so it's hard to see anything," Cole Brown said.
But, through the headache and inconvenience, some families are trying to remain optimistic as best as they can.
"Having a negative attitude doesn't help us but we're pretty tired and she missed a whole holiday with the other side of her family so that's kind of a bummer. We'd just like to be home at this point," Haugh said.
