Chicago-area bride accuses Southwest of her family’s missing marriage; “I didn’t have a single family member present” – CBS Chicago

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CHICAGO (CBS) Southwest Airlines is catching up after thousands of flight delays this weekend, to Midway, Ohare and across the country.

Flights from the Southwest have been canceled to Midway while many more have been delayed, leaving thousands of people inconvenienced in both small and large ways.

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CBS 2s Marie Saavedra has the story of a family from Chicagoland devastating the stage they missed.

These were flights for a wedding booked this spring. The family said Southwest had altered their flights a few times already, but what happened over the weekend was down to the wire. It made what was supposed to be a happy day one of their saddest.

There is a video of when Kimberli Romano married her husband Kyle on Sunday, but that and the photographs are all her family has.

It’s the most important day of my life so far and I haven’t had any of my family present at my wedding, Kimberli Romano said.

She, along with her sisters Lisa and Renee, shared the human cost of Southwest Airlines’ thousands of cancellations over the weekend. The family had booked a flight from Chicago to Las Vegas.

Three hours before I had to leave for the airport, they canceled my flight there, Renee said.

We were all struggling to try and get another flight, Lisa said.

They were unsuccessful, but they took their parents on a flight out of Milwaukee on the morning of the ceremony which also ended up being called off.

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I was hoping that even if the flight was a bit delayed, they would still be there in time for my mom to get her hair and makeup done with me and get ready with me, Kimberli said. And then of course for my father to accompany me down the aisle.

I tried so hard to get my parents there, but she will never get them back, Renee said. I’m still emotional, I’m sorry.

By the end of the weekend, Southwest canceled some 2,000 flights nationwide. In a statement, Southwest blamed weather problems at its Florida airports and air traffic control promising to be as quick as possible to resolve the disrupted plans.

But Peter Greenberg, editor of CBS News Travel, said there was probably a different reason.

There is growing information that leads us to believe there may be an unofficial slowdown in the work of some employees in the Southwest protesting the airlines’ most recent vaccine mandate, Greenberg said. .

Either way, the Romanos feel robbed. They would appreciate the truth, an apology, and a full refund for the memories they couldn’t create.

It was a wedding. One thing in a lifetime that they screwed up, and we were owed more than that, Lisa said.

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The Romanos are not sure they will fly southwest again after this. The airline appears to be making up for weekend delays with fewer cancellations, but it will likely be a few more days before the flow of travel resumes.

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