Mother, daughter drive from Miami to Westfield after flight cancellation

WINDSOR LOCKS, Connect. (WGGB/WSHM) – Massive flight delays and cancellations are still impacting travelers here in western Massachusetts and around the country.

Among them is a Westfield mother-daughter duo who just returned home Tuesday morning after a 24-hour drive from Miami. They told us that they were supposed to be on a flight from Miami to Bradley on Sunday.

After hearing about their story, we actually ran into another family at Bradley International Airport who experienced the same troubles.

Angelica Correa and her mother Juanita Mejias took a quick trip to Miami over the weekend.

“It was her crazy idea,” Angelica said.

“I just needed to get away, I needed some sun,” Juanita added.

Their flight out of Bradley International Airport was delayed three times on Friday and they hoped that would be their only travel obstacles for this trip, but in their Uber ride to the Miami airport on Sunday, they learned that would not be the case.

“We got notification that our flight was canceled, and we had already checked out at where we were staying, so then we started wondering, literally with our bags, walking like, ‘what do we do now?’” Angelica said.

The mother-daughter duo quickly started looking up other flights on their original airline Spirit, along with other airlines, and found them to be either unavailable or outrageously expensive.

“Up to 1,500 dollars,” Angelica told us.

“There was that one that was 2,300 dollars, for one person!” Juanita added.

They then turned to renting a car, and on Monday, they began their 24-hour trip from Miami back to Westfield, a dangerous trip to make straight through and an expensive one.

“The car itself was an expense,” said Angelica. “The tolls from Florida to Massachusetts, and the gas. Some places were well over five dollars a gallon. The food we had to eat along the way, it was way more than we were expecting.”

After hearing their story, we found another family waiting for a ride at baggage claim in Bradley International Airport. They had a flight from Miami to Boston on Saturday, also with Spirit Airlines. It was canceled,, and they had to book a four-hour Uber ride to Orlando, and fly into Bradley on Tuesday.

“I missed work,” said Dashawn Dowdy of Boston. “I had to do stuff, medical stuff. It was really inconvenient.”

Western Mass News reached out to Spirit Airlines for a statement regarding these events. It reads in part, quote:

“We’re currently recovering from the cumulative effect of weather-related challenges throughout Florida and other major markets resulting in numerous air traffic control delay programs that impacted the industry over the past several days… It takes time to get our crews and planes back into place after multiple days of weather and restrictions. We’re seeing improved operating conditions, and we expect to move toward resuming our normal operations over the next few days.”

We were able to send Angelica and Juanita’s contact information to Spirit Airlines.

At last check, Spirit had not contacted them about a reimbursement or a rebooked flight.

Copyright 2022. Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.