Travelers who booked flights with Southwest Airlines this holiday season now have limited options: Find an entirely new flight with a different airline (with limited protections from alleged price-gouging), or hit the road in a rental car.
Since Dec. 22, the second biggest airline in the country has canceled about 15,700 flights in total. According to FlightAware, a flight tracking service, Southwest has canceled nearly 3,000 flights a day this week, accounting for around 84% of all canceled flights in the United States at one point. As of writing, that percentage has dropped down to around 58%.
Southwest officials said the only way the carrier could restore its regular flight schedule was to cancel most of its flights this week, aiming for a recovery before next week—taking the crisis into the new year.
If you cannot wait that long and are opting to pay for a rental car to drive to your final destination, here are some tips a local reservation agent recommends:
Make a reservation online before heading to the rental center. Don't just show up expecting there to be cars readily available. Due to high demand, rental companies are operating on a razor thin margin of error.
Take advantage of digital check-ins. Customers often think that they can only sign their rental contracts in-person with an agent when they can actually do so online. An agent at Avis, a major car rental company, told The Standard that customers who signed their contract online can skip the first line in the lobby and proceed to the car pick-up area.
Avoid booking rentals on third-party sites. The Avis agent said during a crisis of this scale, that popular sites such as Kayak or Expedia might not have the most up-to-date inventory data. They recommend booking straight with your preferred rental company to avoid accidentally booking a car that is no longer in stock.
