3 Love Field passengers explain Southwest flight plans for New Year’s Eve weekend

DALLAS — As the issues related to Southwest Airlines’ flights and baggage look to be coming closer and closer to being resolved, many at Love Field are planning out their New Year’s Eve travel plans—no matter what happens.

Airline executives told employees that crew scheduling this week— a major cause of the meltdown — has been fixed.

So as passengers hope these comments of optimism turn into reality, many in Dallas are preparing for their weekend travel plans.

Clint Admire is a die-hard TCU fan. So it wouldn’t surprise you to hear he’s taking his family to Phoenix to see his team play in the College Football Playoffs.

“We arrived here this morning,” Admire said, speaking about Love Field. “We pulled up to the terminal about 6:50 [a.m.].”

Admire initially planned to fly from Dallas to El Paso and then finally to Phoenix. But then Wednesday, the day before their flight, Admire got a notification that the flight from El Paso to Phoenix had been canceled.

Admire’s wife then moved quickly.

“She came up with the idea to just rent a car,” Admire said.

The plan was to rent an SUV once they got to El Paso and drive it to Phoenix. Their flight from Dallas to El Paso was at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Admire got an unexpected alert later on Wednesday, saying he now was going to be able to get tickets that would take his family directly from Dallas to Phoenix.

“So we went ahead and canceled our rental car in El Paso and now we have a straight route all the way to the bowl game,” Admire said.

Admire’s flight ended up having a short 30-minute delay but got to Phoenix safely.

Chris Moody used to live in Dallas, but now works and lives in Orlando. He recently flew back to the North Texas area to see family but had his Southwest flight to Dallas canceled.

So, he ended up re-booking through American Airlines.

“The communication was not all there,” Moody said, talking about his phone calls with Southwest. He said he was on the phone with them for a total of about six hours.

Moody flew through Myrtle Beach, S.C. to get to Dallas. So, he still had his returning flight Friday that is supposed to fly from Dallas to Nashville, Tenn. and then finally to Myrtle Beach.

That Dallas flight is out of Love Field.

Even though Moody’s flight status for Friday is still on time as of Thursday afternoon, he is skeptical.

That’s why he came up with a backup plan.

“I went ahead and booked a flight from Austin to Myrtle Beach tomorrow,” Moody said. “So I’m willing to drive four hours in a rental car just to get out of here.”

Moody’s preference, though, is certainly to go through Love Field.

“I would love to fly out of Dallas because I’m only like five miles from Love Field right now versus driving four-and-a-half, five hours down to Austin in the traffic,” Moody said.

North Texan Jen Worster and her husband have created a new tradition since their kids are all now grown up. Every New Year’s Eve weekend, they travel to Las Vegas or New Orleans to ring in the new year.

So to celebrate this year, they have a 6 a.m. flight out of Love Field to New Orleans.

“As of right now, as far as we know, our flight is still scheduled,” Worster said. “I haven’t gotten anything. We just really like to go there, and we’re just crossing our fingers and hoping that we get out.”

Compared to any of the previous years they have flown, Worster said this is the most worried she’s ever been about the flight potentially not happening.

However, Worster doesn’t have a backup plan their flight gets canceled. She said even if they end up not being able to go to Louisiana, they’ll stay in town and spend time with nearby family.

“For us, it’s not like do or die,”  It’s not like we have to get anywhere for family or anything like that.”