TULSA, Okla. — The Southwest flight cancellations didn't just impact thousands of people. Businesses also felt its repercussions.
Wanor Franca is the Chief Revenue Officer for Casino Cash Trac, a company that provides accounting auditing software for casinos. Franca sent 15 of his employees to Las Vegas with the promise they would return home in time for Christmas.
“Usually we never do projects during Christmas and New Years, this was a very unique situation because the Seminole Tribe, they took over the Mirage in Vegas, first tribal casino in Vegas and so it was something that we had no choice. They had to go live on the 18th and the 19th and we had to be there to support them," Franca said.
Fulfilling that promise quickly turned into a challenge when he started receiving calls from his employees telling him their flights with Southwest were getting cancelled. Among them, Hoss Rahi.
“It was kind of misleading at times because we would see openings on flights and then nothing would ever take off," Rahi said.
Franca said he spent more than 15 hours on the phone with Southwest trying to rebook his employees on new flights, but catching a flight was a gamble because it was impossible to get through to a customer service representative.
“And lot of the other airlines had flights, but it was 3,000 dollars so it was really, really a tough situation," Franca said.
That's when they started looking at their options and began booking flights with other airlines. One of his employees even drove 18 hours to Las Vegas.
“We spent about 10,000 dollars on tickets to make sure that they could get home. You know, that was our biggest priority and we’ll deal with the refunds later on," Franca said.
Franca said the 15th employee finally arrived today and like many, now they're just awaiting their luggage. He said The Mirage is one of their clients and they offered his employees rooms until they were able to book a flight.
The U.S. Department of Transportation says it's now looking into Southwest.
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