TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Flight cancellations aren’t typically situations that people plan for.
“They kept delaying delaying delaying delaying and then canceling,” Stacey Hello said.
Hello was trying to get back to her home in West Palm Beach, Florida, but her flight got canceled. That drove her to get a rental car that she is taking back to Florida.
She said she had to pay a thousand dollars to rent the car for a few days.
Christine McLain and her family also rented a car after their flight to Los Angeles got canceled. She said she had to shop across different states to get a rental car.
She said when she found a car online, she got to the car rental company’s lot and was told they didn’t have enough cars for her.
That’s why she had to come all the way to Tucson.
“This is the closest city from El Paso that could give us a car, so otherwise we would have gone to Phoenix. If they wouldn’t give us one, we would’ve carried on to Phoenix,” McLain said.
Ahmed Chudnoff was hoping to get to Salt Lake City, Utah, but his flight got cancelled.
“Originally I was looking to pay about 240 (dollars), something like that but I just went through Priceline and I think my total is coming out to 160(dollars) now,” Chudnoff said.
Budget Car Rental on East Valencia Rd. in Tucson said because of such a high demand for rental cars yesterday and today, they were completely sold out of cars on Tuesday.
Hertz said yesterday they experienced a record amount of calls.
They said they’re always busy during the holidays but they’re seeing more of a demand for rental cars because of the flight cancellations, not just in Tucson but across the country.
They said they’re continuing to see a demand for bookings, reservations, modifications, and one-way rentals.
However, some frequent flyers like Randy Hull were already prepared to rent a car. He rented a car about a month and a half ago because he said prices usually go up around the holidays.
“Costco has special travel things but definitely book ahead,” he advised.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
