Annie Yuen’s flight was already delayed on Friday – and then a major winter storm began rolling in.
The 23-year-old, who was traveling from Dallas to Guatemala for vacation, said her plane had to wait for a missing passenger. “And then by the time we got out of the gate, we were getting ready to taxi, that's when the frost started hitting,” she told USA TODAY. “So we had to spend some time de-icing the plane.”
When that was done, passengers were notified that the pilots had timed out. Her original 8:12 p.m. departure time was pushed to 6:40 a.m. American Airlines provided a hotel, but the next morning the snow and additional de-icing kept flyers sitting on the plane for about three–and-a-half hours before they finally took off – “longer than the flight,” Yeun noted.
Between 'silver linings' and 'snowbird' reroutes, travelers are forced to adjust plans
“After we got out and we got above the clouds, we saw the sun, and it was amazing,” she said. “It felt very reassuring.” Yuen, who works in tech sales, said she was “grateful” to make it to her destination, where the temperature was around 80 degrees.
