WYLIE, Texas — Southwest Airlines' major meltdown has cost thousands of customers across the country a ton of money.
Want to know how much?
Three days' worth of food, hotels and transportation cost the Kerrigan family of Wylie more than $2,000 out of pocket just to get back to Texas safely.
Here's the math on how they came to that figure.
Conor Kerrigan said his family's direct flight to Chicago was switched to a connecting flight to Baltimore. Their flight from Baltimore to Chicago was then canceled, with no Southwest flights to Chicago or back to Dallas available for several days.
A hotel room in D.C., he said, cost him $90.09.
Then his family booked another flight with another airline out of another airport to get home to North Texas.
Those flights, he told WFAA, cost $1,747.80.
Those flights were connected through Memphis, where his family also got stuck Tuesday. Because their flight to Memphis was delayed out of Baltimore, Kerrigan said his family missed their connecting flight from Memphis to Dallas.
So they decided to drive from Tennessee back to Texas.
All that transportation -- including an Uber ride, a rental car and gas -- cost $230.96.
Along the way, the family had to eat, too.
Their combined food cost, Kerrigan said, was $199.32.
That's not to mention, Kerrigan said, the cost of his original flights which haven't yet been reimbursed. The gate agent in Baltimore, he said, only provided his family with vouchers for Southwest travel when they asked for a refund -- and the Kerrigans said they have no plans to ever fly Southwest again if they have the choice not to do so.
Beyond the above charges, the Kerrigans said they also have thousands of dollars' worth of personal items still in their luggage, which they said they will need to start replacing if their bags aren't found and returned to them soon.
"Y'know, to be forced into spending a chunk of the money we've saved for our next step in life... it sucks because that knocks us back a step," Kerrigan said.
The Kerrigans keep their fingers crossed Southwest will reimburse them the thousands they believe they’re owed. And the airline has indeed promised to reimburse "reasonable" expenses from passengers affected by the disruption.
"There should be some responsibility behind it," Maria Kerrigan said. "Someone needs to be held accountable for it."
But there are some things, of course, that many can't buy -- like time spent with family during the holidays.
"What I want back, [Southwest] can't give me," Kerrigan said.
Added his wife: "We didn’t ask for this."