The El Paso airspace closure cost me $100 and a night's sleep

Kiva Lucero saw on Instagram that the airspace over El Paso would close for 10 days. He had a flight booked from El Paso to Dallas for Thursday, then Dallas to Paris, and needed to be in Paris by the weekend for work, so the news immediately made him anxious. He called the airline around midnight and, after hard negotiation, got the El Paso–Dallas leg canceled.

At three o'clock in the morning he booked a 12-hour bus leaving at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and arriving in Dallas at 6:30 a.m. Thursday, spending nearly $100 on a ticket he has not been able to get refunded. When the closure lasted seven hours and was lifted, he called the airline to reinstate his original booking and they did, but he still lost the money and a night’s sleep.

He had been up all night, worried El Paso could be locked down, called his mother, and canceled plans and work meetings because he thought he would be on the bus.

el paso, airspace closure, canceled flight, dallas, paris, bus ticket, refund, airline, overnight bus, instagram