Dateline Discovery

Just about the only thing Southwest didn’t lose was my infant son. And it certainly tried.

My reservation. My bags. My sanity. And had I not called two days earlier looking to change our flights ahead of a looming winter storm, we would have never found out my son’s booking had vanished, too.

What was supposed to be a joyous occasion — my wife and I taking our 5-month-old son to Connecticut for Christmas to meet his grandparents for the first time — turned out to be a nightmare. We were among the thousands of people who were caught up in Southwest’s horrendous holiday, a 10-day span when it canceled more than 15,000 flights and abandoned its trademark customer service.

And even though we spent a substantial portion of our time in the Northeast trying to find answers, sacrificing the memories we could have built with our son, my feelings about Southwest haven’t changed one bit.

I’ll still travel with the airline as often as possible.

That may sound ridiculous. It does to the family members and friends who missed the opportunity to spend time with us over four days. It almost certainly does to anyone else who was caught in the misery and faced uncertainty over when they’d arrive or when they’d leave. And it definitely does to those people who had long ago written off Southwest for its no-frills approach and will use the calamity as one more reason to never look its way.

But here’s the thing: I’ve been flying with Southwest for more than 15 years, back when it was the main airline serving Hartford and I had just begun traveling on my own. I’ve flown Southwest within a state, from Austin to Dallas. I’ve flown Southwest across the country, from Baltimore to San Jose. I’ve flown Southwest for work and for pleasure, for weddings and for funerals, from big airports and small.

I once flew Southwest from Baltimore to Hartford to ask my wife’s parents if I could marry their daughter, then immediately turned around and flew back — though I’d argue I didn’t need a plane to do so that night because I was already flying high.

I’d guess that I’ve taken more than 100 one-way flights on Southwest, not counting connections (and there are many). The only time I can recall being let down was when I made the impulsive decision to get home from Indianapolis one night instead of flying the next morning. That flight was canceled and I was rebooked on my original flight, but Southwest refunded the change in fare and threw a few flight vouchers my way.

Our Christmas calamity, obviously, stands out for the wrong reasons. We endured a lengthy departure delay and were eventually rerouted to another airport. We didn’t know where our bags were, and after they were located in Boston two days later, we had to drive two hours each way to collect them. We had to go to the airport every day for updates (and often were given conflicting information), and we gave serious consideration to a 23-hour drive home because we were told we wouldn’t be able to get home for a week.

Only through persistence, and the gratuity of an empathetic ticketing agent, were we able to snag a reservation on one of the only flights operating and get home just 12 hours after we had expected. And once we detailed our hardships through Southwest’s web portal, our expenses were reimbursed and a few generous vouchers came our way.

That one negative experience lingers, but it doesn’t outweigh the dozens of routine flights I’ve taken. As I told a local television station during the middle of the mishap, it could have been a lot worse — and it certainly was for many.

For us? Well, I’ve already cashed in the flight vouchers. See you in March, Southwest.