B.C. family struggling to get home due to Vancouver snowstorm

Travellers stranded at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) due to the latest snowstorm to hit the region aren’t the only ones in limbo — many trying to get back home to Metro Vancouver are finding themselves in similarly uncomfortable situations.

Savannah Walsh, a mother of six children, was down in Disneyland with the whole gang, including her husband and mother.

The Surrey family’s Wednesday trip home with Flair Airlines was among the many flights cancelled due to the weather, which was frustrating.

But the situation got a whole lot worse when the airline said its next available flight out of Los Angeles International (LAX) was going to be Dec. 28.

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For Walsh, it’s just not practical.

“We were completely panicked,” Walsh said. “We had nowhere to stay. Also, we didn’t budget in hotel for an additional week, food for an additional week. We’re travelling as a party of nine, so that was our concern as well. Then we’re being told there’s this other snowstorm coming into Vancouver, so are we even going to get home on the 28th?”

Now they’re trying to come home sooner through WestJet, but Walsh explains they’ve had to drop $7,000 between last minute flights and car rentals — because they need to fly out of Palm Springs due to lack of available flights out of LAX.

She says they were flexible while trying to get new flights, and were willing to break up the group to make it work.

“I’m petrified,” Walsh said. “Our trip was quite an extension of our budget. It was a really big thing for us. We’re travelling with a large group of people, and we are not well off. So Disneyland as is was a big extension of our budget, and now this additional $7,000 — I’m genuinely sitting here and going, that’s our rent for two months, that’s food for months and months for us. I truly do not know how we’re going to recoup that out of our budget, but it was that or be abandoned in Los Angeles and pay for a hotel.”

Walsh has contacted a lawyer and hopes she can get compensated for the new flights and car rentals.

Flair has sent CityNews a statement acknowledging that this is extremely disappointing to passengers and to this family — saying many airlines experienced disruptions due to the Vancouver weather.