In addition to flight delays,cancellations, and reportedly a ticket system crash, hundreds of passengers wait in line to handle their baggage claim issues with Southwest Airlines at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, Maryland on December 27, 2022. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
A viral TikTok captured a woman throwing a “tantrum” and yelling at a Southwest Airlines employee at a Texas airport. TikTok user @ppvtahoe posted the video last weekend, revealing how chaotic it has been at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport since the airline madness began.
Last weekend, CNBC reported that as many as 12,000 flights were canceled by U.S. airlines from December 21 through Saturday, December 24, due to a brutal winter storm. While most airlines resumed regular operations on Monday, December 26, Southwest has faced some problems. FlightAware, a flight tracking website, reported 165 Southwest flights were canceled at AUS Monday with 121 more canceled on Tuesday, December 27.
In the TikTok posted by @ppvtahoe, he called the experience a “Bergstrom meltdown tantrum.” It showed a woman screaming at a Southwest employee to give her luggage back because she has a connecting flight. She got into the employee’s face and continued to yell that she needed her stuff.
According to NPR, the Southwest cancellations and disruptions left people stranded at airports across the country, many of them with little idea of when they can get home or where their bags were. With the chaos happening across the country, many people have posted videos of what they are seeing at airports.
The TikTok clip of the Austin tantrum received 3.6 million views and over 277,000 likes, as well as about 24,000 comments – a lot of which are shocked at how the woman was acting towards the Southwest employees.
“What is wrong with people,” Morgan commented.
“There should be an in-depth documentary on all of these airport/airplane outbursts including the aftermath of being on the no-fly list,” Jake M noted.
Many of the comments also pointed out how the Southwest employees handled the situation so well, as they didn’t react in a negative way toward the screaming customer. One person even asked the million-dollar question, “Where is the airport security?”
Below is the TikTok of the tantrum (beware of explicit language):
Austin Texas — Austin Bergstrom Airport at the SouthwestAirlines gate. Bergstrom meltdown tantrum ?“? Ellie