JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Waiting in line at the Jacksonville International Airport was widespread Friday morning, as the Microsoft outage left many passengers in a panic wondering if they would make their flights on time.
For the Caffrey family, this is not how they envisioned day one of their summer vacation.
“We don’t know when we can go so we don’t even know if it’s even worth it to go to California anymore,” Orla Caffrey said.
Their dream vacation suddenly turned into a travel nightmare.
“The hard part is you don’t take the flight, but you already paid for the hotel and the car rental and then you have to go back to sort all of that stuff out,” Ken Caffrey explained.
The family of four joined other passengers in line just to check their bags for the next available flight.
“This line is shorter than waiting six hours on the phone and I can talk to somebody here,” Ken Caffrey added.
A wait that, according to Lori Kelley from Black Hammock Island, packed people tighter than a full flight.
“We’ve been standing here for an hour and a half and have maybe moved 50 feet,” she said.
It took her and her sisters a total of two and a half hours just to get to the front of the line.
Kristin West was also waiting in line; she was also on the phone with Delta for 3 hours.
“It's been a lot of fun," she said with a sarcastic smile.
West is moving from St. Augustine to Italy and is already preparing to push her move back. Her connecting flight from Atlanta to Rome was canceled.
“I feel like when you go to the airport, you kind of just have to brace yourself that there's probably something that's going to happen.”
Like West, Preston Parsons was also traveling overseas and was in the Delta customer service line.
Parsons is a local MMA fighter and is now leaving Saturday for England ahead of his UFC fight next weekend.
“One day when I'm making [it] big, hopefully, I'll have [it] like Conor McGregor whatever he does to get his fights," Parsons said with a smile.
Later on in the morning, airlines like Delta, United and American Airlines lifted their ground stop created in response to what they’re calling a "vendor technology issue."
Although the ground stop has been lifted, officials with the Jacksonville International Airport recommends to all passengers continue checking their phone or app for any updates of delays and rescheduling of flights.