Winter storm aftermath derails travel plans at Chicago airports, Union Station on Christmas Eve

CHICAGO (WLS) — Some passengers said they got their tickets weeks ago, but were notified of delays or cancellations just minutes before boarding time.

Travel plans have been derailed as the aftermath of the recent winter wallop continues to put some trains, leaving from Chicago’s Union Station on ice.

“We were not ready for it. We were on our way here, and like five minutes away. Then, we got the notifications about the delays. So, it’s alright, not ideal,” said Joanna Felsenstein.

Felsenstein is only headed to Peru, Illinois, with food in tow for a family dinner that she and her partner will have to be late to.

“I mean, they’re going to start without us. We’ll just get there when we get there,” Felsenstein said.

Delays have been felt at the airports with over 163 flights canceled at Midway on Saturday and delays averaging about 92 minutes. O’Hare has been seeing average delays of 33 minutes with 249 canceled flights.

Some passengers, like Steve Gritten, said they got notified minutes before boarding time.

“Had we known a little bit earlier, we would’ve gone down and got in line for today’s flight and we didn’t. Now, everybody’s rushing,” Gritten said.

Komlan, of Des Moines, has been trying to spend the holidays with his family in West Africa.

“It’s an international flight. They can’t just cancel it like that,” Komlan said.

His connecting flight to New York, one of many, he said, was canceled at the last minute.

“It’s kind of frustrating because I did not know that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be in Chicago. I’m in Chicago. I came early this morning, and they’re just letting me know that there’s no flight from Chicago to JFK,” Komlan said.

Some train stations and airports offer waivers to change your plans for free, but some passengers said, at this point, it might be too late to make it home for the holidays.