What was supposed to be a quick flight from Orlando to Knoxville, Tennessee turned into an hours-long road trip for 13 strangers.
Alanah Story said Frontier Airlines delayed her flight earlier this month.
“People were literally lining up about to get on the plane... we find out our flight is canceled,” she said. “Everyone was like oh my gosh what are we going to do now?”
That’s when, Story said one of the women on the flight, “yelled out to everyone to let us know, like they’re not doing anything for us, we can get a van if you want.”
“My mom and Carlos and his wife had kind of been talking about doing it so they all just kind of merged together,” she said. “It was kind of like a joint effort.”
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below:
Story said she was surprised at the direction everything was going.
“I actually met up with Mikayla in the bathroom, the one who’s going to UT, and I was like ‘Girl, this is crazy, this is nuts, like we don’t know each other.’”
And before they could get in the van a total of 13 people had agreed to take the road trip, all for their own reasons.
See the full interview with Story in the media player below:
One girl said she was going to miss her finals, another woman said she was about to miss her kid’s custody battle, and one guy said he was just trying to get home after visiting a friend in Orlando.
Story recorded their stories on her cell phone and posted the video to TikTok.
@alanahstory21 I cant make this up. Road trip! 🚐 @The Farm Babe @StarrPuck @doerksen92 @Renee @robinwharton976 @CozumelAutentico ♬ original sound - Alanah
Story said the TikTok video, which has now been viewed more than 3 million times, “helped break the ice” for everyone in the van.
“When I say like the comments were being read out loud the entire van ride, it’s Iike I’m listening to stats running — like that’s how often they are talking about this,” Story said.
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She said a lot of the passengers also talked to each other and shared their life stories.
Overall Story called it a good experience but said one person did take more bathroom breaks than her mom would have preferred and one passenger did talk quite loudly, but for the most part, people were very considerate of each other.
Lots of people who saw the TikTok video online are suggesting the experience be turned into a movie.
Story said that would be OK with her.
So, would she ever fly Frontier again?
“I say, like, uh, I would never fly with them again, I’m 23 years old, they have cheap flights, I like to go places... so I might try it one more time,” she said.
You can hear more from Story about the road trip now going viral on Florida’s Fourth Estate. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch it anytime on News 6+.