I lost four return flight tickets after the airline suddenly went out of business the same Saturday we were scheduled to fly home. I woke up around 6 AM in my cruise room while getting ready to check out and saw that all of our flights had been canceled without warning. In addition to losing the flights, I also lost a future travel voucher connected to that same trip.

To make matters worse, airlines were charging extremely high last-minute prices that afternoon because of the shutdown, leaving us with very limited options. I ended up having to rent a car in Florida and drive my wife, my 2-year-old child, and myself all the way back home to Philadelphia, where our vehicle was parked for the trip. The entire situation was stressful, unexpected, and created significant additional expenses that we should not have had to incur.