Summer travel, as predicted, is off to a chaotic start – and some people got creative with their mode of transportation.

More than 6,000 flights have been cancelled and over 30,000 delayed since Monday, according to the FlightAware website.

Some travellers have resorted to renting moving trucks to finally get to their destination.

Jerry Brennan, 60, was in Columbia, Missouri for a business trip when his flight home for a wedding was cancelled due to mechanical issues. He was booked on a new flight the next day, which was also cancelled, for the same reason.

“I was mad as heck,” Mr Brennan said. “I thought they were kidding when they told us to get off the second plane. It was really frustrating.”

“I was trapped in the Columbia airport vortex,” he joked. “My only escape hatch was U-Haul. Because I couldn’t get a car.”

In Columbia, and even in nearby St Louis, companies would not allow a one-way rental.

In order not to miss the wedding, he looked into taking an Amtrak train but would not have made it in time. He had heard that U-Haul is decent option for driving one way and decided it was his best bet.

U-Hauls are not the most comfortable for driving seven hours, he said, and he felt “silly” but was relieved to have a way back.

He made it to the wedding in Chicago and his dramatic tale was mentioned in the father of the bride’s wedding toast.

When Jill Radley, 23, and her girlfriend Cate Durudogan, 22, went to New York City to celebrate Pride, they assumed they would be able to board their Monday night return flight to Chicago without a problem.

While they are sitting at a restaurant in Newark Liberty International Airport, they were notified their flight was delayed, then cancelled.

They soon found out there are no flights available for that night or for the next day, Tuesday.

Any other airline flight they checked would cost them over $1,000 (£787). They knew they had to get home because, along with work commitments, Cate was going to be moving in a couple days.

They were told on Monday the next available flight was on Friday and “rental cars out in New York were all booked up,” Ms Radley said.

They decided to look for rental cars in Philadelphia, which is about 95m (150km) from New York. Ms Durudogan got lucky – so she thought – and found one available. As she was booking the car, Ms Radley was purchasing Amtrak tickets to get to Philadelphia early on Tuesday morning.

But when they got to the rental place, no cars were available.

“[The employee] was really apologetic – obviously not his fault. He’s just the middleman. But he was like, we don’t have any of these cars,” Ms Radley said.

“There were no cars or flights or trains, or buses,” Ms Durudogan said. “It just felt like there was no way to get back.”

Every time they thought of another way, it was booked.

“So I went to the bathroom to take a break emotionally. I was freaking out – kind of hyperventilating,” she said.

Ms Radley was smirking when she returned and suggested they rent a U-Haul.

Because U-Haul only had large trucks, they opted for a cargo van and finally hit the road to make the 13-hour drive back home.

“Once we had the keys to a vehicle, it was in our control to get there so that felt really good,” Ms Radley said. “We made it back Tuesday night, and were at work on Wednesday.”

“It was just part of the adventure at that point.”

Their advice: be creative and just know “you can take a Penske vans across the country”.