Long story short (I started to write the slightly longer version, but it was making me bitter toward the airline. I still don't know the full version of the story.): my parents went in with some other stranded passengers on a one-way rental car and drove the last two legs of their "flight" across California. So they are not stranded in San Francisco, and they got where they were going the same day they were supposed to. *Big sigh of relief that that's all overwith.*