What to know about lost luggage, baggage claims
As recent Southwest cancellations and delays continue to wreak havoc on holiday travel schedules, lost luggage is piling up at airports across the country.
Big picture: Southwest Airlines’ flight cancellation problem, caused by extreme winter weather but exacerbated by the airline’s business model and outdated systems, has left some passengers stranded without bags and how to find them. I do not know.
latest: Southwest Airlines canceled 2,362 flights by 10 a.m. ET Thursday, according to FlightAware data. This corresponds to approximately 58% of operations. Another 61 flights were delayed.
Southwest’s Lost Baggage Pile Up
What we see: confusion.
- Southwest Airlines told Axios in an email on Thursday that it didn’t need to share the specific number of the missing package.But Photo When video View piles and piles of bags stacked outside a national baggage claim carousel.
- Security guards and police officers watch over bags that arrive before their owners. Passengers are queuing to search for their missing luggage. Also, some passenger bags are moving to other areas of the airport to make way for more bags.
- Southwest Airlines passenger Crystal Muñoz told USA Today at Honolulu International Airport: “Anyone could have taken any bag.”
hundreds I was waiting in line at St. Louis Lambert International Airport earlier this week to find my missing luggage, according to KSDK.
- Lines grew so long that Southwest representatives began telling travelers to go home and receiving phone calls about their luggage, the agency said.
in Dallas, Bags piled up and remained unclaimed at Dallas Love Field. Passengers reported finding one of the bags, but the others are still missing.
- “They said don’t worry your bag will get to Dallas before you, and I was like, ‘That doesn’t make sense,’ but we got here.” Our bags weren’t here at the time, he told KDFW.
1 passenger She told WKRN at Nashville International Airport that all her clothes were in her lost bag, so she went to Target to buy clothes.
in Denver, According to Denver 7, passengers are holding onto chairs while waiting for their luggage.
- Passenger Patricia Barnes told an ABC News affiliate, “I give them the benefit of the doubt that they are working hard, but I hope they find my luggage too.
and one science teacher Brittany Loubier-Vervisch became the hero of the day by sifting through “luggage armageddon” at the Tampa International Airport, texting passengers to let them know their luggage had arrived.
what’s happening: Delays and cancellations are impacting travelers and their schedules.
- One of the passengers, Taylor Harris, told the Chicago Sun-Times that he and his children sat at the gate for two hours on a flight to Raleigh, North Carolina, which was canceled without an announcement from Southwest agents. Told.
- Some passengers are taking matters into their own hands. Cameron Wright told her ABC 11 in North Carolina that she bought a new car to avoid the chaos of traveling at the airport.
- Wright said he went to a nearby dealership and purchased a Toyota Camry, adding that he got a quote of $2,400 for the rental.
Southwest Refunds, Refunds Available
What’s next: Southwest now has a self-service tool that allows customers affected by travel disruptions to submit refund requests or rebook flights.
Details from Axios: