SAN DIEGO — The Southwest Airlines saga continues in San Diego on Monday. Planes are flying again, but many travelers that dealt with canceled flights last week, are now trying to find their lost luggage.
Lost luggage is one of the lingering issues for many travelers caught in the avalanche of Southwest cancellations over the holidays.
Chad Hensley was flying home to San Diego from Mississippi last week when he got stuck in Las Vegas.
“I had to go speak with Southwest Customer Service. The woman said, 'I can’t tell you when we can rebook your flight. I don’t know what flight you’re going to be on. You’re going to spend the night in the airport. Let me check your bags, your baggage is here but you can’t go get it,'” Hensley said. “I made it back on Wednesday, at some point I’d been up for 24 hours. I got back here and no luggage.”
He came back to San Diego International Airport Monday to see if they could help him track his bags. “They told me my baggage is still in Vegas. They said hopefully they will get on the next available flight, they cannot say anything for sure.”
Charlie Dreher was waiting in line to speak with a Southwest luggage representative. He last saw his bags when he checked them in San Diego on Christmas Eve morning. His flights were delayed and then canceled and his bags never made it to his destination in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Charlie said, “I went over there to the Minneapolis airport on Monday to look and they still didn’t have it and then they said it should have been there Thursday or Friday and I went over there Friday night and they still didn’t have it so then I went there this morning and they said it was already shipped back here.”
Charlie looked for his bags on Southwest’s website and entered his claim number. But it simply said stated, "Information not available”.
Charlie says, “Their computer system is so whack. It's here, but it's not here, they had no clue what they are doing."
The Southwest Pilot’s Association said last week that the airline’s outdated computer software was to blame for the meltdown of operations. When I asked Southwest about the lingering luggage issues today they directed me to their website for lost baggage help, the same page Charlie was using.
Charlie said, “They gave me a $300 voucher for Southwest which I'll never use because I never want to fly Southwest again.”
Charlie eventually found his bags Monday. It would not have been good if he had gone back to Camp Pendleton without his uniform and boots.
He said, “There would have been a lot of paperwork. A lot of butt chewing. I probably would have gotten dropped from my company and had to restart because I wouldn’t have had my uniforms.”
Unfortunately for Chad Hensley, he’s still waiting for his bag. “I’m just trying to be a good person and not get mad at anyone but it is very frustrating and difficult.” He says he’ll keep driving back to San Diego International until he finds it.
HOW TO REQUEST REIMBURSEMENT FOR EXPENSES BECAUSE OF CANCELED FLIGHTS:
Southwest has set up a section of its website for affected customers to request refunds, track their luggage and submit reimbursements for expenses such as meals and hotel stays. The airline’s chief commercial officer said that process will take several weeks.
In order to request a refund, the company says passengers whose flights were canceled from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2 should fill out a form and submit receipts through the Travel Disruption page on their website.
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