DENVER — A ruined honeymoon. A lost birthday. A ski trip on the scales.
The Southwest Airlines meltdown continued this week at Denver International Airport, which recorded the most cancellations of any airline at any US airport on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.
Southwest canceled more than 60% of its flights this week. As of Wednesday, more than 2,500 Southwest flights were canceled after about 5,600 cancellations between Monday and Tuesday. FlightAware was already reporting more than 2,300 Southwest cancellations as of Thursday.
During Monday night, about 1,000 people slept at the airport, holding courtesy blankets and bottled water handed out by airport workers trying to help Southwest passengers, airport spokeswoman Alex Renteria said. As of Monday night, around 10,000 bags were waiting to be processed by airlines, she said.
At Southwest baggage claim on Tuesday, Christmas music played as thousands of people struggled to determine options, weaving their way through rows of suitcases, child seats and ski equipment.
At one point, a Southwest customer service agent made an announcement to people trying to find their bags: “Go home. They will come back eventually, I promise you.
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Ryan Williams and his wife, Kassie Novakovich, woke up at 3 am on Tuesday, hopeful that their long-awaited honeymoon trip to Cozumel, Mexico would happen. But after they were told it was on schedule all morning, Southwest canceled the flight about two hours after they were supposed to have left.
The two headed back to baggage claim, waiting in a two-hour line to file a report on their bags, which potentially went to Houston.
“Now I don’t have any underwear,” Williams said. “All my underwear is in my bag.”
After waiting in line to register lost bags, Williams and Novakovich said they planned to head home. They looked into United’s alternative flights to nearby Cancún — $2,000 for one person, one way.
They returned home, their honeymoon plans ruined. Southwest told them it can take 30 days for luggage to return, Novakovich said.
“We just want our bags,” she said.
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Lindsey Kirkland, 28, was due to fly from Denver to Nevada on Tuesday morning for a friend’s birthday ski trip. She took a $100 Uber to DIA and was told her Southwest flight was canceled because there were no flight attendants available.
“I just don’t understand why it’s still happening. It doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Kirkland returned home to Denver from Nashville on Monday and said that on that flight agents offered people up to $1,300 to delay their trip: “They brought the wrong size plane and wanted people to get off.”
Kirkland concluded on Tuesday that her luck had run out – after her successful flight home on Monday, she realized things might be getting back on track. But when she arrived at the gate on Tuesday morning, Southwest canceled her flight and told everyone to go home. Kirkland then waited two hours to file a report on his bags.
“Yesterday I thought I was the luckiest person alive. I think they’re going to FedEx my bags for me,” she said. “No ETA.”
Tom Barham and his two sons arrived in Denver from Atlanta on Tuesday morning, but their bags laden with ski equipment didn’t make it onto the flight, likely because curbside checking took two hours, he said.
After waiting in line for more than two hours, Barham said, Southwest told him his bags were due later in the day, inexplicably from Houston.
“We are hopeful,” said Barham, 59.
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A lucky few have had smooth travel experiences.
Crystal Griffin, 57, took her daughter to Los Angeles for Christmas to visit family and returned mid-morning Tuesday. Although the Southwest flight was delayed about 45 minutes, she said, things went well.
But while she waited for her checked bags to arrive at the carousel, she was reserving final judgment, she said with a laugh.
“Some people have been stuck at airports since Sunday, so I’m grateful,” said Griffin, a school nutrition official.
A few feet away, Mariah Burke, 28, carried her family’s bags to her husband, Kevin, and their dog, Willow.
“It’s a Christmas miracle,” she proclaimed after the Southwest flight from Phoenix arrived safely. “I mean, look at this nightmare.”
Aside from the Southwest meltdown, the DIA was operating without a hitch on Tuesday, Renteria said. The airport had worked with tenants at its restaurants to extend opening hours for people staying at its gates overnight.
The airport typically sees around 76,000 passengers passing through its TSA checkpoints daily. Southwest is its second-largest carrier, behind United.
“We understand that this is such a frustrating situation,” Renteria told USA TODAY. “It’s really important that people give grace and patience to others because this is affecting everyone.”
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