SAN ANTONIO – Southwest Airlines has canceled more than 15,700 flights since the winter weather began disrupting air travel on December 22.
On Wednesday, another 2,500 Southwest Airlines flights were cancelled and now a lot of travelers are asking, “where is my luggage?”
Some families at the San Antonio International Airport however have been lucky to find their bags.
“I’ve called numerous times, haven’t gotten through to talk to an actual human, but left messages. I’ve come to the airport each day for the last four days trying to find my bag,” Chris Zidek, a traveler said.
Zidek is one of the many who across the country are looking for their belongings after his flight was one of the thousands cancelled.
“I live up in the Atlanta area and my flight was canceled. So we ended up actually driving here via rental car with a few other people that were in the same predicament,” Zidek said.
Every year, Chris comes to San Antonio to visit family and he was not going to let the last minute cancellation stop him so he and four strangers teamed up for the almost 1,000 mile road trip.
“We all decided, hey, this is going to be canceled. We don’t know when we’re going to get there. We’re going to rent a car. We’re going to jump in even though we don’t know each other. And we’ll make it about 14 hours later, which is what we did,” Zidek said.
And now, for the culmination of the trip, Chris had to find his belongings that flew here without him.
“It seems the bag has arrived, i’m just waiting for more information,” Zidek said.
The luggage appears to be accumulating at the airport and families say the frustration does not even begin to explain how they feel.
“I’ve written a letter already, as, you know, through you know, I would say I’m very disappointed in the service that was provided or that was that was expected. Tens of thousands of people are in my situation and I feel it’s that they need to look at their processes and what happened here and make some adjustments for the future,” Zidek said.
Chris told KSAT he did eventually find his luggage and aside from the Southwest Airlines failures, it is a trip he will never forget.
“It was an incredible experience getting here just with with four other strangers that we didn’t know. But suffice to say, we made it safely and and had a Christmas with our with our families,” Zidek said.
Southwest said passengers with flights scheduled before Monday, Jan. 2, can make flight changes at no additional cost on the airline’s website. Customers can also request refunds. Click here for more information.
