ST. LOUIS — Mountains of unclaimed luggage surrounded the carousel at Southwest Airlines inside St. Louis Lambert International Airport on Wednesday but became smaller by the evening.
The airline slashed thousands of its flights for the third consecutive day after a winter storm spurred cancellations across the country.
Southwest is known for its “two bags fly free” promotion but there were three luggage systems underway to help passengers find their bags on Wednesday.
Staff told 5 On Your Side there were about 10,000 unclaimed bags at the airport with 7,000 at a "secure" cargo warehouse.
The bags for the flights coming into St. Louis moved smoothly.
One pile was for those whose destination had been St. Louis, and another for thousands of others from passengers whose flights were canceled and never made it to the plane.
People stood in line for hours to go through the baggage claim office where they were then given tickets.
Dave Price picked up a bag for his young son whose luggage made it, but he did not.
He said the airline did not have the staff to accompany his son, who is a minor.
“They've got him rescheduled for the fifth of January. My boy was supposed to be here for Christmas morning. So it's amazing that I found this in a hallway. They finally let us go back there and find our own bags," Price said.
Some were lucky enough to find their own bags while others praised workers who went the extra mile to help them locate their luggage.
“She's [a staff member] literally just looking at the bags, finding the phone numbers, and calling them that way, their system is just totally out of whack,” said Denise WIlbourn, who had missed a funeral due to a canceled flight.
5 On Your Side asked customers about their support for the airline moving forward.
"I will try. I will definitely try to support them. Allow people to have one fumble. Even though this is a big one, hopefully it doesn't cost them their whole game," Vaugh said.
“We had a very great experience with Delta and I think we are going to take whatever credit we get with Southwest. Maybe take another flight with them. Use the remaining points that we have in our balance but I'm never going to fly Southwest again."
Southwest has set up a form for people still looking for their luggage. The form has options for airport pickup or delivery of the luggage once it is found. For more information, click here.
Southwest Airlines responded to 5 On Your Side’s inquiry with the follow statement:
We plan to operate a reduced schedule by flying roughly one third of our schedule for the next several days. The latest information we have to share, including a video from our CEO Bob Jordan, is available on SWAMedia.com.
We implemented a site where Customers can contact Southwest to rebook or request a refund: Southwest.com/traveldisruption, and Teams are finalizing a resource to provide additional assistance to Customers with reuniting with lost or missing baggage.
Additionally, our Travel Advisory is still in effect to offer Customers maximum flexibility with rebooking.
The Southwest Team is working to accommodate Customers on available flights as soon as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience to our Customers.
The unclaimed luggage left has been tracked by tag. Some passengers will be notified if theirs has not been picked up.