San Francisco Chronicle reporter states child’s car seat was moved to ‘random house’ as Southwest kinds via unclaimed baggage

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KABC) — As Southwest Airlines continues to sort out stranded passengers and unclaimed baggage, a reporter in San Francisco said her child’s car or truck seat finished up at a stranger’s house.

Megan Cassidy, a reporter at the SF Chronicle, tweeted Tuesday night telling Southwest, “Remember to tell me you are guarding the stranded baggage. Simply because I am monitoring my kid’s automobile seat and right now it moved from the STL airport to a random property in Riverview Gardens.”

A representative with Southwest Airways responded to Cassidy with a tweet shortly following, telling the mother, “Hi, Megan. We have delayed baggage sectioned off, and we demand the baggage tag in get to release any items. Be sure to DM us so we can discuss this scenario further more.”

According to a tweet posted by Cassidy, she is tracking her baggage applying AirTag, a monitoring device created by Apple.

Cassidy is amongst countless numbers of Southwest travelers whose baggage remains unclaimed.

At Hollywood Burbank Airport on Wednesday, a pile of unclaimed baggage sat outside baggage assert carousels and in a change from regular operations, Southwest staff independently termed out names and individually handed each passenger their luggage.

“Everybody has just been conversing about how mad this entire matter was,” claimed traveler Sydnee Roddy. I certainly got like the superior close of it due to the fact I was checking out my relatives, but there are individuals in the airport chatting about they have been on their last day of medicine, and how, like, they were splitting their spouse and children up and I felt genuinely undesirable about the full matter.”

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan difficulties movie apology

Jordan apologized to travellers and staff members in the video released on Tuesday night.

“We’re doing all the things we can to return to a typical procedure, and please also listen to that I am really sorry,” Jordan mentioned.

He reported with huge quantities of airplanes and flight crews “out of position” in dozens of towns, the airline determined to “substantially lower our traveling to capture up.”

Although Jordan acknowledged challenges with the company response, the assertion prompt that he did not foresee large improvements to Southwest’s functioning strategies in reaction to the mass cancellations.

“The instruments we use to get better from disruption serve us nicely 99% of the time, but plainly we want to double-down on our presently-current programs to enhance units for these excessive instances so that we hardly ever again experience what is occurring right now,” explained Jordan.

In the meantime, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has taken the airline to endeavor. He is pulling no punches, referring to the predicament as a total “meltdown” of the procedure.

An formal for the union representing Southwest pilots explained they anticipate to have their flight schedules pretty much again to ordinary by the end of the do the job 7 days.

But it can be not just Southwest working with concerns.

On Wednesday, Eyewitness News observed stranded passengers at John Wayne Airport traveling Frontier and Spirit Airlines.

Even so, at 4 p.m. Wednesday, FlightAware reported more than a few quarters of people with cancelled flights at John Wayne Airport were being flying Southwest Airways.

The airline accounted for a lot more than half of the 4,600 flight cancellations nationwide. The next best was China Eastern, making up 13% of cancellations in the U.S.

So what need to clients do who are stranded?

“Initial things initial, vacationers who are still trapped waiting on Southwest and need to get somewhere should test to guide a flight with yet another airline as shortly as achievable … appropriate now, seriously,” explained Kyle Potter, executive editor at the vacation advice web-site Thrifty Traveler, in an e-mail to CNN Journey on Tuesday.

“Each airline in the place is jam-packed appropriate now, so your odds of even getting a seat — allow by itself at an even midway decent cost — get smaller sized by the hour,” Potter mentioned.

Phil Dengler, co-founder of journey assistance site The Vacationer, reported stranded Southwest travellers should really get their heads out of the clouds.

“I suggest browsing for substitute varieties of transportation. Although Southwest might get its act with each other more than the following several days, I would not consider the chance,” Dengler stated. “It is lawfully needed to provide you with a comprehensive hard cash refund if your flight was canceled, so it is in your greatest fascination to have a solid backup system.”

He also recommended looking for low-cost car or truck rentals from services such as AutoSlash.

“I also recommend checking Amtrak to see if any offered trains are going to your spot,” he mentioned.

He reported if leasing a car or getting a teach are not possibilities, you ought to use Google Flights to lookup for low-priced flights from other airlines.

And “if all else fails, Southwest will inevitably get you to your spot, but it may well not be right until the weekend or early next 7 days. Travelers in the thick of this should be guaranteed to save all their receipts,” Potter claimed.

Southwest itself has urged the same matter on receipts.

“If you’ve got already left, get treatment of oneself, do what you want to do for your family, preserve your receipts,” Southwest spokesperson Jay McVay said in a information convention earlier this week. “We will make positive they are taken treatment of, that is not a issue.”

If you’ve been still left in the lurch and your efforts to access a purchaser support agent are likely nowhere, the founder of Scott’s Affordable Flights suggests trying an international selection.

“The main hotline for US airways will be clogged with other passengers receiving rebooked. To get via to an agent speedily, simply call any just one of the airline’s dozens of international offices,” Scott Keyes stated.

CNN contributed to this report.