Travel nightmare continues at PHL due to Southwest Airlines cancellations
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Tuesday night, Southwest Airlines is now under scrutiny and a holiday travel nightmare has been extended.
Passengers were left stranded due to thousands of flights being canceled following a major winter storm.
The airline is responsible for most of the cancellations, and now the feds are investigating what went wrong.
Many Southwest flights out of Philly and other major airports remain unavailable.
A pile of lost luggage is piling up in the baggage claim, and it's also happening at airports across the country.
While these bags made it to Philly, many passengers are still stranded.
"Our granddaughter's birthday is on the 29th, so it doesn't look like we'll be there," Janis Sheridan said.
Janis and Mike Sheridan arrived at Philadelphia international early Tuesday --- only to be told their flight to Chicago was canceled.
"We're being told it's crew issues," Janis Sheridan said. "They can't seem to locate crews because of computer issues, so it's a tech problem."
Janis Sheridan said she was told Southwest is not re-booking until possibly Friday. According to Flightaware, 80% of Southwest flights out of Philadelphia were canceled Tuesday.
"We stood in line for three-and-a-half hours trying to get in, rebooked and still nothing and so we took a flight on American to get here," Vangie White said.
White finally made it to Philly, but says her luggage is stuck in Chicago And down in baggage claim, the pile of lost luggage from Southwest flights continues to pile up.
Dale Houser's bags were stuck in Orlando since Saturday.
"We weren't able to get the bags back when they canceled the flight on Christmas Eve, so we had to call for the last several days," Houser said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation is now investigating, saying "USdot is concerned by Southwest's unacceptable rate of cancellations and delays and reports of lack of prompt customer service. The department will examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan."
Barry Sames was stuck in Chicago and ended up spending more money to change his travel plans.
"We were determined to get here, so we rented a hotel and we rented a car the next day and drove 12 hours here to Philly and we got in last night at 1 in the morning," Sames said.
CBS3 has learned two Democratic senators are now calling on Southwest to compensate travelers for disrupting their travel plans.
Southwest apologized for the inconvenience and says the disruptions could continue for a few more days.
