The baggage situation was in the newspaper - USAirways ofc...
Travelers still sift through bags
By Elisa Crouch
Of the Post-Dispatch
12/27/2004
Hundreds of weary travelers picked through thousands of bags inside Lambert Field's main terminal Monday, hoping to locate their unopened Christmas gifts, their holiday clothes, some clean underwear.
The luggage piled up outside airline customer service offices. It lined the walls behind the baggage carousels. Couriers loaded bags on dollies and carted them to waiting vans for a late delivery to their owners. Some passengers found their bags when returning to Lambert to fly home.
"Holidays are a mess," said Jane Gale, 62, of Freeburg, pessimistic that her bags had made it from Atlanta. "And then you get here and you don't have any luggage."
The same problem plagued airports across the country, mostly affecting travelers on US Airways and Delta Air Lines, but aggravating passengers flying other airlines, too. In addition to lost luggage, some travelers were stranded at airports for hours.
"My biggest complaint is these chairs," said Barry Threw, 23, stuck at Lambert for seven hours because his US Airways flight had disappeared from the schedule. The airline had also lost his bag last week. He wanted to forget about everything and sleep, but the chairs made that hard. "They have arms so I can't lay down," he said.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta called for an investigation into the Christmas holiday travel disruptions. The Office of Inspector General announced it would look for causes of flight cancellations, delays and baggage handling malfunctions associated with US Airways.
US Airways reported an unusual number of flight attendants and baggage handlers calling in sick for the holidays, resulting in thousands of bags not getting to their destination. In some cases, the luggage was never put on departing planes.
Comair, a Delta subsidiary, blamed severe weather in the Ohio Valley for straining its infrastructure and causing a computer system meltdown. The inspector general's investigation will also review reasons for the meltdown, which forced the cancellation of nearly a thousand flights.
Comair had canceled all but 10 percent to 15 percent of its flights on Sunday. It was flying 60 percent of its scheduled flights Monday and plans to be fully operational by Wednesday.
"We are working as quickly as possible to get people back to their bags," said Benet Wilson, spokeswoman for Delta, which relies on Comair for regional flights. "There's no way we could have predicted the magnitude of those storms in Cincinnati."
As a result, many visitors to the St. Louis area have been without their luggage for days. Katie Douglass, 26, of Boston, flew into St. Louis on Wednesday and hadn't seen her luggage since. Shortly before arriving at Lambert to return to New England on Monday, she learned her luggage was en route to her grandparents' house in Centralia, Ill.
"Just in time," Douglass said, sarcastically. She arranged for it to be sent to Massachusetts.
Passengers freely swapped luggage stories - not having Christmas gifts to give, having to borrow clothes from friends and relatives, having to show up at functions wearing travel clothes.
Re Smith, 56, of Cincinnati, had to attend her best friend's wedding Saturday with what she wore on her flight: black slacks and a casual top. Her lost luggage became the joke of the reception, she said.
"Thank goodness I didn't wear blue jeans," she said, after picking through luggage and finding her bag, with wedding gift inside, Monday afternoon.
For some, the luggage problem left them spending the weekend shopping, buying such necessities as allergy medication, contact lens solution and clean clothes to get them through the holiday.
Kent St. Pierre, 55, of Delaware, spent several hundred dollars buying clothes for his 21-year-old daughter. The family flew in Thursday on US Airways, and all bags arrived but hers, he said.
"Of all the bags to lose," he said, holding a $75 check from the airline, which hardly compensated for his purchases. "She doesn't shop at Kmart, let me tell ya."
He's considering shipping his family's luggage when they go home Wednesday.
On Monday, US Airways sent at least two planes and several tractor-trailers filled with luggage from its Philadelphia hub to Pittsburgh and Charlotte to get the bags en route to owners.
"We are working through the baggage backlog," said John Bronson, US Airways spokesman. "We're not completely there yet in terms of getting them to their final destination."
Delta and US Airways have hired more workers to deliver luggage. Nevertheless, couriers say the backlog has left them exhausted.
Anthony Cunningham, the station manager for EDS courier service, fell into a chair outside the airline customer service offices. Bags were being piled and lined up faster than he could load them on dollies. He and delivery drivers were working around the clock, he said.
"This is a very unusual occurrence. It's not normal," Cunningham said, his head resting against the wall. On an average day, his crew delivers about 75 bags, he said. Since Christmas? "It's hard to guess," he said. "It's too hard. Tons."
Hope you guys get them back or like Pomeranian sez about claiming it for the insurance money. You'd get more out of this than what you have in your luggage. 
GLAD u got ur baggage BACK!!!!! 
