Newlyweds Marcus and Andrea Grasenick of Milwaukee were excited to go on their 11-day Caribbean honeymoon cruise as they flew on Southwest Airlines from O'Hare International Airport on Christmas Day.
But they were affected by the Southwest holiday meltdown that has left many passengers still waiting for refunds after the airline canceled thousands of flights and stranded passengers without their luggage.
“They really severely impacted people's lives," said Andrea Grasenick.
"Southwest’s logo is the heart, and they broke our hearts," added Marcus Grasenick.
NBC 5 Investigates found that while the airline is unique for its "bags free policy," it is also different in how it handles checked passenger bags.
The couple got stuck in Nashville for two days when Southwest canceled their connecting flight. They say they waited in customer service lines for a total of eight to 10 hours without getting on board another flight and missed their cruise. So they booked a flight home on United Airlines without their checked bags.
"Southwest was telling us that we had to wait for our bags to go to our final destination before we would be able to claim them," Andrea Grasenick said. "We were told that they would have to go through Ft. Lauderdale."
They were not the only Southwest passengers who lost their checked bags.
“The cancelled bags weren’t pulled. Apparently, they went wherever the destination that plane went," said one passenger whose flight was canceled at Midway Airport.
"That's what they said, the luggage is going to be sent wherever the destination is and then brought back here, which is absolutely insane," said Mark Murman, a Southwest passenger who never left Chicago.
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Launched in 1971, Southwest Airlines touted itself as one of the most loved, most efficient and profitable airlines. But a holiday storm and outdated computer software brought the airline to a screening halt.
Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan addressed the travel disruptions in a Dec. 27 video statement saying, "We need to double down on our already existing plans to upgrade systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face what’s happening right now."
Those extreme circumstances not only canceled more than 16,000 flights. Many passengers were left searching for their luggage, wondering why Southwest didn't take their bags off the canceled flights and return them to customers.
"I had put tracking tiles in our luggage before we left, and I could see where they were the whole time, and they sat in Nashville for about a week," Andrea Grasenick said.
Airline responsibility for checked luggage has been guided by security concerns. Domestic and international flights follow different rules.
One rule is PPBM, or positive passenger bag matching, requiring international flights to remove a checked bag if its passenger doesn't board.
That rule started after the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, when a terrorist hid a bomb inside a checked bag but never boarded the plane.
The TSA says that PPBM is not required on domestic flights.
NBC 5 Investigates asked Southwest about flying checked bags without passengers and why it didn’t make more sense to remove the luggage and return it to customers at baggage claim.
A Southwest spokesperson told us that TSA scans the checked bags but also says, "it’s very cumbersome to remove checked baggage from the aircraft once it is loaded. The plane still has to move eventually, even if a specific customer or customers are not on it. The aircraft is expected to be somewhere else and those bags are expected to be in that location too, as bags are tagged to a customer’s final destination once they are checked at the ticket counter."
NBC 5 Investigates has learned that's not how some other major airlines operate.
Delta said when a flight is canceled, any checked bags are returned to baggage claim.
United told us it works quickly to return bags when flights are canceled.
American’s policy is when a flight is canceled, checked bags are returned to the departure airport’s luggage claim.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) says it has received thousands of consumer complaints about Southwest.
The DOJ said it's requiring the airline to reimburse travelers for canceled flights as well as hotels, meals and alternate transportation, and up to $3,800 per passenger for lost or damaged bags, even for a delay in the delivery of a passenger’s baggage.
"The only thing we’ve gotten from Southwest is the email from the CEO giving out the 25, 000 bonus points," said Marcus Grasenick.
The Graesnicks finally got all their checked bags 12 days later.
"We would like to try and reschedule something else that we can do to celebrate our marriage," Andrea Grasenick said.
As passengers wait for their refunds from Southwest, the airline also faces a class-action lawsuit over all of this.
The airline is not only different in how it handles checked bags, it also does not have a bag tracker on its app like other major airlines.
Southwest also doesn't have an alliance with any other airlines that could help rebook passengers faster when flights are canceled.
