Jul 31, 2008 12:50 pm US/Eastern
American Baggage System Glitch Resolved At JFK
Many American Flights Cancelled; Only Small Percentage Of Bags Traveling In Same Direction As Owners
Embattled Airline Waves Baggage Check Fees Temporarily
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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American Airlines says the software that controls the baggage sorting conveyor belt in the bag room malfunctioned on July 30, 2008 in terminal 8 at JFK Airport.
CBS
American Airlines' baggage handling system at a Kennedy Airport terminal is up and running again, a day after a software glitch caused dozens of delays, cancellations and luggage pileup at ticket counters.
Airline spokeswoman Andrea Huguely says the system went back up by 6 a.m. Thursday.
American Airlines had canceled six flights scheduled to depart from JFK on Thursday morning. The malfunction on Wednesday led to five cancellations and delays on 48 flights out of Terminal 8, one of the newer
buildings at JFK.
Huguely says technicians had diagnosed the problem by Wednesday evening and were testing it through early morning Thursday.
She says crews are working to get luggage onto flights and back to their owners.
Vacation nightmares lingered long into Wednesday night and Thursday morning however.
CBS 2 HD was there to witness the wrath of the passengers.
Rosa Gibbs and her daughter were on their way home to Florida from London when their layover at JFK stopped them in their tracks. Gibbs' daughter's luggage was lost in the mess which left her in tears.
"We're planning to talk to a supervisor. I'm very, very upset," said Gibbs, who lives in Melbourne, Fla. "They lost our suitcase. We missed our plane because we are late. And we wait four hours over here. They say we have to wait until the next morning to catch another plane. They don't give us no budget to sleep in a hotel or to have dinner or anything."
Late Wednesday night hundreds of passengers were still waiting in long lines for hours trying to figure out what to do next.
"They said we had to just wait in the line, and we've been here three hours," said Venkat Kasarla of Oklahoma City.
Maricarmen Dhooghe and her boyfriend from Brussels were on their way to Los Angeles when they got stuck in American Airlines' baggage debacle. They missed their flight and will take off Thursday instead.
"I was really frustrated and angry. I wanted to get on a plane tonight," Dhooghe said.
"We're only 14 days in America. So we lose two days. So it really sucks. It's not a good begin for us," Michael Janssens of Brussels said.
Dhooghe even took her frustration a step further.
"I never fly again with American Airlines. And I hate America. That was the first thought, but it's not true," Dhooghe said jokingly.
The airline could not say when they'd have all the baggage delivered to the proper destinations. Despite a resolution to the problem, passengers traveling with American Airlines through JFK Thursday are being advised to arrive to the airport with extra time to check in.
Please stay with CBS 2 HD and wcbstv.com for more on this developing story.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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