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Airlines

Alaska Airlines lost 'hundreds' of travelers' luggage after too many workers called out sick

By Michael Hollan Fox News
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There’s nothing worse than getting sick around the holidays.

A high number of call-outs caused chaos at Sea-Tac Airport in Washington State for Alaska Airlines over the weekend. Due to the staff shortage, along with weather factors, the airline was unable to handle the volume of baggage.

This mishap reportedly left “hundreds” of passengers without the bags when they landed.

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On Saturday, Alaska Airlines released a blog post about the incident on its website. After issuing a general apology to their guests who “endured considerable inconvenience and understandable frustration at Sea-Tac Airport,” the company said that they “dropped the ball,” which created “an awful holiday travel experience just when people rely on us the most.”

The post continues, “Put simply: a severe staffing shortage during a very heavy travel period, as well as difficult weather conditions, unleashed a cascade of problems for us, and – unfairly – for our guests. A large number of workers who support our baggage operation had called out sick."

According to the post, this caused a backlog that prevented bags from being loaded onto flights before they took off, resulting in a significant number of passengers landing without their luggage.

A high number of call-outs caused chaos at Sea-Tac Airport in Wash. for Alaska Airlines over the weekend. Due to the staff shortage, along with weather factors, the airline was unable to handle the volume of baggage.

A high number of call-outs caused chaos at Sea-Tac Airport in Wash. for Alaska Airlines over the weekend. Due to the staff shortage, along with weather factors, the airline was unable to handle the volume of baggage. (iStock)

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A frustrated family wrote to Washington news outlet KHQ about the issues they were having getting missing luggage returned in an article that reported that “hundreds” of passengers were affected by the problems.

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Other travelers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations. Several complained about going days without hearing about their lost luggage, and at least one person complained about missing medication.