. >> cnn's adrienne broaddus is at chicago international airport. e, you've been telling some incredibly emotional stories people really, really worried and scared even for their life, because some of their items that they needed for medication were in their bags. but now you're going to tell us about some of the emotional reunions that you're finally seeing. so we've trended in a better direction. >> reporter: certainly, sara. i will say the past few days have been reminded me of a treasure hunt, with the luggage being the big prize. if you're new to this story, and if you're able to see, i want you to take a look at your screen. this is what this baggage claim area looked like just yesterday. i wasn't able to walk through here because there were so many bags. the saycarousels were shut down. but those bags have been removed. they either went home with their rightful owner, or crews here that work at midway, and additional staff from chicago o'hare airport removed all of those bags yesterday to a secure location here at the airport. we're told that

we have our reporters on the ground, gabe cohen and adrienne broaddus are at two of southwest's operating bases, baltimore washington international airport and chicago midway. gabe, first to you, gosh, these passengers are really dealing with a lot of problems here. how bad is the situation in baltimore. >> reporter: it's bad and keeps getting worse, abby. you can see how many cancellations we're talking about. 63% of southwest's flights. that's how many they've canceled just today. most of it was done last night. we're talking about 2500 flights and the bad news is they've already went ahead and canceled nearly that same number for tomorrow. the airline telling me it could be days of this where they're only able to fly roughly a third of their flights and take a look here. this is the reality for thousands of passengers, these long, brutal lines where they are just waiting to get rebooked for those who are calling the airline, some are sitting on hold for hours just trying to get some answers, but the reality is many won't be able to be rebooked for days. now, the airline, southwest, has

adrienne broaddus is at midway airport.rday the travel mess was illustrated by the piles of luggage at baggage claim. what's the situation today? >> reporter: i don't know if you hear the bells going off. it's an indication bags are going to come down. carousel 7 is open. this time yesterday we couldn't walk through the area because it was filled with bags. if you're new to the story check out your screen. you can see what this area looked like for the past several days. the majority of those bags were moved to a secure location on site here at the airport. we are told that the luggage will be transported to its original final destination. it's unclear whether or not the bags will be loaded on to planes going out or if the bags will be shipped. meanwhile, southwest laying out steps for travelers who were impacted to take when it comes to reimbursement. the airline says they don't want travelers calling because the phone lines are overloaded. instead, they want everything done online. for example, if you're missing your lugg

let's go to cnn's adrienne broaddus, she is at chicago's midway international airport, another hub for southwest there. what are you hearing? i see more bags behind you, too. >> reporter: bags on top of bags on top of bags. there is a little bit of organization to the chaos here, jessica. if you look over this way you will notice that luggage is grouped by cities or the airport where they were supposed to go. we've been speaking with travelers throughout the morning, many of them frustrated. you see some employees going one by one looking at the luggage. travelers we heard from say they can't get their luggage if midway was not their final destination. listen in. >> i am traveling with my son trying to go to a family wedding in miami. the next flight that was offered was in january. and they couldn't even get us home back to pittsburgh. so it has been a very, very stressful night, lots and lots of people sleeping on the floors at the gates. the story right now is that our bags are still going to the original destination, even though we are not traveling there anymore and just trying to

for now, i'm adrienne broaddus in chicago. back to you. >> and for more on all of this, let's bring in zach griff, senior travel agent for the points guy. he is live for us this hour in kona, hawaii. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> so why are most airlines back on track after this winter storm while southwest continues to struggle with stranded passengers and mounting unclaimed luggage? how did the carrier fail so miserably? >> yeah, well, look, the weather across the united states was quite unprecedented in the week before christmas. and so the airlines had aggressive schedules for this holiday period, and many were faced with multiple cancellations and delays because of the weather. and what we saw is that the airlines made those cancellations and then started quickly recovering their networks, except for southwest. southwest was faced with two major issues as they sought to recover the network. the first is the fact that their planes fly very interesting routings. they don't necessarily go f

gabe cohen and adrienne broaddus, thank you so much for those stories.ancellation meltdown at southwest is weighing on stock again today as you might imagine, and now other airlines are placing price caps on travel to and from select cities in an effort to help stranded southwest customers get home finally. cnn business correspondent rahel solomon is following all of this for us. i see you got the memo. can southwest dig itself out from this? there are passengers we are hearing over and over again, longtime, very happy with southwest, years, and now they're saying they never want to fly them again. >> eventually southwest will be able to dig itself out of this scenario, right? the question becomes, is what does this do to its brand which we'll get to. you listen to those stories of people at the airport and people are dealing with real, challenging life or death situations and there's the impact. take a look at the stock you want to see. shares are off, the last i checked and they've accelerated 5%. compare that to yesterday when the stock was off 6%. pa

adrienne broaddus is there. you showed us this. i'm still shaken by the baggage you showed us the last hour we spoke with you. what are you seeing and what are you hearing from officials at the airlines there as they're dealing with this? >> we'll talk about the bags and the officials later. right now i want to focus on the people. the people. that's who is most impacted. like my new friend catherine. she is going to tell us what she's been through, and why her bag, why she needs it so desperately. catherine, thank you for being here. no laughing matter here. almost tears. >> it is. it is because we were flying from arizona to chicago to go to albany. they told us when they canceled our flight, the second we got off the plane from arizona, they told us that our flight was canceled. when we got off the plane, we looked around, we waited two and a half hours to find out what was going on. can we get a new flight somewhere to albany. to no avail, everything is canceled until the 30th or the 31st. we think, okay, they told us -- assure

cnn's adrienne broaddus is in chicago. are people having any luck at this point finding their luggage? >> reporter: phil, progress. but certainly not perfection, as travelers search through this sea of bags for their luggage. we've seen tears here throughout the day. some crying, travelers trying, because they were unable to find their bags. others celebratory tears, including one woman who i spoke with who found her luggage. she says inside, vintage skates linked to her childhood. >> they're in this bag and i was just going to be sick if i lost them, because they're difficult to find. my daughter's were in there, too, so, i was excited to take her this week and go roller skating. so, i'm just really glad that we're going to get to do that and that they're not lost. >> this is one of those moments where there needs to be federal intervention because this is just clearly whoever is guiding the ship has lost their way at this company right now, and they have completely bungled this in ways that have really caused great hards

adr adrienne broaddus, thank you. >>> leyla santiago is live in el paso, texas this morning. you've been talking to some migrants there. what are they telling you? >> jessica, a lot of folks waking up away having spent the night in the cold. this is a shelter, and here in the morning, you see there are folks coming in to help out, give them breakfast, a bit of a meal, still on the sidewalks you'll see children, toddlers, single men, older, younger, and now they're dealing with not only uncertainty, but also fear. they don't really know what to do next, given that title 42 will remain in place. again, this is one shelter run by the church here. a lot of these individuals do have places to go femme they have been process the, but many of these have not been processed. so they don't want to get on a bus out of fear, worry that they may end up somewhere else that they don't want to go. that's sort of the mood of where things are. i want to share a conversation that i had with one mothers from venezuela. it took her months to get up here with her two children. here's what she said

. >> our adrienne broaddus is standing by and, adrienne, despite the anger, frustration, you're still finding some humanity out there among passengers who just want to get home. >> reporter: yeah, we are. people becoming friends with strangers, despite all of the chaos and even though they left their luggage behind, some folks we talked to who have been traveling who even spent the night here said they are looking on the bright side of things. before we tell you more about them i want to you take a walk with me. just as far as the eye can see there's luggage. the message board or the information board here also showing lots of cancellations. if you look over on this side, you will notice there's some organization to the chaos. there are labels in certain areas, for example, that one says san francisco. that is where that group of bags were supposed to go and people have told us as well as a representative of southwest, if midway is not your final destination, your bag will not be leaving. so what are people doing? listen in. >> i think it's providential that we're standing next to man

adrienne broaddus is at we're going to start with nicholas. we're talking about seven days that people have been dealing with in nightmare. i know you've been talking to passengers. how are they holding up emotionally? >> reporter: they're not holding up prvery well. they just want to get home, get to their final destination, and this experience is really testing the loyalty of some longtime southwest passengers. earlier, i spoke to a woman who described herself as a loyal customer. she said she's flown with them the last 20 years, but the experience she went through the last few days is really drawing that loyalty into question. what she said when she got stranded in d.c., then eventually stranded here again, she's scheduled to make it to tampa again today, to finally breathe a sigh of relief. then there was a father and daughter i spoke to who ran into an entirely different problem. she was 11 years old, expected to take off today. listen to what she had to tell me. are you doing all right? you've got some tears in your eyes. what's going on

adrienne broaddus is joining us from chicago midway airport. is it better today?> reporter: it is better. we have been here all week and bags once sitting where i'm standing were removed. the majority of the bags that flooded this area, as you can see right now, are gone. the majority removed by crews working here at the airport and if passengers were lucky they left with baggage. but thousands have been impacted forcing them to rent cars, spend extra money on food, find hotels, that all costs money. southwest is promising to reimburse those travelers for reasonable expenses. listen in. >> you can submit a full refund request for any canceled flights and if you have any travel expenses due to the disruption you can submit those re-cceiptsn our website. my personal apology is the first step to making things right after your experiences fell short of our expectations of us. we're continuing to work to make this up to you. >> reporter: top brass apologizing as southwest scrambles to get planes back in the air and clean up what has been described as a meltdown. also,

adrienne broaddus in chicago, thank you for that update. >>> this morning, glimmers of hope in buffalo as temperatures warm and a driving ban is lifted. buffalo police say they are finished going through more than 1,100 911 calls made during the massive storm. we know 37 people died in erie county alone. cnn national correspondent athena jones is joining us live from buffalo. there's been some back and forth between the county executive and the mayor about how the storm was handled. >> reporter: hi, jessica, that's right. hearing from the county executive for erie county, complaining about the mayor not being involved in kind of coordination calls and that sort of thing, working with the county and other nearby municipalities. here is how mayor byron brown responded. also note he talks about a death toll that is smaller than the county-wide death tol. don't be confused by that. go ahead and take a listen. >> it's horrific, 28 members of our community dead in the city of buffalo. we did an evaluation after the last historic storm, just less than two months ago and did things differently

adrienne broaddus is live for us at chicago midway international airport. we've checked with you every day, what are you seeing as of this thursday morning? >> reporter: good morning to you. more than another day here we are, more than 2,000 flight cancellations. but officials at chicago's midway, officials with the department of aviation say southwest has increased their overall operations by at least 20%. and if you are able to see, it's easy to notice where i'm standing right now is a different scene. it has cleared and returned to normal. but dthat does not change the human toll that was brutal on passengers. hundreds of thousands of travelers caught in a meltdown desperate for answers and help. >> i'm hungry, exhausted. i just want to go home. >> this has been a complete nightmare. >> fix it. fix it. >> reporter: different airports, same problems for southwest across the united states. the airline cancelling more than 2,500 flights wednesday. >> i trusted southwest with my worldly belongings and to get me from point a to point b and i feel like i was r

. >> adrienne broaddus is live for cnn this morning at chicago's midway international airport.ou spoke to passengers yesterday who are incredibly frustrated by what the cancellations were doing to their plans. what are you hearing there this morning? >> reporter: it's quieter this morning kaitlan but the passengers we heard from were frustrated. we've seen some progress but certainly not perfection. and you can see that for yourself if you look behind us here where all the bags have piled up. some of the areas are thinner but we see there are crates like this, where these bags have been brought over from carousels 5 and 6. we saw crews pulling these bags over yesterday as flights were actually coming in. some bags were left behind but still a familiar scene, you see canceled flights. flights are arriving but southwest has reduced its schedule and canceled more than 60% of its flights. and passengers, even some of the most loyal southwest customers say there needs to be a change. >> this last 48 hours has been the worst fiasco i've ever seen in the last 20 plus years with southw

. >> adrienne broaddus is smiling, right, at chicago midway this morning, for the first time all weekt's better. >> reporter: it is better. one traveler said things are flying, no pun intended. and this is the type of line travellers want to see, poppy. they are waiting to check their bags, not find their bags like we've seen all week. but checking their bags. those bags will hopefully continue on to their final destination ahead of this final holiday weekend. over here, something else we haven't seen, the flight information board for departures on time. on time. a small delay here on flight 3224. it was scheduled to leave at 7:45 a.m. now it's a minute delayed. another flight down here, flight 2064 was scheduled to leave at 7:40, about a 5 minute delay, now departing 7:45. we see flights boarding now. this is incredible news for folks stuck and stranded. i went downstairs to the baggage claim area and i saw on that information board, five canceled flights. a stark contrast to what we've seen the last week where southwest had more than 15,000 canceled flights. travelers who were impac

nick valencia and adrienne broaddus, thank you to you both. >>> stranded southwest passengers saying they're extremely frustrated. we heard from that one man. 5 hours 43 minutes on hold. sometimes totally unable to get through to airlines customer service lines to rebook flights or find that lost luggage. and even southwest employees say they have been unable to communicate with the airline. listen -- >> this is not a staffing issue. this is a systemss issue. southwest airlines was staffed ready to go to work but when they chose to take flights into the middle of the storm, not preemptively cancel enough flights, their systems have not been able to keep up with reschedulings, cancellations, notification to crew members about those cancellations and changes in flight. we've had flight attendants on hold for up to 12, 17 hours in some cases, and unable to get hotel rooms. they've been sleeping in airports. >> hmm. let's talk more about this with zach grif, senior aviation reporter for the points guide. thanks for being with us. southwest employees, the unions, saying this is a systems

. >> adrienne broaddus is live at chicago's midway international airport.hat are you seeing this morning? >> reporter: something i haven't seen all week. i don't see any cancellations on this flight information board. so this could be a sign right over here that things are starting to return to normal. for example, this says boarding on time, on time. boarding. boarding. and just moments ago we saw a sign here that said departing. and it looks like that flight has taken off. at least, based on the information here. over here we also see people at the bag drop section. we hadn't seen that earlier this week. you know where we saw those bags? piled up downstairs in the baggage claim area. and as you heard from the department of transportation, they are vowing to take stiff steps. for example, the department of transportation has already taken steps to increase the standard of customer service but secretary pete buttigieg saying he can't fix the i.t. system for the airline but they will do everything it takes to hold southwest accountable for their treatment of

cnn's adrienne broaddus is live at midway where she's been listening to stories for days.hings looking now? >> reporter: things are much better here at chicago midway, sarah. and we've heard from passengers who are relieved following so many days of stress and anxiety. walking into the airport this morning for the first time, they're seeing a flight information board that shows flights are boarding and on time. there are a few delays here and there, for example, southwest flight 1535 was scheduled to leave at ten after 3:00 local time. it's now delayed and leaving at 3:23. but this right there, departed, that is a welcome sign. especially after more than 15,000 canceled flights over the last week. now that relief was also followed by some hesitation. i met a traveler, she told me she's on her way to memphis to ring in the new year with her family. however, when it came time for her to check in her bags right here, she was terrified. >> why don't you want to check your bag? >> because all them bags they lost. >> reporter: are you scared? >> hell, yeah, i'm scared. you've se

cnn's adrienne broaddus has more. >> reporter: good morning, martin and amara.to apologize enough. on friday we met passengers who were relieved following so many days of stress, finally they were able to see on the flight information board planes boarding and departing on time. there were a few delays, but nothing like we saw over the last week where southwest had more than 15,000 cancellations. but i will tell you that relief was also met with hesitation. i met a woman who said she was traveling from chicago, illinois, to memphis, tennessee, to ring in the new year with her family. when i check her luggage, she didn't want to drop her bags. why don't you want to check your bag? >> because all these bags are lost. >> reporter: are you scared? >> hell, yeah, i'm scared. you seen all them bags on there that they lost. i get the memo, i don't have no bag. it's not right. i been watching the news. now they want us to give them our bags? is that crazy or what? i will try to have some fun new year's eve. no, i ain't gonna let them spoil my day. >> reporter: a lot of