SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Luggage is finally flying off the carousel at the Southwest terminal inside the San Diego International Airport.
Seeing all the traffic is a good feeling for Kim and Jamie’s blended family.
"We’re going to Hawaii," said Jamie.
Their family of six got to the airport three hours early in hopes of avoiding being among the thousands of not-so-lucky southwest passengers.
"As you’re watching things around the country. We were very nervous," explained Kim.
While they are getting ready to head out, several out-of-towners are relieved to be arriving in what will be a rainy San Diego.
"I kept checking the status and it was on time. So it left on time and it got here on time," said Breck Milde.
Milde traveled from San Jose this morning.
"Just came down here for New Year to play some golf and have some food,” said Milde.
Flights might be back to normal, but several dozen travelers still aren't reunited with their luggage.
Carlos Penaloza walked away relieved with his suitcase five days later.
"It was pretty stressful to see if I was going to get my stuff back or not,“ he said. "Luckily, when they called me last night around 11 o’clock telling me they found the luggage they’re going to give me a $200 voucher.”
He was one of the thousands who were greeted with boards like this— filled Southwest flight cancelations and delays.
"Coming back from Dallas, we had a three-hour delay from Dallas. It was not until we got to las vegas we heard that on the radio getting off the plane that all flights to San Diego were canceled," said Penaloza.
He said the next available flight wasn’t until Thursday. So, he called his brother to make the 10-hour drive to pick him up.
"All the rental car places were sold out. We didn’t have the funds to blow a bunch of money out there," said Penaloza.
With luggage in hand, Penaloza is now working to get back some of the money he lost when he was trying to get home.
“I did have to give my brother money because he did have to miss work to pick me up for mileage and for gas as well too so we’ll look into that," he said.
If you need to reunite with your bags, you can find more information here.
