DENVER — Following a weekend fiasco of more than 5,500 flight cancellations by Delta Air Lines, some passengers wonder if they should have just stayed home.
Last week, a technology outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike software update affected airlines, hospitals and banks across the world. Tuesday, Delta struggled for a fourth straight day to recover from the outage, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.
"I have spent a total of 13 hours on the phone with Delta since Sunday afternoon, plus the face-to-face time there," Molly McGrory told 9NEWS from her Atlanta home.
By Tuesday, McGrory should have been in Denver with two of her coworkers for a company training conference. They got to the Atlanta airport Sunday morning to fly out.
McGrory said after their gate changed three times, Delta cancelled the flight entirely. She said Delta representatives encouraged her to look at other airports to travel out of. She said that wasn't an option, especially since she had already checked her bags.
"I said, 'That’s it. We just need to go home. This is over,'" McGrory said.
When it came to getting her checked luggage, she was told to head back to the front kiosk.
"Three of us haul back to baggage and the line was six people wide and went the entire length of the airport," McGrory said.
Airport attendants recommended she return home and come back for her bags in the morning, in the hopes of avoiding a longer wait.
She said at 9 a.m. Monday, she was ready to head to the airport, only find out her bag was no longer there.
"I’m like, what do you mean you put it on a flight?" McGrory said. "They said, 'Well, we figured you would want your luggage.' 'You couldn't get us there.' 'Well, we figured you'd find an alternative route.'"
McGrory said she was able to track her bag through the Delta website, as well as through the AirTag she put in her suitcase. She could see the bag sitting in Denver.
"If they had just left my bag alone in Atlanta, I would have driven down there Monday morning to pick it up," McGrory said. "But arbitrarily, they throw it on an airplane, even though they sent me a text saying, 'we can’t get you there, but we did get your bag there.'"
McGrory said she has a claim number for her bag and her coworkers' bags. She said one has been returned to Atlanta, but she's still waiting to be reunited with hers.
"In all honesty, if I could just have my bag today, I’d be so happy," McGrory said. "I mean, that suitcase has a lot of stuff in it. I was going on a business trip."
McGrory said her largest takeaway from the situation is reconsidering how she packs for future trips. She said she won't ever check a bag with her essentials. Her suitcase in Denver holds a breathing device she uses at night. She said she's thankful she had a second one at home.
"I have been on the phone nine hours today," McGrory said. "Nine hours. I didn’t go to sleep last night because I was so irritated with this whole thing."
McGrory said despite knowing where her bag is -- knowing it's been in Denver since Monday morning -- she hasn't gotten confirmation on when she could expect to see it again.
She said Delta reimbursed her with e-tickets, but since she purchased the trip on a company card, that won't work for her. She said she hasn't been offered any other form of compensation.
9NEWS reached out to Delta Air Lines for a response, but did not hear back.
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced it would be looking into Delta's handling of the situation.
"We have made clear to Delta that they must take care of their passengers and honor their customer service commitments," U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. "This is not just the right thing to do, it’s the law, and our department will leverage the full extent of our investigative and enforcement power to ensure the rights of Delta’s passengers are upheld."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.