Delta Air Lines travelers at Logan struggle to find luggage, rebook flights after global software outage - The Boston Globe (2024)

On Tuesday morning, he was back at Logan searching through heaps of luggage. He eventually found his bag with help from a staff member.

Conway said the airline never contacted him to say the bag was in Boston; he only learned that from his tracker. On Tuesday, he shelled out $50 for Gold Parking Express at Logan.

“There was no communication, so now I’m out 50 bucks,” he said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Tuesday on X that his agency has launched an investigation to ensure the airline “is following the law and taking care of its passengers during continued widespread disruptions.”

By midmorning Tuesday, Delta had canceled more than 400 flights nationally, accounting for about two-thirds of all cancellations in the country, according to aviation tracker FlightAware.

The Atlanta-based carrier has canceled more than 7,000 flights since the outage started, far more than any other airline, according to figures from FlightAware and travel data provider Cirium.

The outage began Thursday night into Friday morning, after a faulty software upgrade from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike to more than 8 million Microsoft-based computers around the world.

Delta said it was cooperating with the federal investigation.

“We remain entirely focused on restoring our operation after cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike’s faulty Windows update rendered IT systems across the globe inoperable,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement. “Across our operation, Delta teams are working tirelessly to care for and make it right for customers impacted by delays and cancellations as we work to restore the reliable, on-time service they have come to expect from Delta.”

At Logan on Tuesday, Jim Lukens, 76, and his wife learned their 9:05 a.m. flight from Boston to Madison, Wisc., had been canceled.

Delta rebooked them on a later flight without a problem, he said. But while they didn’t have to pay any extra fees, they were worried about missing some early activities at a weeklong family reunion.

“There probably won’t be any family dinner for us,” Lukens said.

Barbara White, 76, had planned to fly home Tuesday to Montana after visiting her son in Mattapoisett, but her flight was canceled, forcing her to wait at Logan for several hours before she could get rebooked on a flight home Wednesday.

“I stood in line for two and a half hours along with everybody else,” White said. “They warned me this might happen again tomorrow.”

White said she’s fortunate she can stay at her son’s house Tuesday.

“Otherwise, I probably would have to be here because hotels are too expensive,” White said.

Megan Wigton, 43, her husband, and their three children were supposed to be on the same 7:35 a.m. flight Tuesday as White.

“Not until we got to the gate with my three kids and husband did we find out it was canceled,” Wigton said. “I immediately called Delta and was on hold for about three and a half hours before I finally got through to a person.”

She said their flight was rebooked for Friday, and they were searching Tuesday for car seats they’d checked for their small children.

“We can’t get back to our house without the car seats,” Wigton said. “Hopefully we’ll find them.”

Tony O’ Brien, 51, of Windham, N.H., said he initially had a flight scheduled Monday morning from Boston to Knoxville, Tenn., with plans to attend a two-day training for his job. He was alerted via email Sunday night that his flight was canceled, so he booked a flight out of Manchester, N.H., hoping to catch a connecting flight in Washington, D.C., to make it to Knoxville in time for his training.

But his flight to D.C. was delayed, causing him to miss the Knoxville connection.

”We got there and we were so delayed,” O’Brien said. “This has been a comedy of errors.”

He said Delta redirected him to an American Airlines customer service representative who told him he couldn’t book a flight until Tuesday, at which time his training would’ve been over.

”I said ‘That doesn’t work for me and you know what, just get me back to Boston,’” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said he slept on the floor of the Ronald Reagan National Airport and waited in a long line Tuesday morning to find help rebooking his flight. Three hours later, he found one headed back to Boston.

”I spent the morning trying to find a flight back to Boston,” O’Brien said.

Nick Stoico of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Material from the Associated Press was also used.

Sabrina Lam can be reached at sabrina.lam@globe.com. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.