Atlanta

Delta Air Lines paid one woman $11,000 not to fly last weekend

ATLANTA — Five days after the storms that wreaked havoc on Delta's operations, Channel 2's Jim Strickland was back at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to find out if recovery is complete.

Flightaware.com reports only four Delta cancelations for Monday.

Strickland noticed Paris to Atlanta was one of them, a vast recovery from more than 3,000 flights canceled since Wednesday's storms.

Strickland found Amanda Kowalesky in Midtown, Atlanta. She's supposed to be in West Palm, but with day one of her three day weekend shot at the airport, she stayed home.

She's now lugging fears about a dream trip this summer.

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“If there's a storm am I not going to get to Ireland in time?” Kowalesky said. “We're going to see U2 play in Dublin, that's a once in a lifetime thing.”

Delta flew her bag to Florida at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

"I found baggage left in the residue of the airline's spring break meltdown," Kowalesky said.

They said the flight was canceled and pandemonium broke out.

After a Sunday cancelation, Eyelyn Rubin flew in this morning from Newark. Delta apparently didn't know her bag made it.

“They told you it was going to Arkansas?” Strickland asked. “Yes,” Rubin answered.

Delta says it will hand deliver bags that don't catch up to their owners.

Suzanna Wasserman is missing a bag after missing her weekend cruise out of Miami.

“Delta going to do for you?” Strickland asked.

“We don't know, we can't get anyone on the phone,” Wasserman said.

Delta says it's working on compensation.  Strickland Skyped with Yahoo travel editor Laura Begley Bloom, who gave up her family's seats on three consecutive days. Delta paid a total of near $11,000.

“I wanted to get to Florida to have my vacation, but the money kept getting better,” Bloom said. “We walked away with a pretty hefty chunk of change from Delta Air Lines.”