(CNN) – There are still a few days of relief for passengers booked on Southwest Airlines this week, as the beleaguered airline continues to struggle with what US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has referred to as a complete merger of the system.
Of the nearly 2,700 cancellations already made for Wednesday flights in, to, and out of the United States as of 1:15 a.m. ET, 2,497 of them are operated by Southwest, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Meanwhile, the website shows the airline has already canceled another 2,392 flights for Thursday.
The airports most affected by Wednesday’s cancellations are Denver International, followed by Chicago Midway International, Baltimore/Washington International, Dallas Love Field, Nashville International, Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International.
Buttigieg says he spoke directly with Southwest CEO Bob Jordan on Tuesday about the thousands of flights that have been canceled this week with no immediate indication of when passengers can rebook.
“His system has really completely fallen apart,” Buttigieg told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday.
“I made it clear that our department will hold them accountable for their responsibilities to customers, both to put them through this situation and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Tuesday at a glance
CNN’s Carlos Suarez reports from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, where travelers are facing long lines and flight cancellations after a major winter storm swept through the United States.
More than 3,200 flights in, to, and out of the United States were canceled Tuesday, according to FlightAware.
Of those canceled flights, about 2,693 were on Southwest, a staggering 84% of all canceled flights in the United States.
Long lines of travelers trying to rebook or make connections were witnessed at Southwest ticket counters at several U.S. airports on Tuesday, while large piles of unclaimed bags continued to grow as passengers scrambled to retrieve your luggage at airports such as Midway International in Chicago, Harry Reid in Las Vegas Airport and William P. Hobby in Houston.
Passenger Trisha Jones told CNN at the Atlanta airport that she and her partner had been traveling for five days, trying to get home to Wichita, Kansas, after disembarking from a cruise ship in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
After his flight was canceled, he stayed with relatives and then diverted to Atlanta to catch a connecting flight.
“We were lucky, because we were in Fort Lauderdale; my family lives in the Tampa Bay area, so we were able to rent a car to go see my family for Christmas,” Jones said. “We’ve seen a lot of families sleeping on the floor, and it breaks my heart.”
Buttigieg: “A lot of cleaning to do”
Canceled Southwest Airlines flights are displayed on an information board at California’s Oakland International Airport on Tuesday.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Southwest has blamed several factors for the travel disaster, including delays from winter storms, aggressive flight scheduling and outdated infrastructure.
“As far as I can tell, Southwest is unable to even locate its own crews, let alone their own passengers, let alone their baggage,” Buttigieg said, adding that he also spoke with the leaders of airline unions representing flight attendants and pilots.
The secretary said he told CEO Jordan that he expects Southwest to proactively offer refunds and reimbursement to affected passengers without them having to ask.
“I conveyed to the CEO our expectation that they will go above and beyond to take care of passengers and address this,” he said.
Buttigieg told CNN that the Transportation Department is willing to pursue fines against Southwest if there is evidence that the company has breached its legal obligations, but added that the department will take a closer look at consistent customer service issues at the airline.
“While every other part of the aviation system has been moving toward recovery and improving every day, it’s actually been moving in the opposite direction with this airline,” Buttigieg said.
“You have a company here that has a lot of cleaning to do,” he said.
Southwest CEO issues video apology
Jordan apologized to passengers and employees in a video statement released by the company on Tuesday evening.
“We’re doing everything we can to get back to a normal operation, and please also hear that I’m truly sorry,” Jordan said.
While Jordan acknowledged problems with the company’s response, the statement suggested he did not foresee massive changes to Southwest’s procedures in response to the mass cancellations.
“The tools we use to recover from an outage serve us well 99% of the time, but clearly we need to double down on our existing plans to update systems for these extreme circumstances so that we never again face the that’s happening right now,” Jordan said.
“We are optimistic to be back on track before next week.”
Is there anything passengers can do?
Scott’s Cheap Flights spokesperson Katy Nastro shares her tips on what to do if your flight is delayed or canceled.
Southwest has warned that this week’s cancellations and delays are expected to continue for several more days.
So what should customers do?
“First of all, travelers who are still stuck waiting on Southwest and need to go somewhere should try to book a flight on another airline as soon as possible … right now, really,” he said Kyle Potter, Executive Editor, Travel Council. website Thrifty Traveler, in an email to CNN Travel on Tuesday afternoon.
“Every airline in the country is packed right now, so your odds of finding a seat, let alone at an even half-decent price, are shrinking by the hour,” Potter said.
“Travelers facing this should make sure to save all their receipts: other flights, a rental car, hotel nights, meals, anything,” Potter said.
If you’ve been stuck and your efforts to reach a customer service agent are going nowhere, the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights suggests trying an international number.
“US airlines’ main hotline will be clogged with other rebooking passengers. To quickly reach an agent, call any of the airline’s dozens of international offices,” said Scott Keyes .
“Agents can handle your reservation the same way they do in the US, but there’s virtually no waiting to get through.”
Click here for the international numbers previously released by Southwest.
Southwest: “Keep your receipts”
After their flight was canceled, 13 strangers decided to rent a van and drive from Orlando to Knoxville, Tennessee.
Southwest spokesman Jay McVay said Monday night at a news conference at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport that the airline will do everything it can to correct the challenges passengers have experienced, including “hotels, travel assistance, vans… rental cars to try and make it happen. I’m sure these people will get home as soon as possible.”
He promised that all customers, even those who had already left the airport or made alternative arrangements on their own, would also be served.
“If you’re already gone, take care, do what you have to do for your family, save your receipts,” McVay relayed. “We’ll make sure they’re taken care of, that’s not a question.”
What happens from a pilot’s point of view
Passengers search for their luggage at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California on Tuesday.
Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association Vice President Capt. Mike Santoro said the problems facing Southwest were the worst disruptions he had experienced in 16 years at the airline.
He described last week’s storm as a catalyst that helped trigger major technical issues.
“What failed is that our IT infrastructure for programming software is very outdated,” he said. “It can’t handle the number of pilots, flight attendants we have in the system, with our complex route network.
“We don’t have the normal hub that the other big airlines have. We want a point-to-point network, which can put our crews in the wrong places, without planes.”
He added: “It’s frustrating for the pilots, flight attendants and especially our passengers. We’re tired of apologizing for Southwest, the airline’s pilots, our hearts go out to all the passengers, they really do.”
CNN’s Andy Rose, Andi Babineau, Adrienne Broaddus, Dave Alsap, Nick Valencia, David Goldman, Leslie Perrot, Carlos Suarez and Ross Levitt contributed to this story.