Stranded travelers are gone, but airport left holding their bags

DENVER (AP) The stranded travelers were gone from Denver's airport by Tuesday, but the stranded suitcases were not. <br/><br/>The airport's two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said they

Tuesday, December 26th 2006, 3:09 pm

By: News On 6

DENVER (AP) The stranded travelers were gone from Denver's airport by Tuesday, but the stranded suitcases were not.

The airport's two biggest airlines, United and Frontier, said they had cleared out the backlog of travelers stuck when a blizzard dumped up to 2 feet of snow last week. The storm closed the runways for two days and marooned about 4,700 people at the airport Wednesday night.

But piles of misdirected luggage remained Tuesday, lost in the rush to get passengers through the snowbound airport.

``We had bags that came without passengers, and passengers that came without bags,'' Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas said.

Some passengers left their luggage behind in a rush to catch a standby flight or chose to leave the airport rather than wait for delayed bags, he said.

Neither United nor Frontier could say how many bags were left.

Hodas said as long as passengers retain their claim tickets, they should have no problem finding their possessions.

Megan McCarthy, a spokeswoman at United, said the airline allows passengers to go online and enter their baggage ticket number to find out where their luggage is.