Alaska Airlines says 'we dropped the ball,' apologizes for 'awful holiday travel experience'

Dawn Gilbertson | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Starbucks' red cup is your ticket to early boarding on this airline If you’re flying on Alaska Airlines this holiday season, walking up to your gate with a Starbucks red cup could mean less waiting.

Alaska Airlines deemed Friday ugly sweater day, but many passengers will remember it as travel nightmare day.

The Seattle-based airline said it had an unusual number of baggage handlers call in sick on Friday, setting off a chain of events, including heavy flight delays, that lasted throughout the weekend. On Sunday, Alaska had more than 200 flight delays in Seattle, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

The airline said the unexpected sick calls at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, its home base and hub, meant it didn't have enough workers to load and unload the high volume of checked bags that comes with holiday travel.

"A backlog quickly took shape and that prevented many bags from being loaded on flights ultimately causing our guests to arrive at their destinations without their checked bags,'' the airline said in a blog post on its website Saturday.

The worker shortage also meant it didn't have enough workers to staff the airport ramp, causing flights to wait on the tarmac for an open gate.

Alaska didn't sugarcoat the problems, issuing a detailed public apology in the blog post.

"With many different factors working against us, we dropped the ball, and by doing that, created an awful holiday travel experience just when people rely on us the most,'' the post said.

"We simply did not have enough people to do all the work. This caused us not to operate our gates efficiently and kept our aircraft out on the tarmac waiting until gate space opened up. We have called in many management employees from across the company to assist with the baggage backup and recovery.''

As of late Sunday, some passengers said they were still waiting for bags, according to social media posts.

@AlaskaAir no luggage still from SEATAC? And the flight came in at 1045pm last night to SEATAC and you missed putting them on the YVR flight. (Wait until 2am to find out no luggage)There are important meds & med equipment in 1 of those bags. Would be nice to have by now 😓 — Kat Mac (@Katmaacc) December 22, 2019

The airline said passengers whose bags were delayed 24 hours or more will receive a discount off a future flight.