Lost luggage advice?

[freewheeling]

I just arrived back from my vacation in Key West last night to find that my bag, in which I had packed two declared pistols as well as some irreplaceable items, didn't make it to my final destination. The trip originated in Key West with Continental but was on US Air from Tampa, through Charlotte and eventually to DC. I was re-routed twice so my bag might not have made the switch from a flight to Philly out of Tampa that got delayed, and was the reason I was re-routed to the flight to Charlotte.

I filed a missing baggage claim in DC when I got there sans bag, and was told that when the bag comes in they'll deliver it to my home, but since then I've not been able to obtain much information about the bag other than that their automatic answering number lists it as not yet found. (At the moment I'm waiting to be connected to an actual human.)

Now, it appears to me that the longer I have to wait the less likely it is that the bag will ever be found, and that these folks need to have a fire lit under them or something. I could be wrong, I guess, and perhaps it's just paranoia or stress talking. I also wonder how long people typically have to wait when their bags have been re-routed?

OK, I just talked, after a half-hour wait, to the US Air baggage claim person and she said that the bag still had not made it to Philadelphia, and that for some reason it had never been routed to go past Philly to DC, even though my Continental baggage tag says the destination is DC. At any rate this person I just talked to, sent a message to Philly to say that as soon as be bag arrives it's to be sent to DC, but I can't figure out why the several people I talked to last night at various ticketing booths and at the baggage claim office in DC never bothered to send such a message to Philadelphia. It was they who commented to me, in credulous tones, that the baggage wasn't routed all the way to DC, and I told them that was wrong. In fact, I was ultimately standing in DC waiting for my baggage, so it strains credulity for me to try to imagine that anyone without brain damage would not have simply sent a message to get the baggage to DC somehow. Why wasn't it sent before now?

Anyway, I just thought I'd ask to see if anyone here knows of any alternate avenues to chase this down, or what sort of complaint processes are more likely to get actioned? What are the policies regarding reimbursement for lost or stolen baggage? Are there any class action law suits pending over this mess against US Air, and might I need to initiate a law suit myself should this turn out to be a case of theft or loss? Should I file a police report? What does one have to do to be thorough about this?

Man, something like this can really ruin the aftertaste of a great vacation, huh? Yuk!

 

[Preacherman]

The only advice I can offer is never to ship a particularly valuable firearm in checked baggage. Foul-ups with baggage are so common that I simply don't trust the airlines any more. If I travel with a firearm for personal defence, it'll be something easily replaceable and without sentimental value (e.g. a Glock). Any firearm that's important to me will be shipped ahead via FedEx, and heavily insured. (Insuring a $1,000 firearm for $10,000 means that even if something happens to it, I'm likely to enjoy replacing it with several others! )

 

[Henry Bowman]

Keep on it, but have patience for another 24 hours. Mentioning its contents may light a fire under someone, but it will probably mean that it does not get delivered to your door (out of gunphobic paranoia) and you will have to go to the airport and get it. That, however, is better than not getting it at all.

Your claim for $$ damages is limited by U.S. and international laws and is part of the fine print on the back of or with your ticket.

 

[Erich]

Yeah, $640.00, IIRC.

I hope it works out for you, freewheeling. Delta lost my bags (with a gun in them) when I returned from FL a couple of weeks ago, but they caught up to me. I'll keep my fingers crossed on your behalf. You might think about lighting a candle to St. Anthony . . .

 

[DT Guy]

I've heard many stories of bags getting delivered days, even weeks, after a foul-up like this. So perhaps it will work out.

Good luck!


Larry

 

[WT]

US Air in Philadelphia has been having severe labor problems.

US Air is bankrupt. Hopefully you will get your baggage before they cease all operations.

Never pack irreplaceable items in checked baggage. Always carry it on board. If it can't be carried on board, don't take it at all.

 

[freewheeling]

Thanks

Thanks for the encouragement. I just didn't know what to expect. The guns actually weren't that dear, although they're worth considerably more than $640 together. What I'm really concerned about are some other items that I had no choice but to send with the guns. (Too bulky for carry on luggage.) I think, hovever, that from now on I'll ship whatever firearms I take rather than carry them in my luggage. It can't cost very much to send an 11 oz. firearm even if it's insured. They, at least, have developed a delivery system for delayed luggage and an industry has evolved to fill that need. However, I was suprised that they had only employed a "final destination" tracking system, which suggests that they have some catching up to do. An airline that guarantees the same sort of tracking employed by the big shippers like FedEx would, I think, develop both a market and an economic advantage since they wouldn't incur what must be a huge additional cost for home delivery. I'd much rather know where my baggage is, than have it delivered to my home. I'd even be willing to pay extra for the home delivery, if they provided decent tracking.

Hey, I wonder if some enterprising marketing department wouldn't hire me to implement such a thing? I'm real cheap (comparatively). Will work for pizza and $100/hour.

 

[jefnvk]

I don't see why soemone can't implement a tracking system for airlines. Scan a bag when it goes onto a plane, scan it when it gets off. That way, you always know where it is.

Maybe I'm just missing something (cost and time of scanning each bag?) , but if FedEx and UPS can do it, why not airlines?

 

[Fly320s]

freewheeling,

I feel your pain. Try to be patient. I bet that you'll get your bag by the end of the week (but I won't be much ).

jefnvk asked,

I don't see why soemone can't implement a tracking system for airlines. Scan a bag when it goes onto a plane, scan it when it gets off. That way, you always know where it is.

Maybe I'm just missing something (cost and time of scanning each bag?) , but if FedEx and UPS can do it, why not airlines?

Money is the biggest factor. Also, FedEx and UPS scan the packages as they are sorted through their facilities. Airline baggage that is being transferred between flights does not normally go to the bag room. A person will drive the bags over to the connecting flight.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Maybe I'm just missing something (cost and time of scanning each bag?) , but if FedEx and UPS can do it, why not airlines?

I'm sure the airline baggage handlers' union would have a screaming, howling, rampaging fit: theft is probably considered a fringe benefit.

 

[freewheeling]

Union Torque

<blockquote>I'm sure the airline baggage handlers' union would have a screaming, howling, rampaging fit.</blockquote>

It's not like there's a warehouse full of replacements waiting in the wings. Oh... wait!

 

[Stickjockey]

Maybe I'm just missing something (cost and time of scanning each bag?) , but if FedEx and UPS can do it, why not airlines?

As Fly 320s said, FedEx and UPS scan their packages at their facilities, generally inside. We've tried several different systems for doing this; time is a smaller factor, but the systems are expensive and the equipment just doesn't stand up to the rigors of the heavy use required of it day after day.

I'm sure the airline baggage handlers' union would have a screaming, howling, rampaging fit: theft is probably considered a fringe benefit.

As someone who did this very job for eight years, I greatly resent being called a thief, sir.

 

[freewheeling]

Probable resolution

I kept entering the information on my Property Irregularity Report at the baggage claim website and have been getting messages to re-enter it because there some technical problem that made it impossible to respond to my request in a timely way. So I just kept entering it, and just received a notification at 8:36 PM, that the baggage had been found and has been picked up for delivery by the delivery service, and will be delivered in 4 to 6 hours. The problem is that the message says the delivery service picked it up this morning at 9:00 AM! Well, it's sort of positive news even if it's somewhat inscrutible and it at least appears to imply that my luggage has not been permanently lost. Fingers crossed. I may call the service anyway, just to find out if there's an explanation for the discrepancy.

 

[45 ACP]

I don't see why soemone can't implement a tracking system for airlines. Scan a bag when it goes onto a plane, scan it when it gets off. That way, you always know where it is.

United already does this. The one time in 5 years (I fly nearly 100k per year mind you) they lost my bag, they knew EXACTLY where it was and EXACTLY how long it would take to get it back to me.

Guess who I fly?

 

[simon]

I'm sure the airline baggage handlers' union would have a screaming, howling, rampaging fit: theft is probably considered a fringe benefit.

As someone who does this every night,I too resent being called a theif......

 

[bogie]

Simon... Howzabout mailing yourself out for the Creek this spring? If you can get to St. Louis on the cheap, you can ride with me and the Arne bunch...

 

[FireStar_M40]

Lost luggage..

Lost luggage.. plus all the hassle that goes with flying, is reason enough for me to drive instead.

FireStar_M40

 

[Erich]

Not much of a business traveller, are you Firestar?

Many folks couldn't do their jobs w/o flying. Too much downtime otherwise.

I agree, though, that it's an unreasonable hassle.

 

[AZLibertarian]

Let me add a couple of notes here...

I've mentioned this here before, but to preface my remarks, let me restate that I'm a captain at a major national airline. What I am going to say below should not be considered an endorsement of theft or poor service, but perhaps may provide an explanation of why the service you get today seems so bad.

With that out of the way, as WT said, USAir is in bankruptcy. In the last 3 years they've come back to their employees mulitiple times for pay and benefit cuts. I cannot imagine that the morale among the various USAir employee groups is anything good. Those who remain today are just plain beat down. Apparently, over the holidays, some USAir employees decided to send a message to their management and the public that they're about at the end of what they can stand. If you come home from work every day and kick the dog, don't be surprised when one day he bites back.

Conditions in most of the rest of the industry aren't any better. United is also in bankruptcy: Today United employee groups are lining up against each other in court. Delta is in the middle of shedding jobs and their pilots recently took a 35% pay cut (go ahead and project yourself into that situation and try to stay happy). Continental recently announced an order for 777s (read: high paying jobs), then rescinded their order a week later when they announced the need for further employee pay cuts. Some of the "Low Cost Carriers" are also having problems: Independance Air is in financial trouble; Aloha just announced bankrutcy; ATA is just about out of business. Fourty percent of the industry is either in or very near bankruptcy--and that ought to worry all of us.

I fully understand that the nature of any industry needs to evolve, and am not pointing out the above to whine to the non-airline folks here. I agree that some of the changes I've pointed out above ought to happen. But the industry is facing a dramatic over-supply of capacity (witness: the historic lows in airline fares the travelling public enjoys today). Until the industry (and the investment bankers who loan out money) finds some control over the trend towards over-capacity, we'll continue to see the chaos that we all see today. Couple the self-inflicted over-capacity problem with the high fuel prices of last year, and the public's near-perfect decision-making capability to buy the very cheapest ticket through the internet, and the airline industry is in deep trouble.

To sum all this up...expect changes in the airline industry in the near future. Airlines will liquidate. Luggage, some of it with firearms, will get lost. And it will take forever to get it back to you. You won't be able to use your frequent flyer miles as readily as you used to. Some of the smaller communities may lose much of the air service they have today. And the prices you pay for airline travel will have to increase. The companies in the industry simply cannot continue to survive by losing the least...they have to make a profit.

 

[freewheeling]

Lost Luggage Found

Well, to start off my luggage finally arrived with contents intact. From now on however, especially given the sort of thing outlined by AZLibertarian, below, I'll ship any guns I intend to use on trips (for a cost of about $10) and carry everything else.

Regarding AZ's assessment of the industry, the term "overcapacity" is obviously relative to some "appropriate capacity," but as far as I can make out the airlines are minimizing empty seats about as well as one could possibly expect. Fares are pretty close to marginal cost. The primary systemic problem in the airlines industry has more to do with the capacity of traffic at the hubs, and my general impression is that we could probably help this out by continuing and expanding the policy of allowing airlines to sell or barter "slots" among themselves. One thing the competitiveness of the industry demonstrates, however, is that the assumptions made by the regulators that air transport was a "diminishing returns" industry subject to that form of market failure was patently incorrect. One would not expect to see this kind of price competition in a diminishing returns industry.

My heart goes out to the employees of these firms whose lives have become fraught with insecurity. By and large I encountered people who acted professionally under strain, and I have absolutely no reason to believe that any of them were "gaming."

My hope is that the industry can attain equilibrium once this problem of traffic control gets handled, preferably by some version of market forces. It's a knotty problem, with no clear or easy solution. I suspect, though can't prove, that many of the delays I experienced, which triggered the schedule changes and the lost luggage problem, have their origin in this traffic control problem.

Anyway, thanks for the support. Worth more than money... It's the very essence of civilization.

 

[Erich]

Hey, there's some good news! Glad it (eventually) worked out for you.

 

[Amish_Bill]

Am I the only one who wondered about DC (Assuming the capitol type of DC) and handguns? I thought that DC had some strict prohibitions against those...??

 

[Stickjockey]

FreeWheeling-

Glad to hear it's all sorted out.

If you've ever heard that a flight was "overbooked", this is what is meant by "overcapacity." An airline will routinely book more passengers on a flight than the airplane can hold, banking on the idea that on a given flight, a certain percentage of passengers booked on that flight will not show up, due either to missed connections, changes in travel plans, or whatever. To the beancounters, this translates into higher load factors and higher revenue per flight; to those of us on the passenger service side, it means upset people, stacks of unclaimed baggage, and general unpleasantness all around (especially during the holiday season). Believe me, we don't like it any more than you do.

The industry model is changing, espaecially post 9-11. It's going to be interesting to see what happens when the dust clears.

 

[simon]

Bogie,I'll sure try! I'd love to come and hang out with you'ze guys again.

To all, if you haven't been to the "creek", you don't know what you're missing!

 

[HankB]

AZLibertarian:

. . . let me restate that I'm a captain at a major national airline.

AZ, I'm curious . . . I hear bits and pieces in the news about this airline union or that airline union "negotiating" with management, but I have NEVER repeat NEVER heard of the union demanding that management (President, CEO, Board of Directors, etc.) set an example by cutting their own compensation (including salary, bonus, Golden Parachutes, stock options, etc.) a like percentage. Does this ever come up, and with what outcome?