Daughter flew AA from ORD to Sacramento, CA through Portland, OR on Sun Jan 7. One bag arrived and one STILL has not. The leg from Portland - Scramento was operated by Horizon Airlines (Alaska Airlines). She appealed to AA for help, but they claim she has to deal with Horizon. The number they gave her has no real agent, only an answering machine. She has the luggage ticket. They called her Wed and offered her $150 (when presented with receipts) toward some new clothes, lingerie, toiletries. I told her to get a receipt from them saying this was not the final disposition. She went to Sacramento airport today to get $150 refund only to find out they need 2 weeks to process her money! My fear is that the bag is ultimately lost/stolen. The items in there were much $$, her winter coat is from Harrods, expensive stuff. What other recourse do we have? Shouldn't AA be responsible for this? They put her on that flight. Please advise, thanks!!

It's been many moons ago, but EA lost my luggage on a trip to LAX. It's been so long that I don't recall many of the specifics, but one thing I remember to this day is the fact that I was only compensated for about 80% of the cost of my items, and I had to produce receipts for items over $100. I had a great winter coat from Neiman-Marcus in that bag, among other things!

Fortunately, like the purchase of that coat, most of my items were purchased by credit card. If I were her, I'd start making a list of the items in the bag and determine those items that were paid for by a credit card, and dig up the receipts, or, if she does not have the receipts, contact the credit card company to get photocopies of her statements with the purchases listed on there.

If she paid for her ticket on a credit card, she should also contact that company and see if they provide any lost baggage insurance.

And, finally, I hate to say it, but one thing I learned from my experience is that if that ever happens to me again, I'm going to invent a lot of items under $100 in order to make up for the 20% devaluation in the replacement price for the items I truly lost.

I know it sucks, but unless they find her bag, your daughter is going to have a lot of running around & waiting before this gets resolved.

Good luck!

The last airline to have control of luggage is ultimately responsible. So Horizon/Alaska is who you will work with.

Horizon/Alaska covers lost bags to a maximum of $2800 unless excess valuation coverage is purchased before the flight. I doubt she purchased that, so the max to her is $2800 ... which pretty much guarantees they will put in a good effort to find the bag!

Thanks for the info so far. She is leaving Sacramento Sunday to return to Boston and no bag in sight. As a young college student, guess who will be replacing her stuff? I have contacted our credit card company (fortunately we only use 1 card) for receipts. Most of the stuff, including the bag, were new in Fall 2006 when she started her freshmen year. It really irritates that AA can sell you a ticket and then you have to deal with some rinky-dink airline where you make phone calls and no live human being ever answers. Most of the time has been spent playing phone tag. I will never fly AA again, especially after that New Year disaster in TX!

I don't understand. Horizon lost your bags and may have lousy customer service, but you blame AA?

If there's a lesson to be learned, it may be try to stick with one operating airline next time. AA flies to SMF with DFW.

rkkwan, if you read my post carefully, you will see that my daughter bought her ENTIRE ticket from AA. She had no choice in the Portland - Sacramento leg begin on Horizon. Frankly, I think since AA is the carrier she spent her money with, they ought to own up to some responsibility and do something to light a fire under Horizon/Alaska. That would be like buying a Buick, thinking your warranty was with GM and finding out GM abdicated their responsibility to Yugo.

It doesn't matter who you bought the ticket from. If you bought it from Expedia, would you expect Expedia to compensate for lost luggage?

www.aa.com is nothing more than an on line travel agency. They push their own flights of course, but it's just another travel agent. That's it.

The airline that is the last to hold your luggage is the airline that is responsible as to what compensation you will get. If Horizon can prove that they never received the luggage from AA than they will ask AA to take over the claim. Until then it's Alaska/Horizons deal, not AAs.

Exactly.

If you pay $20,000 on a Singapore Airlines First Class ticket around the world, but on your last let, UA lost your bag going ORD to Des Moines, it's UA that you have to deal with, concerning the bag.

That is the world-wide rule, whether we like it or not.

I don't know if this is any consolation or not, but I got a lost bag back after about two weeks or more. I was sure it was stolen or gone for good. It was United who "lost" the bag. It had a piece of a TWA tag on it, so the bag was given over to TWA. They sent me a postcard (my address WAS on the bag) telling me they had my bag and asked me what I shoud do with it. I had them give it to United (since UA lost it) and it came "home" within a couple of days. It was still locked (prior to 9-1-1) and everything was still inside!

Oh, let me explain myself about why I suggested sticking to one airline.

It's always more messy and complicated when something irregular happened when one's flying on a code-share or partner airline. Whether it's paid ticket or award.

A casual traveler often doesn't know which airline is responsible for what. Like rebooking will be done by your booking airline, but like in this case, lost luggage is the one that operated the last flight.

And AAFF also mentioned about using an agent. That I'd avoid either if possible. One time, Air Canada cancelled my flight and I had to take a bus. But because I bought the ticket through Travelocity and not AC, I had to request a refund from Travelocity days later. It wasn't a big deal as the bus tickets was cheap, but it could be a problem.

That's why I strongly believe that to get the least hassle during an irregular operation, best to stick to as few parties as possible. And AA does fly to SMF.