delayed baggage
 

Hi everyone! I recently returned from a 5 week European trip. Had no trouble flying within Europe, but Northwest/KLM managed to delay my baggage twice - on the overseas flights. When I arrived in Rome, I had no bag. It was delivered to my hotel later that evening. On my way home, I had no bag when I got to Newark, and it took over 24 hours to get it back. In each case, I had a connection in Amsterdam, but the bag should have been transferred with no problem - plenty of time, etc... Have any of you had experiences similar to mine? Should I complain to Northwest, or will it be a waste of time? The baggage delivery man said that delays have been really common this summer. True?

Count your blessings that you got them back within 24 hours. BA once lost my sisters luggage between Newark and London and it took SIX days and countless daily phone calls (including calls to New York office and Newark) before it was delivered to our hotel. On the return they lost both of ours for FOUR days. An absolute nightmare. What did they do for her/us?

On return, at the gate, without asking, they upgraded us to business class. After a six-page letter from my sis to BA they gave each of us 1,000 miles in our accounts and refunded her for the clothes she had bought (about $600).

It really didn't make up for the inconvenience of shopping for clothes each day for six days (and only buying one oufit a day since they kept promising it was "on the next flight" and we continued to naively believe them.

Geez, it's been four years and I'm flashing back...

I would definitely write a letter to the airline describing the 2 incidents & the inconvenience & cost to you. Once is an accident, twice on the same trip is too much. It may come to nothing, but you never know.

We had one bag lost on BA last Dec. from London to Venice. It took just over 24 hrs to get it back. We were upgraded to their premium coach (business class type seating) on the return to the US. Whether the lost luggage was the reason, we never knew. We laughed later that it was actually a benefit having one less bag arriving in Venice as we trudged to the hotel over several bridges.

Air France recently lost our baggage on our trip back home....not once, but twice. We had two bags and neither ended up with us for our overnight in Paris. Then only one was on our flight home the next day. It took about three days for the second bag to show up.

I agree that having all your bags within 24 hours isn't too bad, but I do agree that it can be quite an inconvenience. Especially if you are on your way to your destination, rather than on the way home.

For this reason, we have learned to pack half of our belongings in one bag and half in the other (his and hers clothes split between the two). I also never check anything that is of vital importance to me and make sure we have one change of clothing in our carry-on.

I honestly think that complaining will not really net you anything but an apology. Bags occassionally get lost and it's something we travelers have to deal with at times. However, if you don't mind taking the time to complain, you might get lucky and be reimbursed somehow.

Good luck in your plight.

I've had my bags delayed several times, but always got them within 24 hrs. It is bad when it happens twice during one trip, but I don't see that anything terrible happened in your case other than you were without your luggage for a few hours.

I think it would be a complete waste of time to complain about such a thing myself. I can only imagine where on the list of priorities of complaints that might go (bottom). If the one taking over 24 hrs had occurred on your trip, rather than your home, I think you could submit charges for a few small things you might have had to buy and get reimbursed, but this way you weren't out anything.

As an example, once my bag was delayed overnight (at least 24 hrs) on Aer Lingus going to Dublin from JFK. It wasn't really their fault as it hadn't gotten transferred to them correctly -- however, they did reimburse me for a pair of shoes I had to buy in order to go out that evening to a nice restaurant where I had prepaid reservations. It was not really very much money (maybe current equivalent of about USD30) and that's the only thing I asked for as I had other necessities in my carryon, but only one pair of too casual shoes. I think they paid because I was very reasonable in my demands. I did give an explanation as to the expenses and why they were necessary. YOu didn't really suffer any economic consequences, it seems to me.

Recently my son went on a youth group trip to Romania. They returned on British Airways Bucharest - London, then London-Boston. There were 30 in his group, and every one of them had their luggage missing when they arrived in Boston. It took 3 days before it was all returned. Not only them , but about half of the people on the flight were missing their luggage. That seems pretty extreme to me!

Yes, 30 people in a group ALL missing their bags is a problem! One of the flights I was on - KLM from Amsterdam to Rome - had 130 people on the flight. 80 BAGS WERE DELAYED!!!! (Including mine.) As you can imagine, the wait at the baggage desk was LONG. I was worried that my driver would leave, since the flight was already an hour late, I waited 45 mins for my bag, and another 45 mins in line to report it missing! Maybe no $ was lost, but it was a big waste of time!

Your inconvenience was relatively minor, in the scheme of things. I don't think there's any reason to write and complain.

We were recently on a two week Scandivanian cruise with my elderly paerents. My dad's suitacase didn't arrive for a week!

Doing without for two days, shopping in a non-air conditioned department store during the European heat wave in very expensive Helsinki, where the sizing system is different than in the US, so he had trouble figuring out what size he wore---that was inconvenient!!

The delays mentioned in the original post were minor and quickly resolved. I think complaining would accomplish nothing.

I flew BA thru Amsterdam last summer and they managed to get my luggage thru fine.

Personally I don't care if they delay my bag on the way home ~LOL. But a truly "lost" bag would be awful (as in gone for good, stolen, whatever).

This is a good reminder to me to pack anything essential plus a change of clothes in my carryon tote bag.