Hi Fodorites

Hope someone out there has some advice as to what to do now. I flew into Frankfurt 6 days ago and my luggage never got here.

I have been calling each day and when I came back thru Frankfurt I stopped and checked the luggage impound to no avail.

They have places to locate me since I^`m moving around and believe me I have been very nice and did no he?? raising.

But now I think I really could use some assistance - what kind of rights do I have? Luckily I had some clothing in my carryon but I have had to purchase some now.

I hope Ira and some of you can give me some thoughts as to how to handle this.

Thanks

You will need to provide a complete list of contents and value for each item. Airlines don't reimburse for electronic items and medication. We lost an asthma nebilizer and presriptions totaling several hundred dollars this summer. But, were reimbursed fully for clothing, now I wish I had put additional clothing items on the list to make up for the loss! Good luck.

I continue to hope to retrieve my clothing as I will be here for a month. So far I.ve given them a list without any values yet.

Is there anything I can say to perhaps move the search along a little better?

Who are you dealing with at the airline? At this point I would have travled up the line from lost luggage to supervisors to passsenger service managers to ombundsman.

If you havn't - start up the line now. Be pleasant - but firm and very specific in your requests. Memorialize the entire process, taking names and titles as you go - and asking for direct phone numbers and emails.

Separately, do exactly the same thing through the frequent flyer staff. (If you're not a member join and use them as a parallel resource.

What have they told you so far. If it's nothing specific - like it went as far as ? and was routed to the wrong place - you're being too nice and not getting enough info. If you keep asking the questions over and over eventually they will have to have an answer - even if it's one you don;t want - so you know if you have to replace everything.

LN, you have my sympathy. I'll share my experience with lost luggage. My duffel bag disappeared somewhere between Madeira, Lisbon and Rome. Three days in Rome without change of clothing. I tried to call but was not successful dealing with them on the phone. Marched to the office and was given $100.00 (80 euros) cash for necessities. Flew home; phone calls, faxes, emails, letters. Luggage finally showed up three weeks later, no damage. I wrote them again stating that since I was deprived of my property for over three weeks I was expecting some type of reimbursement such as a voucher for future travel or whatever they felt was fair and reasonable. About six weeks later I received a letter of apology and a check for $300.00 for my inconvenience. Needless to say I was very satisfied.

The squeaky wheel....

My lost luggage took almost 6 weeks but finally arrived - when we were back home. Unlike most people, however, I really wanted to have it in France.

Having just bought a house in France, we had accumulated lots of things for our first few weeks there - hammer, screwdrivers, frying pans, string, everything we didnt want to have to go out to buy. Well, we begged, borrowed, bought, and made do. And at the time didnt even have a phone to check up on the status of the famous bag.

Went back to Toronto, where finally the bag showed up. It took several long conversations with customer service, where I pointed out that they had committed to take me AND my bag to France, and they hadnt fulfilled that commitment. My concern was that I would still have to take most of what was in the bag, plus lots of other things we still needed, and would end up paying for excess weight on the next trip.

It took a while before the messge got across, but I got a supervisor's name to write to, and eventually several hundred dollars compensation. It really helped on the next trip.

Hello again

Well I'm back in the states and thought I'd update this story. My luggage finally made its way to me two weeks later. Luckily we were on a month's tour of Germany so I was able to use my clothes!!

Surprisingly Lufthansa lost my luggage on the trip back to the states. They also changed our departure gate twice and had us traipsing all over Frankfurt airport. We were in Terminal B - then Terminal A - then back to B - and of course, a security search each time and lugging up and down three levels two pieces of carryon luggage (this of course is the articles that we absolutely do NOT want lost). It took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the final departing gate and we were exhausted.

DH and I had a most wonderful month's tour of Germany with the exception of our dealings with Lufthansa.

Glad you finally got your lugage. It's definitely a concern for me as I'm leaving on a United/Lufthansa flight tomoroow for Frankfurt. I think I 'm going to bring my small suitcase as a carry on.

Several years ago, My husband was in
Europe on business. BA lost my husbands luggage on his way home.

He kept insisting that he bought me a lovely leather purse for my birthday in Spain, which I found highly suspicious because he hates to shop, and often forgets my birthday completely. Well 3 weeks after he returned home, the bag appeared at our door with a note from BA. Well DH was vindicated when he opened the bag to present me with a beautifully gift wrapped leather purse. I was certainly as surprised with the gift as he was relieved that it had finaly arrived.

We use CSA travel insurance. They found our luggage in a matter of days after we were totally frustrated and gave up trying to deal with the airline. Then they called to see if we had received it. When we returned home they had already sent a form for us to make a claim for what we had to replace until the luggage arrived. I can't say enough for their service.

LN- post haste, start at the top, the President's office at their corporate headquarters and work your way down. Everyone has at least 1 personal assistant so you can nice and firmly call them, asking " I need your help".
Let them know what the response is in baggage and their lack of service at their lower levels. Also to stay within your legal and international rights, according to the Montreal Convention, you must write them a formal letter of complaint detailing what that complaint is. You have 21 days from the date you filed your lost baggage claim. Hand write if needed, hand deliver to one of their offices and get a signed receipt, etc. whatever it takes. This will help your negotiating stance tremendously.
We spent 5 days in Prague with no baggage, only to receive it at 5 p.m. the last day we were there. I firmly shook the executive tree starting the first day and apples slowly started to fall. Three months later my wife and I each received vouchers worth 400 euros on Czech airlines. I would say it was worth the effort and quite a few apples.

Jim

The same story repeats itself with Lufthansa in 2010-2011 New Years time. Flight from Atlanta, USA to Berlin Germany via Frankfurt...delayed flight and no surprise lost suitcase. New years eve, no clothes, all the stores closed until the 3rd...fun! Multiple calls to Frankfurt and online search show no result after 8 days. Will be flying via Frankfurt on my way back to US and make sure I hand my written complaint and get a signature from the authorized personnel on my copy! Lets' see how long the whole story is going to take, my belongings and gifts for New years total more than $2000 and from what I read on this blog the airlines may ask me to provide receipts for the items inside of my lost luggage? Who keeps those receipts? But a little hope left to trace it via credit card and debit card purchase. Needless to say, no more Lufthansa flights for me, but what airline is safe these days? I will update this blog as soon as I get any results.