Luggage delay scenario -- advice appreciated
Jun 19th, 2006, 12:40 PM
#21
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If only our lost luggage could talk....
This is why one of my goals in life is to make sure everything I pack will fit in a carry-on bag. So far I can't do it but hopefully with practice it will happen someday.
This is why one of my goals in life is to make sure everything I pack will fit in a carry-on bag. So far I can't do it but hopefully with practice it will happen someday.
Jun 19th, 2006, 04:34 PM
#22
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I have no advice to offer, only sympathy. All I can say is at least your luggage eventually arrived. I had a lost luggage experience that scarred me so much that I only take carry-ons now. I guess it wouldn't have been aas bad if the airline admitted up front that it was lost instead of pretending it was just "delayed."
My checked bag was lost on the trip over (I had taken three flights to reach my destination). I was told at the arrival airport that my bag was inadvertently left off the last plane, and that they'll put it on the next plane over, which would arrive in about 4 hours. Like a fool, I waited around the airport until the flight came in. No luggage. The airline then said the bag would arrive the next day and they would deliver it to my hotel. The next day came and went, and no bag. I called the airline and was told to go to their nearest office for paperwork (which happened to be at the airport). So I return to the airport and I am told my bag is not "lost," only delayed, so I cannot collect the $1250 lost baggage (or whatever the amount was at the time - it was quite a few years ago, so the limit was much less back then). They would, however, give me something like $100 to buy necessities.
I was in a foreign country and I had no clothes other than what I was wearing. $100 does not buy very much clothing, especially when you are only 5'1" tall and have to have everything altered (shortened) to fit. By the end of my trip the ailine admitted that my bag was now "lost." I don't know how many hours - actually, days - I wasted on that trip waiting for my bag, arguing with the airlines, trying to purchase clothing that acutally fit (and not having much success), documenting purhcases, etc. Only to end up with my luggage lost forever. And the money you get for a lost bag is NOT adequate compensation for lost clothing - besides the expense of the clothes, it takes TIME to re-purchase all the items.
If my description of the incident doesn't sound that bad, it's only because I am a poor writer and cannot fully express in words how much my trip was ruined. By comparison, I was once on a 747 to Japan that had to make an emergency landing after losing 3 out of 4 engines. I could have died that day if that last engine had failed, too. Yet, guess which experience haunts me to this day? The lost luggage.
My checked bag was lost on the trip over (I had taken three flights to reach my destination). I was told at the arrival airport that my bag was inadvertently left off the last plane, and that they'll put it on the next plane over, which would arrive in about 4 hours. Like a fool, I waited around the airport until the flight came in. No luggage. The airline then said the bag would arrive the next day and they would deliver it to my hotel. The next day came and went, and no bag. I called the airline and was told to go to their nearest office for paperwork (which happened to be at the airport). So I return to the airport and I am told my bag is not "lost," only delayed, so I cannot collect the $1250 lost baggage (or whatever the amount was at the time - it was quite a few years ago, so the limit was much less back then). They would, however, give me something like $100 to buy necessities.
I was in a foreign country and I had no clothes other than what I was wearing. $100 does not buy very much clothing, especially when you are only 5'1" tall and have to have everything altered (shortened) to fit. By the end of my trip the ailine admitted that my bag was now "lost." I don't know how many hours - actually, days - I wasted on that trip waiting for my bag, arguing with the airlines, trying to purchase clothing that acutally fit (and not having much success), documenting purhcases, etc. Only to end up with my luggage lost forever. And the money you get for a lost bag is NOT adequate compensation for lost clothing - besides the expense of the clothes, it takes TIME to re-purchase all the items.
If my description of the incident doesn't sound that bad, it's only because I am a poor writer and cannot fully express in words how much my trip was ruined. By comparison, I was once on a 747 to Japan that had to make an emergency landing after losing 3 out of 4 engines. I could have died that day if that last engine had failed, too. Yet, guess which experience haunts me to this day? The lost luggage.
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sandi_travelnut
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Dec 28th, 2006 03:10 PM
