My husband and I were going on our first trip to Europe, so i spent months planing and reading all of your suggestions an posts. We went for 11 days to Italy, starting in Sorrento, then Rome, Florence, and Venice. I thought i had it sooo together. Our AF flight to Paris was late so we missed our connecting flight to Naples. We got to Naples 7 hours late via Air Atalia-- but our luggage didnt! In spite of our efforts, the hotel staff, our and our travel insurance company- We had no luggage for the entire trip! Believe it or not we got it back in the states 1 week after we got home.... In spite of it we had a fantastic time- the best trip of our lives. We learned that you really dont need hardly anything to have a great vacation. i thought we packed light, but real light is 1 spare set of clothes, meds, no makeup or toiletries I want to thank all of you for your unknowing help. I learned so much an this forum really added to our trip.

1)Now we loved it so much we are thinking about where to go next.Any suggestions?
Also, any suggestions on how to get AF and/or Air atalia to pay?

What a bummer! Even the more carefully planned trips have glitches now and again. I managed to miss a connecting flight to Paris despite the fact that we had a 4 hour layover, so some things are, unfortunately, unavoidable. I commend you for your good spirits and outlook though, and I'm glad you had a wonderful trip!

Tracy

By any chance, did your flight leave out of Newark for the 45 minute connection time at Paris?

I'm so sorry that happened to you! Tell me - on what day did you "give up" on the luggage and figure you were going to be totally without it?

Congrats for being able to "make lemonade from lemons." Are you planning to take luggage on your next trip other than a spare set of clothes and meds?

silent, Congrats on not letting a huge thing like no luggage spoil your trip.

I would back you as a suitable team on The Amazing Race.

I am afraid I would not hold up as well without luggage but I would like to think I could. I know I would spend more time shopping than my husband would like, there in lies the problem. I am a shopper he is a buyer.

Please note I am hoping never to be put to the test Deborah

What a great post! Sorry for your tardy luggage, but seems you didn't let that slow you down in the least. What a good lesson, even to us "light packers".

1)We flew out of Philadelphia, not Newark.

2)We figured we could prevent this from happening again with a 3+ hour layover. I am sorry to see that isnt so if a 4 hour layover wasnt enough! After experiencing CDG airport I know we were doomed for failure!!!

3) We probably will take more than a change of clothes and meds next time--definitely makeup and my hair straightener priorities. All my husband had was 2 pairs of jeans and tennis shoes so we went into some nicer restaurants underdressed. But we didnt know anyone in Italy, and we just had the attitiude that we werent going to misss anything because we have no clothes!!!

4) The trip was for our 30th anniversary. It probably was a statement about marriage. The way to stay happily married and very in love after 30 years is to "make lemonade from lemons".

You really didn't go shopping and buy more clothes? Don't the airlines give an allowance for that?

Hi, sorry to hear about your bad experience with the lost luggage. That's the problem when you miss the connecting flight. If you had travel insurance could you not have gotten reimbursed for new clothing and necessities?

silent, we had travel insurance just once and it was the only time our luggage has been lost Our luggage did catch up with us three days later but we did spend our misplaced luggage allowance of $100 each for essentials during its absence.

Did the airline keep you informed of their searches for your luggage or did you just resign yourselves to not seeing it until your return? Deborah

wow, that is my nightmare -- not having my luggage for a whole trip. Only I'd have to buy something, but just wouldn't want to spend the time.

I don't know about suggestions on how to get AF to pay because I think the problem could be that you were not on an AF connecting flight to Italy, but on a different airline that is not one of their partners even (Air Atalia? or even Italia).

So, the fact that your AF flight was someone late to Paris wouldn't make them responsible for the fact that you booked some other flight that you couldn't make and that your luggage didn't ever arrive from Air Italia. I don't see why AF would be liable for anything, but Air Atalia should be as they are the ones where you didn't get your bags.

I had luggage that was delayed, but only a day, once and the airline that had to pay me to buy some things in the meantime was the final airline, not the original one that was late so the bags went astray. These airlines were even partners or codeshares or something, but the compensation definitely came out of the last airline.

They should compensate you for buying some things to get by without luggage. I don't know how much as I was only out one day, so just put in for a pair of shoes (which they paid in full). I said I had a nice dinner to go to that evening and needed a decent pair of shoes as I only had sneakers on the flight, although I had packed a skirt and blouse in my carryon. They paid up in full for that reason, although I bought a modest pair of shoes and made no other claims as I had toiletries, underwear, etc. in my carryon bag.

Perhaps there is something else in the details as to why they aren't liable, as why is your travel insurance denying your claim? Did you have that kind of coverage on your policy?

Silent, regarding getting reimbursed from Alitalia, good luck. I returned less than two weeks ago and just started to pull together receipts and paperwork only to find out that I had 21 days from the day luggage was received to submit the claim and that was yesterday. I tried to call to see if we could get an extension but of course sat on hold forever and then was prompted to leave a message, however, the message box was full and so I was disconnected. I suggest you get your receipts together and fax asap to this number: 212-903-3568 with a copy of your tickets and any other documentation you got when you originally reported the bags lost or when they were delivered. Best of luck..I've given up. BTW, congrats to you on carrying on and enjoying your trip. We were pretty stressed for the first few days and then just accepted it and enjoyed the rest of our trip despite no luggage and no spares in the carryon (stupid us!).
JenV

We did have travel insurance $200 per person for delayed luggage and $1000 per person for lost luggage. Unfortunately or fortunately I am not sure which-- ours turned out to be "delayed" The airlines supposed will also reimburse us, so it should be ok--just a hassle

We did buy some clothes, but we are both short and there seems to be only one length pants in Italy-- long!!!! So we didnt buy any pants. We did buy some tops -- but like here most of the stores were showing fall/winter stuff rather than the short sleeves we wanted for the 80 degree days. We bought some underwear and socks too! We could have bought more but we didnt want to spend all of our time shopping and we werent sure if we would get it back (both our luggage and the money). We had this feeling that if we bought a lot of stuff we would get our luggage back

We sent our clothes to the hotel laundry once, and took them to a laundrymat in Rome once where they washed and dried them for 14 euros in an hour.
I do wish i had my tennis shoes in Pompei and in the Ancient City ruins!

My Clark sandals were great though!

Just think how light you'll be able to pack on your next trip !!!

It seems Air France has quite a "lost luggage" history!!! LOL I am flying them from SFO to Paris next month. At least I'm ENDING in Paris, no plane change. I think I need a widow seat so I can watch them load the luggage and check for mine!!!! You are amazing..and I will try to take a lesson from you about how not to let things spoil a wonderful time. I would NOT have done as well as you did. So glad you had a wonderful time. See? Attitude is everything. I know that, I know that, but it is difficult for me. Thanks for posting.

Thank you for sharing your story. Knowing that this can happen and that you survived so well is very helpful. If this should ever happen to me, you will be my role-model for how to be a grown up!