they can do it with eggs...
 

So I said to the AC damaged baggage desk gal “I saw a TV short where they had a conveyer belt moving, sorting, and packing thousands of eggs, all without breaking them, so why can’t it be done for my luggage, it clearly IS possible?” Answer: “You don’t want to have to wait forever for your bags, do you?” as she walked away not waiting for my response. I wouldn’t want her job.

But why do AC, and the airline industry, have us believing that it is normal that they can beat up our bags, and contents, for the sake of timeliness or cost? I wonder that after they yet again damaged my luggage (beyond the zippers which “sorry sir, we don’t cover zippers or wheels”... or…)

And I’d like to see a video, like the eggs, following my bag through the process, what the h** are they doing with it? I wonder because, even though I thought I had outsmarted those wise and crafty baggage handlers by purchasing a hard shell suitcase with no protruding handles, no zippers, no nothing, on my last trip they outsmarted me and damaged the contents, not the case. They damaged the inside of an item inside a case inside the suitcase. The damage required a significant inertial force, my estimate, of at least a drop or throw of more than 1 metre, definitely more than happens sliding off the conveyer belt onto the luggage carousel, and maybe more than what I see most handlers placing/throwing luggage from the cart to the belt to the mysterious bowels of the airplane.

So the engineers designing the conveyer system for eggs successfully considered the fact eggs are delicate and the designers for the airport luggage system said what… oh, it is only someone’s luggage?

I thought baggage handling is the airport's responsibility and not the airline?

I don't have the URL handy, but if you search around in YouTube, there's a clip where Rick Mercer visits YVR before the winter olympics. Parts of the video had baggage handling in it (quite kool what they do in YVR)

You're comparing apples to oranges. Luggage is heavier, moves farther, has to move faster, has to go through various conveyor belts as it gets sorted and has to get picked up by people and stacked on top of other luggage, travels in luggage carts to planes, flies in turbulence, lands, takes-offs and on and on and on...you can't even compare a chicken farm with an airport or a plane transporting luggage. Besides, this insightful video that you saw, probably didn't show all the smashed eggs, I'm sure they edited it to show how wonderful the system is on How It's Made or whatever show you were watching.
Why don't you stop checking your luggage and then you can stop complaining.

Well, gosh, engineers are incapable of designing a better system because... luggage weighs more, moves faster (eggs were moving pretty fast), uses various conveyer belts (just like the eggs), picked up by people (like the eggs), stacked up (like the eggs), travels in carts (well, to trucks that have no turbulence on the roads)... you've convinced me!

And what a wonderful alternate solution... take no bags, problem solved... why didn't I think of that... (hmmm, except I can't get what I need for a three-week adventure in the Andes as carry-on.)

The video is great and you can see the luggage moving on the belts, it is kool, thanks for the reference.

Or better still, you could just stop flying altogether.

When the engineers I work with pull out excuses such as the one above I always translate it into simple English, both for them and others in the office. It invariably translates as

"It's too haaaaarrrrrrd..."

The other reason is that they've gotten away with it for so long. There are so many things that the airline industry gets away with that would never be accepted in any other industry. Partly that's because they've conditioned much of the public to believe "that's just they way it is... there's nothing that can be done about it."

If eggs are not a suitable analogy, then how 'bout how companies like FedEx and UPS are able to deliver most of their trade without losing significant parts of it, or damaging it. They are not without their problems, and I'm certain they lose and/or damage things from time to time. But they deliver a lot more stuff from and to a lot more destinations, and without an "owner" travelling alongside checking on its progress from time to time.

The short answer is it can be done. The longer answer is it is not, probably because the airlines don't want to pay for it to be handled more reliably, most likely because passengers wouldn't pay what is really required to have it handled reliably.

But I'm pretty certain that if a law were passed that any bag not delivered undamaged to its destination within 60 minutes of the passenger arriving the airline would have to pay on the spot damages of $2500 cash directly to the passenger at that 60 minute mark, the number of lost and damaged bags would drop to almost zero overnight.

The airline or it's contractor takes the baggage from the plane to the belt.
Once on the belt, it's the airport's equipment until you see it.
Lot's of opportunity on both sides for damage, blame and finger pointing.

This is genius!!!
Not only would our fares rise ten fold but I am sure there would be thousands of people putting broken items in their luggage and opening it by the carousel to collect the $2500 cash bonus paid by the hAAmer???
It would make sense to do MR's, I could fly YYZ-YUL four times in one day, pick up 4,000 status miles and $2,500 in cash after every segment...figuring every segment costs me about $250, I could quit my job. hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!! hAAmer for AC CEO!!!!
btw-most fed-ex packages are packed in bubble wrap or styrofoam so even when they get tossed around they dont break. If you pack you stuff properly it will be fine, putting a crystal glass in your undershirt and underwear hoping it makes it through the flight does not justify a complaint.

Doesn't matter though, as it is the airlines' legal liability once they accept the bag and until they return it to you. If the airline wants to sue the airport/contractor that is between those parties, nothing to do with the passenger.

Are you sure they can do it with eggs? I guess people don't write 20 page rants when an egg gets cracked. Squeaky wheel and all.

Thanks. I needed a good laugh this afternoon... :)

At least this is not your luggage -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHZMn9yOBwg

After a heavy rain, it is waiting for sun dry....

I have had lost,stolen,damaged items by a certain courier company a few years ago.The hoops I went though,all documented,took months to resolve.
Eventually the road brought me back to the 2nd person I spoke with many months previous who resolved the issue upon realizing we had spoken earlier in the process.:eek::(

Makes AC look really good,IMO;)

And this video explains it all...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNsxsHJet50&NR=1 :mad: And kinda funny when AirCanada banner ads comes up.. ;)

In reality, the closer comparison is the large courier companies (FedEx/UPS/DHL). They have to deal with large numbers of somewhat oddly shaped packages, getting them long distances in short periods of time.

That said, they do have several advantages over the airline system. They have a unified tracking and scheduling system, whereas each airline has its own system and the airports are different yet again), and only a few major hubs to manage.

I think it would be interesting to compare the number of bags shipped every day vs the package count, and compare it to the statistics of what's lost or damaged in transit.

And this is a point of view from the luggage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txf--vIE0yA