555546727aaa

Hi guys,

I had a flight from Barcelona to Toronto and then to Winnipeg. I forgot that I had to pick up my luggage, clear customs and then re-check it in Toronto. I have filed a claim with Air Canada and the world tracer says they're looking for the bags.

What is the standard process for situations like this? Do you think the bags will eventually turn up or should I consider them lost?

obscure2k

Welcome to Flyertalk, 555546727aaa
Moving thread to the Air Canada Forum.
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Thanks.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

yyz_atc_qq

Assuming the bags made it to Toronto, they'll show up. The only thing is they usually clear bags once or twice a day. In Winnipeg, did you fill out a customs form for lost bag? or just the claim with AC? AC should have gotten you in touch with customs to fill out the lost baggage form that Customs needs.

D582

If the bag is tagged BCN-YYZ-YWG then you are not supposed to pick up the bag in Toronto. It will go all the way through. If it didn't show up in Winnipeg, that's a separate issue then.

global happy traveller

if you luggage came in from an overseas flight, you file a report with AC. AC's baggage claim should require you to fill some customs related paperwork and CBSA will most likely open your luggage/inspect it/leave a piece of paper letting you know they had to and send it to your address.

yyz_atc_qq

Is BCN on the list that doesn't need clearance?

D582

Yup - since at least 31 July (last time I was there)

kwflyer

I think you're confusing other foreign countries practices like the cbp and tsa.

CBSA does not send bags home to the customer. The airline does which in this case is ac.

If the customer wants the bag sent to an address. Ac, hires a couriers to escort the bag through customs (which has already been xrayed and dog
Sniffed) and if
No anomalies have been found on the X-ray and declaration card it will be cleared without further examination. Although all diverted bags need to go to secondary and be escorted out (via courier or the pax) but likely will not be searched unless anomalies appear (as described above). Or the pax'a travel patterns indicate travel to a drug/sex/problem source country (bcn is on the list) criminal record, or past issues crossing the border. Note pax who elect to escort their own delayed baggage via secondary can have not only their current travel history scrutinized, but any past travel that CBSA may deem interesting regardless of what's in your current bag.

Any seizures will results
In the bag being held and the CBSA contacting the pax directly.

The only way you would know your bag has been searched is if it's appears ransacked compared to how you packed it. Or if there is damage opening the bag (but they usually will contact you about this prior)

555546727aaa

Thanks a lot guys. So I've made a claim with Air Canada and it's currently on World Tracer which says for me to check later. All I care about is someone from Air Canada to tell me "We found your baggage in Land X and you'll get them in 3 days".

So, the process is that the unclaimed baggage goes to a special Air Canada room, then slowly gets through customs?

Is 3-4 days normal time for this to happen, or I should wait longer?

Should I fill out a special form for customs or is the AC claim fine?

kwflyer

You can ask ac to have it delivered to a specified address, otherwise you will have to go the airport and claim it yourself.

Assuming you've already cleared customs and filled out a CBSA card and delayed baggage paperwork no other work is required on your part until your baggage arrives except following up since ac is slow as molasses for updating the baggage tracker.

555546727aaa

Thanks a lot. I cleared customs myself, just without the baggage.

From your experience, give or take, how long would you say it'll take? Is there a solid chance that I'll never see the baggage again or is it just a waiting game?

Isn't it strange that it hasn't cleared customs yet? Cause I think that had it cleared customs, Air Canada would know cause they would have scanned the tags. What do you think?

I apologize for the many questions.

flyquiet

world tracer is utterly uninformative. I have had the bag sitting wordlessly on my porch while world tracer tells me they think they know where it is and are making plans to return it.
My experience has been 4 days if it's a simple matter of failure to load it. (Mine has never been sent to the wrong place, just not loaded.)
PS If you are "waiting for Air Canada to tell you we found your bag and you will get it in X days", you will die an unhappy traveller. That will not happen. If you do manage to reach someone on your own initiative, they will respond evasively not because anything untoward is happening, but because they are clueless people in a call centre farther away than your bag ever was.

Ace Cdn

It will more than likely turn up but will take a couple of days. I haven't gone through YYZ customs in a long time but I find it odd no one from customs didn't say anything to you as whenever I go through customs in YYC their first question is "Do you have all your bags"?

Ace Cdn

World tracer is only as good as the information that is put into it. More often than not the lack of information is usually because no one has updated it.

Tazmania

Good luck with their world tracer. The guys that you can call are all somewhere in India and have absolutely no clue. I talked later to someone from AC when I picked up our delayed bags at EWR and he told me that guys are the worse working for AC.