brunos

My daughter flew Malaga-CDG-HKG arriving Sunday. AF ticket, coded AF although the AGP-CDG leg was operated by Air Europa. There was a 4-hour transfer in CDG. She was with a 4-year old and a 7-month old plus three smallish checked bags. In HKG only one bag arrived. For three days they could not trace the other two bags but it appeared that they arrived in CDG on UX then got lost. Finally she got the second bag 4 days late (still no idea where was the third one), and just learned that she will get the last one tonight (6 days).
As you can guess, that is not a pleasant experience for a mother traveling alone with a child and a baby. She found AF unresponsive.

I guess that CDG baggage handlers were quite busy, or on vacation, during the August 15 weekend. But that is still a strange saga for ST seamless travel.

Machine27

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brunos

She lives in HK, so AF does not want to pay for essentials.
My point was not to complain (although with CDG baggage handling there are often motives for dissatisfaction). Rather finding it weird/funny that three bags checked together arrive on three different days on an itin where there was four hours for transfer at CDG and no strikes.

Machine27

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orbitmic

Sounds very bad. That said, regardless of airlines, whenever an itinerary (even single PNR) involves multiple operating airlines (regardless of codes) I always recommend going to a transfer counter at the airport where you change airlines to have the luggage tag rescanned.

If there was any competence in this world, it should not be necessary, but pragmatically, my experience is that it is. I used to have at least 50% of luggage not arriving with me on such itineraries across any combination of airline (although luckily it would typically arrive the next day) and since I do this systematically, this proportion has become negligible.

Goldorak

I always do this also (when flying on multiple airlines), but only when I'm on different PNR. Another reason, in this case, to stop at the transfer counter is that you rarely have your BP for the connecting flight

brunos

Thanks for info.
Europe-CDG-HKG is a frequent itin in the family so would be useful to learn some practical tip for future trips. Where would I stop at CDG to inquire about my bags being transferred. I am looking for some exact practical info about the location of those counter when I transfer landside (here was from 2D) or airside?

tezzer

Same happened to me and my daughter a couple o f years ago, Manchester - CDG - HKG.

We missed our connection, and were put on the following morning's Cathay flight, but the bags never made it and as it was a Sunday morning in Hong Kong, getting even essentials was difficult.

Last week, I went Manchester - CDG - Algeria and of my 3 bags, only one made the connection. The other two, both equipment hard cases never got the flight, and arrived on the next flight, but the equipment inside had clearly been tampered with, screws removed, calibration seals torn etc. I complained to AF, but they were not THAT interested. It'll mean a change of travel policy for my company I'm afraid, can;t afford to have the equipment dismantled in transit.

orbitmic

- Transfer landside: go to any check in counter

- Transfer airside: go to any transfer desk

Just go there saying that you arrived on a flight with XXX airlines and your bags have been through checked but you were recommended to have your luggage tags rescanned by AF.

What they then do is that they simply scan the tags and this puts them in the AF system (or whatever other airline if you are connecting on BA, LH, or whatever) where they will now be "expected" (I'm not sure if there is a jargonic name) as opposed to relying on the luggage handlers to read/scan the tags on the suitcase and notice the transfer to other airline route.

I recommend doing the scan as early as the earliest opportunity to optimise successful transfer chaces, and they can also give you an update on whether your bag has arrived but this is typically pretty useless as a bag which has arrived would not necessarily have made the connection!

Goldorak

Pretty weird indeed. Could it be that those 2 bags, due to the equipment they contained looked "suspicious" on the scanner and so they were put apart for manual extra screening ? Just my 2c and also because I believe that ALG is still considered as an "at risk" destination.

orbitmic

The question is: what makes you assume that this has anything to do with AF? As Goldorak mentions, there is an overwhelming probability that this is due to the destination in one of two ways:

- equipment looked suspicious to security, and particularly due to the destination they decided to open and have a look

- equipment looked suspicious to ALG customs who decided to inspect the cases before allowing delivery

To give you an example of what I mean, I think that I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I flew from the US with checked bag and the bag was not tempered with by TSA, usually with catastrophic results (broken TSA approved locks, clothes messed inside, etc). I would personally consider that any checked bag presents a risk of lawful interference, both in general and in particular when it involves a sensitive origin or destination.

This is one of (more) reason why I hate checking bags. If anything, I much prefer the Israeli way where at least they decide whether to check bag contents or not in front of you and if they do, do it in front of you too.

In any case, I think that a change of travel policy because of that would absolutely be barking at the wrong tree.

tezzer

Couldn't happen in ALG, as I was there when they came off the plane (with people above and a lot more powerful than Customs), so saw the bags come off the plane, and collected them ourselves.

They were intact in Manchester, they were in pieces in Algeria when they arrived so the interference MUST have taken place either in Manchester or Paris.