David5885

An associate of mine for whom I booked his ticket flew LGA-ORD. He had his roll-aboard carry on bag in the overhead bin. He was the last on to get off the plane and when he went to get his bag he discovered that there was only one bag left and it was not his. Someone had erroneously taken his luggage. He went to the baggage desk as ORD and they advised him that they could not help him because it was not checked luggage and they had no way to track the bag. They told him that the best thing to do was to keep the other passengers bag, contact them, and then make an exchange. I called UA and tracked down the passenger and had UA leave them a message with my contact info. Fnnally, about 4 hours after the flight landed the passenger called me appalled that my friend had taken her bag despite the fact that she admitted hat it was she who took the wrong bag. She told me that she returned the bag to the baggage desk at ORD but has no reference number or employee ID number of who she spoke to and no idea how we are supposed to find my associate's bag. Does anyone have any good idea or advice of how to proceed. I wanted to make an exchange but given that the woman no longer has my friend's bag is it right that she should get her luggage and we are left to try to track his down when it was her fault in the firs place? I would appreciate any ideas on what I feel is a very unusual story as I fly 150K miles a year, and nothing like this has ever happened to me.

WineCountryUA

First your friend must return the other person's property -- to knowingly not to will generate a set of problems you want to avoid.

Then try to get as much information you can about how the other bag was returned -- what time, what counter, any physical description of the UA person, .... then go to the airport and ask for a baggage supervisor.

1KChinito

Sorry to hear that, David5885. Hope your associate will get his carry on back very soon. I put stickers and tags on my roll aboard, in addition to non-black color. Many black bags look very similar. When one is in a hurry, s/he may take a wrong bag by mistake. By differentiate your bag from others, it may be less likely to be mistaken.

flyinbob

You should have (and still can) made a police report on stolen property as soon as you discovered it missing. At the airport. In the terminal or at the gate. THAT might get UA's attention. Plus if you need to make an insurance claim they may want a report.

Then check UA baggage office and tell them the story, including the other passenger's name (I assume you got it?). Tell them what she said, and how UA now has your bag (supposedly). Take it up the food chain as far as you can, because someone may have just put it in unidentified luggage, and it might take work to find it.

Contact the person who took your bag again. Find out details on when, where, to who, etc., she left your bag. You might mention it is for the police report. If this other person is jerking you around it might get their attention.

David5885

Trust me, the first thing I told my friend was about how he needs to do something to make his bag distinguishable from others. In the meantime it is not that I mind returning the other passenger's bag. It is just that given the fact that she was responsible for the entire situation I do not feel the need to go out of my way to get it to her. Perhaps the best thing to do is just return it to UA and let them deal with it? Like I said she will get her bag back because of my due dilligence in tracking her down immediately, and she could care less whether we ever find our bag. And who knows what she actually did with it without her providing details such as who she left it with, did she do anything to try and find out whose bag she took, did she set up some way to track it or get a reference number from the baggage claim people?

dgcpaphd

I can imagine how aggravating this situation must be.

One lesson to learn, however, is to take the advice of United with respect to name tags inside your bag.

If the woman who took your bag were to find your name and telephone number at the time she realized her mistake, she might have called you rather than take the bag to United.

violist

A good way, despite the fact there are a quarter-million of us.

dgcpaphd

Great idea.

I bought some of these tags a while back and have one attached to my carry-on. There is no question the bright yellow tag stands out against the black color of the bag.

I also put my business card and flight details in the bag just in case my bag gets separated from me.

The only time my bags are not with me is when I am in a cab or limo going to or from the airport or when I am checking in at a hotel when the bell man gets over zealous (often) and takes my bags to a holding area while I finish checking in.

fastair

Good suggestion although your flight details could haunt you if this is part of a ring of bag thieves that also target your home. At the gate, when an article is found, the 1st thing I do is try to track the passengers info down via the PNR, then I print it and staple it to the handle before turning it into the lost and found (baggage claim). FLgith details make the tracking down of the person very easy.

You'd be surprised at how many people have other people's name on their bag. It sure makes looking for the passengers name on the flight difficult when the ID on the bag isn't theirs.

Heryanta

My parents always say: do the right thing regardless whether the other party might return the favor or not Maybe she'll appreciate you going out of your way and next time she'll pay extra attention before grabbing a bag from the overhead compartment ...

David5885

Good news to report. They located my friend's bag at the airport and we picked it up, and we returned the woman's bag to the airport and they are delivering it to her. I gotta give credit to UA on this one. It was not their responsibility but they came through. I doubt I will encounter such a bizarre situation again. Thank you for all the advice and ideas.

AICML

Glad to hear it got resolved. I am always worried when my carry on luggage isn't near me for this reason. You just never know when someone's in a hurry or not paying attention when they grab their luggage.

Libenitz

Wow! This happened to me with a checked bag once, had the bag claim person ring the cell of the owner of the last bag on the claim belt (which did look similar but not exactly like mine). Fortunately the lady stopped for gas so the bag to travel to far without me!

Never thought of a carry-on going astray.

weero

What a nitwit.

In the US, I would not be as a brave given the often complex legislation... but anywhere else, I would insist on the quid pro quo: she gets me my bag, she gets hers back. Irrespective of reference numbers, claims, and fairy tales.


I can't believe that UA delivers the bag to that person ... service for such a grand failure.

Sorry to hear all that trouble this pax made you go through.

MW_2000

Glad to hear it worked out. Sort of similar thing happened to me a few years ago but it was a leather jacket in the overhead bin - someone grabbed mine by mistake and left theirs which was a similar color.

I waited at the gate for a while to see if they would notice and come back, and then took it to lost luggage at ORD and filed a report, and asked if they could send an email to those seated in the row in front of and behind me but they said that couldn't be done (no identification in the jacket). Never did get my jacket back and I don't know if they ever got theirs or not. Worst part was then heading back into downtown Chicago in February with no coat.