short story:
worldtracer.aero shows 'RECEIVED AT AIRPORT / DELIVERY PROCESS INITIATED' even though the luggage did not make the flight. Instead it went on a different route.
long story:
I flew HAM-FRA-LAX on LH this Wednesday. We had snow in HAM which caused a 45 min delay into FRA. At FRA I barely made my connection (A28 to A62 took me 5 minutes
) but understandably my luggage did not. I had a nine hour layover at LAX before I connected to MEL on QF94.
At LAX I got a file reference number assigned and received $100 SoKo (Sofort-Kompensation, on-spot compensation). A guy in front of me only received some wrapped stuff that looked like a t-shirt. I guess LH SEN and C class helped in my case
My luggage was confirmed to be still in FRA and was put on the same flight the next day. It was supposed to follow me the next day on QF94. This is all I could ask for and I was happy about the fact that they knew where it was.
In Melbourne I went to the lost luggage department to confirm the now 16+ hour old information. The Qantas agent claimed responsibility but could not modify anything. The SQ lady behind the other terminal said that she could pull up the info if she wanted but was not allowed to update information. In a nutshell nobody at MEL airport is able to update a LH file.
The QF agent said that my luggage would make it to LAX but instead of taking the direkt QF94 would go on QF26 (which is LAX-AKL-MEL). It turned out that the LAX agent did not put in the hotel phone number as requested. MEL staff is not allowed to call my international cell phone.
At the hotel I checked the information on worldtracer and it showed the temporary address but no routing information/ETA on the luggage. When I got up this morning it showed 'RECEIVED AT AIRPORT / DELIVERY PROCESS INITIATED'. Kinda early but whom would you blame for that?
Now at 6PM I called various office at MEL airport to locate my luggage. Neither Lufthansa nor staralliance.com lists the lost luggage number on their website. Off I went to call SQ. The agent told me the luggage is still in AKL and will be on NZ123 the next day. The Qantas agent told me the same.
My luggage will arrive a full 80 minutes before my scheduled departure to Sydney ... friggin' sweet. I am left in MEL with stuff that I bought and need to check-in and left without additional clothing as I only bought stuff for one day. I did not even care about buying a razor for the day.
I am royally p***ed about the fact that worldtracer showed the wrong status. I am even more annoyed about the fact that in contrast to what people say my luggage took a different route than me. It could have gone on the ticketed direct flight but instead made a stop in AKL. And being in such a situation it would help to have phone numbers available on the luggage tracer website. Heck, it would help to have some information on that page. Why doesn't it show the routing? If I knew it would be on a flight the next day I would have prepared for that. I'll have a hard time finding cloths after 6PM. 7-11 here I come!
If you managed to read all of this: Thanks. I had to vent some steam. I owe you some nice Shiraz - in case I'll get that on the plane safely tomorrow.