Originally Posted by
mikelat
I suspect AA will say they got the bag to the intended destination and are not responsible for shuttling to a different airport. They may surprise me though and be willing to do that.
But, if the bag misses the Kenya flight then I really doubt AA would do anything to ensure the bag gets there. What carrier is doing the DCA-Kenya flight? Is it a OneWorld carrier? If so then they may have more luck in requesting the transfer to DCA and get on a later Kenya flight.
I have never heard of any carrier which does either inline or interline luggage transfers between DCA, IAD & BWI. When the carriers do local delivery (missed bag, etc), they use one of a couple of local DC delivery companies which make a fortune off this. Very doubtful that intl carrier would accept (or be allowed by TSA) to accept luggage from a delivery van guy, but I could be wrong.
Unfortunately, the easiest and likely best thing to do is grin and bear the cost of getting a car service to pick me up at DCA, take me to BWI and then on to IAD. Likely cost in the $300 range + tip. I would then do a non-snarky letter to AA with the receipt and asked to be reimbursed. I strongly suspect that AA would deny the request and possibly provide a very small voucher, but it never hurts to ask and see. AA undertook to get the bags to BWI (w. the pax permission switch from DCA) and that's what it did.