Hi everyone; I am new here on the forums.
Long story short, I recently flew on Southwest from San Diego to Oakland. I fell asleep before the plane started takeoff, and my bag apparently shifted around. The person sitting behind me saw my bag, did not know it was mine, and pointed it out to the flight attendant. Without asking the plane if anyone knew whose it was, and without even asking the person (me) whose seat it was directly underneath, my bag was taken and left in San Diego without a word. It took a day for my bag to be found by luggage claims, and after getting in contact they are requesting that I create a FedEx account and that the bag be shipped at my expense. I would like to know if I have any options at my disposal as far as requesting that they cover shipping costs, as I am not at fault for the loss of my bag. Thank you!
Edit:
Hey everyone, it looks like responders are looking for more details in order to give me a proper response. Again, new here, and I did not expect so much activity so quickly! I will give all the details I can.
- I put my bag under the seat in front of me. When I woke up, I asked the man seated behind me. He stated that he didn't know whose bag it was and handed it to the flight attendant. I did not mean to make it sound like the bag was "magically" underneath my seat; I do not know where it was. I just assume that if the person next to me paid any attention to it then it must have shifted around.
- I was not on any sort of substance. The flight was later in the night, and I had gotten almost no sleep the night before. I was just waiting to crash as soon as I got on.
- I was nodding on and off for about 20 minutes as the flight boarded and got ready for takeoff. I was early in group B and one of the first to board. I have no idea exactly when my bag was taken, but given that I did not notice anything I assume I must have been nodded off.
- I realized about 5-10 minutes after takeoff that I could not find my bag. That is when I asked the person behind me if he saw my bag, and he relayed to me the story in the first bullet point. I then asked a FA if he knew what they did with the bag, and he said it was left in San Diego. He said that I needed to speak with baggage claims in Oakland and they could help me.
- I arrived in Oakland, immediately went to baggage claim, and after contacting San Diego they told me that they did not have my bag. I called the next morning, and they had found it.
- I feel that there was some kind of misconduct on the part of the airline because the bag was removed without any effort whatsoever to find if it was a passenger's. As said above, I was not out like "sleeping beauty." I was nodding in and out, and most definitely would have noticed any announcements or a flight attendant asking about a bag. I know this because I was woken up by a FA asking around about drinks. I am posting because I want to know if it is permissible on the half of the airline to take a bag off of a flight without a word to passengers. Can they just pick up any bag and leave with it?