Southwest has lost my luggage twice in two months - once permanently, once temporarily. It was hard for me to find information online about the processes and people at Southwest haven't given me straight answers, so I'm posting this here for people who have lost bags in the future.

Last month I had a bag go missing on a non-stop itinerary. I had checked two but only one arrived. I went to the baggage office and they created a report. They said it was scanned at the destination airport but it never got to the belt, meaning it was either lost somewhere in the airport (which they said has happened before) or it was stolen. They advised me to file a police report because that's the only way they could access the security footage. I'm not sure if they ever actually do look at the footage.

I received a call from a corporate Southwest number once per day just telling me they were still searching for my bag. The baggage office at the destination office was easy to reach and they provided their direct number. They were much more helpful than calling customer service.

Bags are not actually considered lost by Southwest until five days have passed. I asked what to do in the interim. I was assured that anything I had to buy while waiting would be reimbursed. I ended up needing to buy a bunch of stuff since it was a work trip. I was told that these interim expenses can be reimbursed immediately by any baggage service office at any airport regardless of where the bag went missing. They can also be submitted online but that takes longer. Either way, I was advised to do it at the end of my trip. Nobody would tell me whether there was a cap, whether Southwest would reimburse 100% of it, etc. I couldn't get any straight answers. I never found out because the bag was declared lost after five days so I was told to put the interim expenses online with the claim for the lost luggage.

After five days passed, I was given a link to file a claim for the contents of the bag. The portal is relatively easy to use. You have 21 days from the date it went missing to file the claim. You have to itemize each individual item in the bag and provide a value. This was a tough exercise - how am I expected to know how much an undershirt I bought 10 years ago cost? I was told to estimate if I didn't know.

I submitted that claim and the site said it takes 45 days to process. My understanding is that the interim expenses will be deducted from the total value of the reimbursement. It's been nearly a month and I haven't heard anything. I will update below as it progresses.

On the second occasion, one bag made it but the other apparently hadn't even left the origin airport. Same drill - I went to the baggage office and got a report number. I was told that once it arrived it would be delivered to me or I could come pick it up in exchange for a voucher. It arrived about 36 hours later. I was given a $150 voucher for picking it up. I don't know if that is the same rate at all airports. I was in a rush so I didn't claim the interim expenses there. I will update when I do.

I hope this is helpful to people dealing with this in the future. The baggage service office folks have been helpful but I've been very unimpressed with the corporate HQ side of the process. I'll update below as the claim progresses.