FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Luggage at destination (SEA), but I'm not! How long do AS hold bags?
Old Jan 8, 2024 | 4:33 am
  #1  
jjjaaa
10 Years on Site
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 29
Luggage at destination (SEA), but I'm not! How long do AS hold bags?

TLDR: My luggage was mistakenly sent to an airport (SEA, domestic) on an AS flight that I was supposed to, but didn't travel on. I will no longer travel AS. The bags arrived SEA today, yet I'll arrive Tuesday (~48hrs after the luggage) - is it still likely to be there when I go there? Should I try and lodge a claim? If so, how?
Long story - I was meant to fly PER-SEA transferring in SYD-HNL. First two legs QF, final AS. The SYD-HNL was delayed so QF, while I was on the flight and unknown to me, reissued my ticket to go to SEA on United Airways on Tuesday.

As I landed in HNL, I saw the AS flight was delayed and hadn't left yet. So I ran (literally) to the AS checkin desk given there were only a few mins remaining. They saw that my bags were tagged through to SEA and that I had a boarding pass and sent them through. When I got to the gate they wouldn't let me board as they scanned my boarding pass and said my ticket was no longer with the airline (which was right, but I didn't realise as I wasn't informed by QF).

But my bags were loaded onto that AS flight, and made it to Seattle. AS in HNL said I can just pick it up from SEA when I finally get there, but they seemed fairly clueless and didn't want to take any info from me. They also said they can't track the bags using the QF tracking code, but know it went because they did call HNL baggage who said all bags were loaded and nothing was left behind. An AirTag I had in one confirms it travelled.

Though I don't know if I should do anything more. I thought about lodging a baggage claim, so they know someone's coming for it. QF said I need to do it with AS, as they handled the last leg. AS said it's a QF baggage tag/code and so they can't 'look it up', and QF need to do it. So I don't know how to start - and QF's customer service centre is unbelievable bad at understanding any issue.

My worry is that since I won't fly Alaska at all, they won't have any record of me so they might just think it abandoned? I.e. it's not like I'm on an Alaska flight in a few days, but rather United.
But also, I wonder if I try and start some delayed/lost process, it will make more problems than just picking it up when I arrive? I definitely don't want them to think it's unclaimed and send it elsewhere.

Any thoughts welcome! Thanks

Edit: Not sure if this is the best forum for this, but it is about how to navigate AS.

Last edited by jjjaaa; Jan 8, 2024 at 4:40 am Reason: forum point
jjjaaa is offline