Last month, I was on a flight back from RST & as I needed suits for this trip & still haven't gotten down the art packing well in just a carryon for business travel, I had brought a garment bag with me. I checked my garment bag & my 22" roller (figured if I was checking the garment bag, may as well check the roller & only carryon my laptop bag). Upon arrival back in DCA, my garment bag zipper seam was torn & the bag was open & my clothes were hanging out of it.

This was on a Friday afternoon & the lady at the DCA luggage office was somewhat of a useless customer service person. She told me that since it was a seam tear, that NW wouldn't be responsible for it. I told her that was BS (in nicer terms) since that's not what NW's luggage policy states & the fact of the matter was that when I checked in RST, it was fine.

After arguing with her for about 5 minutes or so, I ended up getting a trashbag from her & putting my clothes in that (the 22" was full) and filling out a complaint form (which she wrote CLAIM DENIED on in big block letters) & left my luggage there - asking that the supervisor call me since he wasn't there. I never received any phone call from the supervisor, the phone number I was given was never answered - it just rang & rang & rang, and the official baggage claim line had no record of my luggage ever having a claim filled out. I've got a NW flight this weekend out of DCA & was planning on stopping by to see what the F was going on with my bag & why no follow had been done.

I was surprised to come home from work yesterday with a box at my front door containing my luggage - which had been repaired. Overall, NW's DCA baggage service office was one of the worst I've ever dealt with (US dented the hell out of one of my bags a month earlier & that was after losing it & sending it to New Hampshire instead of DC, but they were very quick in terms of getting it repaired and were really friendly about the whole experience). Despite the crappy attitude of the employee, I am pleased that they fixed my bag & sent it back to me - however, it would have been nice for them to notify me of this as I had almost purchased a new garment bag last week...