My bag did not arrive with me yesterday evening on a flight home, and was told when I filed the report that they were on the next flight, which arrives at 10:10pm, and that a late night delivery was possible. That's great, as my plate is full the next morning, I request a late night delivery. I was told to leave the porch light on and a note for them to leave the bag.

I returned home, put a note on the door, and waited until 1am. No bag. Got up this morning about 630 and peeked outside. No bag. Called the Baggage Service line at 7:30, went through the computerized voice prompts and then was connected to the call center in India. All she did was call the delivery company who wasn't answering the phone. (I asked for a local number and was told that was not possible because Seattle is a large airport and there are many misdirected bags. I can understand not wanting to have your front lined reps harrassed by angry passengers, but still it seemed ludicrous to have me essentially call India to have them make what for me is a local call.) Called back at 11:00 with the same query. Still no answer at the courier company.

Luggage is finally delivered at 11:30am. I asked the courier guy why it wasn't delivered last night as promised. His response, "I don't know. I'm not on the night shift."
"Where do I call to find out why?"
"The airline."

Yes, I'm glad I have my dirty clothes to clean. But I'm ticked that the bag wasn't delivered as promised, first for not arriving with me, which I can overlooked if it was delivered in a timely fashion, which it was not. Was it a failure on UA's part to get the bag to the courier service last night? Did the courier service sit on it overnight until they had enough to be delivered?

I want to let United know that I'm not happy with their performance. I suspect I'll get a form response, but what if I want specific answers? This isn't a typical occurrence for me. In 20 years of flying I can count on one hand the number of misdirected bags. 3 of 5 times things were resolved without further prompting on my part, so the track record is good.

...and please don't suggest that I use a carry on. I don't like schleeping bags through hub airports during connections, and I dislike even more, the race for the overhead bin space with people who are carrying on more than they're entitled to.