david_oz

Hi all

Some combination of Air Canada and United have lost my bag. Here's what happened:

1. Flew from SIN - ORD on July 31st on UA. Was booked on UA flight to YUL later that evening. Bag was collected by me at ORD and then checked in to UA at the connections baggage belt. This was the last time I saw my bag

2. UA Flight to YUL was canceled. United booked me on an AC flight leaving later that evening. AC flight was subsequently canceled and I was given a hotel voucher and booked on a flight the next morning. At each stage I inquired about my bag and was told everything would be fine.

3. Finally arrived at YUL on August 1st on an AC flight. A whole bunch of bags were missing, including mine. Filed a claim with AC, was told I would be given a call.

4. I bought approximately $200 of clothes in Montreal because I had no change of clothes. I kept all receipts.

5. Was called on August 2nd to say my bag was at YUL. I told them to leave it there because I would be back on August 3rd to fly back to YYC. Arrived at YUL on August 3rd and there is no sign of my bag, and the baggage agent has no idea why I was contacted because the system says my bag has not been located. I walked around YUL and checked every damn baggage room. My bag was not there.

6. I have a friend who lives in Chicago. He drove out to ORD today and spoke to UA and AC. Both carriers checked all their baggage rooms and could not find my bag. The AC guy told him that a bunch of bags today were sent to YUL, but apparently they did not keep a record of which bags were sent.

This entire situation gives me zero confidence that anybody knows where my bag is, or is trying very hard to trace it. AC procedure states that I should wait 5 days, and then fill out a giant multiple page claim form and wait 21 days before they pay some kind of compensation. This is not an acceptable situation for me, as all my best work clothes and social / going out clothes are in that bag, together with other important items such as my girlfriend's birthday present, and all my notes for my MBA program.

Does anybody here have any experience with lost baggage? Specifically, I'd like to know:
1. What is the best way to get my bag back??
2. If I pass the 5 day threshold, can I start buying some clothes to replace what is lost? Should I claim the value of what I buy, or what I lost?? In either case, the US$1,500 under the Montreal Convention will probably be insufficient to cover what was lost, or what will replace it.
3. I also have personal travel insurance. Does this apply in addition to the US$1,500?
4. What happens if I buy a bunch of clothes, and then my bag is subsequently located. Have I just wasted a bunch of money or will I still be reimbursed??

Thanks in advance for any assistance

Dave

beep88

Lost bag = $1000 new wardrobe from my travel insurance.

>> What is the best way to get my bag back??

Use insurance proceeds to buy an identical new bag

>> What happens if I buy a bunch of clothes, and then my bag is subsequently located. Have I just wasted a bunch of money or will I still be reimbursed??

Are you saying you will throw your new clothes away, hence money wasted ?

segacs

TBH I've given up trying to get anything whatsoever from the airlines in the case of lost luggage. They may well find it. They may not. But you probably want to start by assuming it was lost, and contact your travel insurance first and foremost. They will probably request some sort of written proof from the airline that the bag was lost. And they will then pay out whatever your coverage specifies you get in this circumstance.

You may or may not see your bag or airline compensation here. But either one could take a while.

Sorry this happened. That sucks. Been there. It's a pretty awful feeling. But don't lose all hope yet -- it's only been two days and there's a good chance they will find your bag. Keep your locator number and keep written copies of all correspondence.

The $200 you spent on temporary replacement items should probably be submitted to your insurance company.

StuMcIlwain

Whenever AC or UA have lost my bag during IROPS (which actually happens quite a lot), it has usually turned up in 2 - 3 days and always within a week. This includes one time when I was switched to another flight at the last minute at check-in and they did not have time to change the tag on my bag, I lost my locator number (it was on the back of a boarding pass that the agent tore up when that flight was cancelled), and there was no record of my bag in the system when I reported it missing. ("Run! Don't worry about the bag -- it will get there eventually" were the agent's exact words; considering this was likely my only option to get home that day, I did what I was told.)

ORD is particularly bad at losing bags during IROPS.

Give it a few more days. There's >99% chance it will show up. They will contact you when it does.

Also, contact your personal travel insurance company immediately. You can often make a claim as soon as your bag goes missing.

WoodlandCreature

I can't speak for the OP, but this pretty much happened to me when, on a trip to Berlin, my luggage was lost for three days in the Great Munich Baggage Wreck of 2011. Including my winter jacket, and it was a very cold March.

I am of a compact size that's hard to find clothing for, and I had to buy a jacket just to leave TXL — the only one that an airport clothing store had in my size, over-priced, and not what I would ever normally buy. Next morning, I had to rush out to buy more clothes, most of which were ill-fitting and twice the price that I would have paid in Toronto. All told, I spent about $600 for $300 (in Canada) worth of clothes that I would never have normally bought and which I would never want to wear again.

To their credit, LH refunded me the $600, requiring only that I mail the clothes (except for the underwear and socks) to their NY office for subsequent donation to a charity.

flyquiet

Wow, they made you mail them the clothes after you received the bag??
That is kind of a nice policy, but complicated.
My lost-bag clothes purchase was reimbursed by AC (though bag misplaced by LH, AC was the last carrier and the ticketer). Although I actually have given the suit away when it became too big (or I became too small).

rataplan

AC lost my checked in bag during YYC-FRA-GVA in December. I never got it back. As said above, however, this is extremely unlikely (unlucky).
First thing, file it as lost with the luggage services on the airport. That gives you a tracing number which you can use on www.worldtracer.aero/filedsp/pk.htm.
Last thing I ever saw of my bag through this tracer was that it apparently turned up in Riyadh (!). But I never saw it again.
I received the flat fee of 1,100 ish euro from LH. I also claimed from AmEx for both lost and delayed luggage (these were two separate claims). I also had 96 hrs to replace items for immediate use (clothes, toiletries etc.) through AmEx.
None of these came close to covering for what was in the luggage, but I was also covered through my home policy which reimbursed the difference. Everything was eventually covered but it took a great deal of phone calls and a lot of haggling. Hopefully you're covered outside the airline.

jc94

I've only lost a bag once, but it actually made it to the airport within 4 hours.

It took me over 72 to get it, because no-one seemed to want to do anything. If you are dealing with an automated system call the airline direct until you get a human being. In my case when I finally got a human he was able to poorly communicate that my bag had been scanned at YYZ 4h after I landed and then deliver it.

I'm not sure I'd have gotten it if I hadn't chased.

Mine was with UA, I think it was ORD it got stuck at actually despite having a 1-2h connection. Since then I use a trackdot if I check a bag.

WoodlandCreature

Yes, I negotiated this by e-mail with an LH customer-service rep after I was back in Toronto. They also reimbursed the cost of the postage.

david_oz

Well... its now been 5 days. I filed an official claim with Air Canada.

Interestingly, I spoke to United yesterday and they told me that my bag was scanned at ORD at 7:20am on August 1st just prior to when they delivered it to Air Canada.

Box10

Very calculating!

david_oz

Woohoo!!! They found my bag after 15 days. Will let everyone know how things go

jc94

That's bizarre... who paid for the postage?

Good news. Were they able to provide details on the routing it had taken? Many lost bags seem to do RTW trips on their way back home. Maybe fair compensation would be AP points representative of the bags journey, in J of course.

Random question a little off topic but how can any carrier transport these bags?

I'm sure like 99% of people here you've been on a flight with an announcement from the captain like this...

"There will be a short delay while we locate the luggage of a passenger who has not turned up for his flight. For obvious reasons we cannot take off until this luggage is offloaded. Handlers are currently attempted to locate it, we believe it's black and rectangular".

So if they can only transport ones luggage with the person, how do they handle bags that get delayed or sent to some far off country in error?

Shanqx

did you know they would refund you? was this something you negotiated with LH before you made the purchase?

segacs

I presume it ships as cargo, under custody of the airline and not the passenger.

Airlines use more and more of their space to ship cargo. That's why baggage fees are so high in the first place -- if passengers transport less, that's more space that the airlines can use to transport cargo, which is more profitable.