The smallest state

...........because other airlines have had an improved service since about 1985. The point is the OP was told "it's in the cab and on the way". That was a complete fallacy. Nobody cares if it takes until tomorrow, just give us a realistic timeframe.

dread_specter

The timeframe of his bag is none of your business and not something I would discuss publicly.

What I'm mentioning, as an aside to the unfortunate reality he's dealing with, is that while there might've been shortcomings in the past with baggage handling, AC is implementing new things that are quite major and will hopefully reflect positively in the near future when it comes to dealing with lost bags.
Consider it news, and if you don't care about improvements that will benefit other PAX, go over them and ignore them. End of story.

The smallest state

The OP posted the time frame of his bag and the numerous false answers, false promises, missed time commitments, outright incorrect answers, an "I'll call you right back", and a call days later at 7pm in the evening promising the back the next day when it had in fact been delivered 2 days prior.

You are right though...........there "might've have been shortcomings in the past".

sneakysix

I'm hopeful that improvements are coming because the current state of affairs is laughable. That being said, I'm sure AC will mess-up whatever improvements it attempts and this problem will not go away......

The smallest state

They have made improvements with the FA's over the last 4-5 years. Less Dragons and more people who understand they are in customer service. I hope these improvements allow pax to actually track their bags a'la AA.

flyquiet

I'd like a system like DL that allows you to see when and where your bag was scanned, like FedEx tracking.

However, I would be mightily pleased simply to not have the agents for AC lie flat out. Like sneakysix, when I have had occasion to have them called, they have lied about the bag. Saying they found it, then asking me what it looked like: you have it, YOU tell ME what it looks like. Or saying it has been located and will be delivered tomorrow when I have just received it.

Misplacing bags is a fact of life, I think. The key is service recovery.

AC should be MORTIFIED that their agents lie. Period. Whatever else they do to reduce the future incidence of misplaced bags, or to allow passengers to self-serve the tracking of waylaid items, or to recover them quicker, that's all well and good. But the lying? You don't see me busting out the capital letters all that much around here, but the lying is UNACCEPTABLE.

Jagboi

Maybe though should outsource baggage handling to someone like Fedex or DHL. You know, a company who can actually get an item from A->B and know where it is when it's in their possession.

The smallest state

Fantastic idea. Someone, no, ANYONE with simple logistics skills.

Stranger

If one cares enough about luggage, instead of checking, surely the option is already there.

I have on occasion sent some luggage forward to a hotel where I had a reservation the following week, rather than dragging it with me through the countryside.

Might still be a bit more expensive than airline charges. Especially when checked luggage is free...

Jagboi

I looked into it once. Since it was "retail" rates it was more expensive than the airfare.

I have done the reverse, flown to the UK to buy car parts and brought them back as checked luggage, it was cheaper than the freight charge. Pre 9/11 I brought an Austin-Healey gearbox back as my carry on.

longtimeflyin

If Air Canada should be mortified their agents lie, then I'm sure Air Canada management cannot go through a day's worth of work being anything but mortified at everything that they operate.

My expectation for Air Canada for anything is very low, that way if I arrive alive I'll be having a good day.

I hope that dread_specter is right because baggage delivery problems can only improve (I hope).

dread_specter

Between you and I, can it really get worse than it is? Some things are flawed at AC, as with all airlines, but baggage reconciliation is really a "problematic" area.
Without a doubt, the changeover and outsourcing to India of all of baggage tracing in the early 2000s has led to the situation as it is now, which is, to say the least in need of improvement.
Said need for improvement has been identified long ago and they ran a pilot project a few years back, which proved successful, so now they're expanding the scope of it, and that should prove to be a much needed improvement to baggage reconciliation.


I brought back an entire set of shock absorbers from Japan a few years back, not a carry on mind you but the ride from Osaka to HND by Shinkansen, with my full size 30kg luggage and the box with shock absorbers on top that I had to drag about and into the car of the train, was quite the experience haha.
I did opt to ship out a set of alloys by sea at the same time, was more convenient than trying to take this about. Fortunately for me after 3 months they arrived on the east coast, with customs charges despite being identified as unaccompanied bags, and when I gave them my CBSA paper showing my tax exemption the lady at the counter put the wrong code on my boxes and shipped them back to sender instead of shipping them back to CBSA, so they were off for a 3 month ride back to japan, and back again to canada by sea for another 3 months. Canada post told me to fly back to japan and deal with it myself, cos you know, "we be government and wdgaf".

All that to say that there's no replacement to just holding the things you really need in your hands, because whatever other method to ship you use, it might never get there haha.

jc94

AC could get worse, their hard product ignoring cleanliness is good, and I've never feared for my life on board. I've never told a FA someone has self upgraded though.

But as with everything else, the key here with baggage is not that it's gone wrong, but recovery. Is it actually always ACs fault when an airport employee messes up? Regardless you have to deal with them for recovery and this is where they suck.

Is any NA airline good here? UA isn't, the others haven't ever lost or delayed my luggage (yet).

dread_specter

I don't have hard stats on this, but by experience, the vast majority of baggage issues are not due to human intervention. Bags get thrown into 6 mile long roller coasters of belts and scanners and it takes very little for the tag to get ripped or the bag to get misscanned and then boom, it's gone.
This video in particular was quite the eye opener :
Then, bags get handled not only by the Airline, but by CBSA, CBP, CATSA, etc. and all those parties can be responsible for a bag not making it.

So the airline bears the entire blame always, but the truth is that there's very little they can do if they haven't ACTUALLY lost the bag themselves...

The smallest state

I doubt too many people dispute that. The issue here is the Byzantium system AC has created, the fact the employees just fob you off with BS and wildly unrealistic time frames.