BigAppleCoder

I'm sitting here in Paris looking at a message from a courier saying that they're ready to deliver my delayed bag to my apartment ... in New York. Yep, you read right, New York, but I'm in Paris and will be there for a few more weeks. This particular bag contains my partner's toiletries, dresses, business suits, and the vast majority of her shoes. Items that we need for meetings here in Paris over the next few weeks.

How the hell did we get into this situation?!? We flew New York to Paris on a Delta flight, then went to Brussels, the onto Dublin. The problem starts with this bag not getting on a flight from Dublin to Paris on Thursday, last week. The agent assured us that the bag would be on the next flight, but nope, it stayed overnight in Dublin (we can track it by AirTag). My partner calls the local Air France office to see why the bag isn't moving and also notes we're changing addresses Sunday. They days passes and we see the bag has been loaded up and flown to Paris (CDG). Things looked pretty normal at that point as we expected a swift reunion. But nope, it languished in the baggage holding area of CDG. She calls again and is told that there is a long queue of bags to be delivered to their respective owners before hers is. This is frustrating, but okay, it is peak travel season,

Friday turns into Saturday, and there is zero reported movement on the bag. But, she receives an email saying that the bag will be delivered to the local Paris address. So, it does seem that this baggage will show up soon. The day passes, and we're up too late. Just before bedtime at 3AM I mention she should check the AirTag locator. She brings up the app, takes a look, and yells out "f**K - the bags in F***ing New York!. I thinking she's messing with me, and ask "What?", to which she replies "the f***ing back is in f***ing New York City. This seems impossible, as we gave them the local French address to deliver the bag and the only way they'd get the home address is through the passenger profile.

She dials the local Air France misplaced baggage hotline again - to no avail, as they're closed overnight. I get the idea to call the US based line thinking, well, if the bag is in the US, then they should be able to track it, right? Nope, I get a rather unsympathetic agent who mentions that he can't see the status of any bags that have a missing bag case number from France, as the systems don't work together. This doesn't seem right, I ask the agent if there's a supervisor who might have a bit more system access. The guy evidently decides that I'm not worthy of having any more of his time, says no manager is in charge, and tells me the only option is to call the Air France Paris office when the reopen at 6AM (which is invalid information as it's actually 9AM).

Well, 9AM roles around and we have a 20 minute wait on the line, only to have the call drop when it's transferred to an agent. Both of us try again, in case the phone drops one more time. The Air France rep picks up on her line and, after a minute looking, says "ah, I see good news as the bag is on it's way to you". To which she replies with the facts of the situation. The agent is actually aghast, and tells her to hold on while he calls the New York baggage office. After a few minutes, he returns to the line and mentions that he spoke to his colleagues in New York City and they themselves were confused that the bag was at JFK. The agent promises that the bag will be making it's way back across the Atlantic later on during the day.

This is greeted with relief by us. We spend the rest of the day with our friends until around 3pm, when I notice the status of the bag has been changed to "Out for Delivery" to the New York apartment. Great!, more drama! We get back on the phone and reach another Air France agent who is genuinely surprised to hear the news as she reads the notes from her colleague and expresses astonishment that the bag has been picked up. She advises my partner to have the people at home refuse the bag from the courier. In the meantime, I've been reaching out the courier service to see if there's any way the can stop the deliver and return the bag to the Air France office. Unfortunately, there's no phone number, only email forms to contact the service (without a confirmation email that the message had been received by them).

We do what we were told to do and call our doorman in NYC to refuse the baggage delivery as recommended. We go to sleep and have a fitful night. Upon wakeup, I see a message from our doorman that the bag was refused as directed. My partner gets on the phone with Air France again. This time, she's greeted by an agent with a less-than-sunny disposition, who then proceeds to say that his colleagues should not have been so optimistic in telling her the bag will make it's way back to us in Paris.

So here we are, with a bag that is supposed to be in Paris but now in New. York City. So many things went wrong for this bag to wind up separated from us. Now, the question is how can we get that bag back to Paris. What advise do you have for me here? What are the options? Is there a person that can be called at JFK to help this out?


Thank you for reading

SilverChris

I get that a delayed bag can cause a huge amount of distress, but the emotion in your post is hindering the message you're trying to get across.

I'm confused, I thought you wanted to be reunited with the bag in Paris? Now you're asking how to get "back" to NYC?

Personally, I think it was a mistake to have the doorman refuse delivery. The more hands your bag passes through, the greater the confusion. Communication, as you learned the hard way, is hard to come by when tracking down a mishandled bag. While it's not ideal being separated from the things you wanted to take on the trip, at least you would've had closure knowing your bag is safely home.

Don't let this ruin your trip more than it already has. Just purchase whatever replacements are necessary and get AF/travel insurance to reimburse. You're probably better off getting them to reattempt delivery (if that's an option), or just let it stay at the airport and pick it up when you return.

BigAppleCoder

Yes - it is Paris we want the back returned to.

Simply following advice here from AF rep in the hope of getting it back here to Paris.

Under duress here due to lack of info from Air France about bag end having to replace some hard to find items.

dancefreak

I would be just as stressed and frustrated and don't think there was anything at all wrong with how you shared the story. It's quite the lost luggage tale!

That said, I do agree with the point of the other comment that sending the bag back into the system from it being safely at your NYC apartment might be inviting the chance for you to never become reunited with it. Look at it as an opportunity to buy new things.

FabCW

Air France has a fairly generous and speedy compensation system for lost luggage so you can head to Zara and your local supermarket and get what you need. My bag was delayed 5 days last year (actually DL’s fault but AF flew the last segment of my trip) and I was reimbursed about $1,000 for the inconvenience when I submitted receipts. As long as you’re not buying caviar and Hermès loafers, of course. 🤪

flyertalker00143

Generous and speedy ? not for everyone

It took me 5 weeks to get a compensation for my lost luggage and I had to provide all the receipts for items inside it and tons of emails because they got confused with the receipts.

mlin32

Buy the essentiels you need, keep the tickets caisses, submit for remboursement. Move on.

It's easy to stress out something you have little control over. AF/DL (or their subcontractors) have misplaced my bags multiple times too, I too would have just had your doorman in NYC keep the bag ; the fewer hands on your bag, the lower the risk of further misplacement because at least in that situation, you would have had the peace of mind knowing it was at your origin. Now by further rerouting it, there's yet another good chance it would get misplaced/delayed/lost.

brunos

There are two different chanels.
One is to get reimbursed for essentials that you have to buy because of delayed bags. That is quite speedy.
Second is reimbursed for a LOST bag after 21 days. That takes time, receipts, etc....

flyertalker00143

so not processed by the same team ?


anyway I think that out of respect for the customer, no matter if the bag is delayed or lost, the company should always be speedy and generous considering the terrible experience caused

Duck1981

AF was also in my case really fast to refund such expenses - about three working days until confirmation. Make sure you explain your claim without all the emotions above, factual, and as short as possible.

Asking your doorman to reject was most probably not the best idea - you effectively asked a third party delivery agent (who wants to get rid of the bags as fast as possible) to return your luggage to their delivery warehouse which is potentially not even located at the airport to return it to AF where they most likely never dealt with rejected luggage and need to find out what the process for that is. For the future (not helpful now) best to ask the forum immediately if there is trouble brewing.

On a positive note, you will be reunited with your luggage eventually. Hope you will still enjoy Paris.

DLATL777

Should have accepted the bag. Then once in your doormans possession, have it shipped to you. Thats what you should have done as you would then have control of the situation. The issue here is you have no control and no say. It could be a long time before you see that luggage now unfortunately.

SilverChris

Yes, this bit is important in getting your claim processed swiftly. No unnecessary details about the baggage agent's disposition, no PhD thesis length rant about how awful the experience is.

brunos

[QUOTE=macaron35;35365806]so not processed by the same team ?
/QUOTE]
There is a huge number of bags that are delayed, but a tiny number that are finally lost.
In my experience, the reimbursement of a reasonable amount for essentials is near automatic and the proof obvious.Really no need of any investigation with a known delay and receipts for essentials.

That is different for a lost suitcase where the amount claimed is often not supported by many purchase proofs and where some usage discounting is applied.

BigAppleCoder

Update - the saga of the misdirected bag concluded yesterday with my partner picking up her bag at CDG. It had been one week since the bag missed her Air France flight from DUB to CDG and embarked on a journey across the pond and back. But now, it's sitting with us here in Paris.

Some key points come to mind:

1 - Having an Air tag in the bag was fortuitous as we knew it was in New York when we had actually received an email saying that it was being delivered to us in Paris.
2 - Following the Air France representatives's instruction to have the bag delivery in New York refused was key. If the bag had been delivered, AF would have been able to wash their hands of responsibility and we would have had to either A) arrange for shipping it back or B) do a MR back to NYC to retrieve it from the apartment (as we're staying for 5 weeks and have meetings to attend).
3 - Patience is a virtue - and defensive packing is a must. Some of her items were in my luggage which helped her get through some of her client meetings (albeit, she did have to purchase replacement items).

Two keep things contributed to this fiasco. The first, undoubtably, was Air France putting the bag on a flight to New York without first confirming with her that is what was to be done (recap: we flew NYC->CDG on Delta and have a return flight in July). The second, was the inability for Air France US to see Air France FR's baggage status (this certainly would have helped the representatives). It also, would have been nice to have a phone number of the Air France baggage handling department in New York to work with so that it didn't get dispatched to our home.

I appreciate everyone's response to my original post (admittedly written whilst sleep deprived and stressed out). Thank you.

gdoubleu

Am curious about what address is on the property irregularity report (PIR) on Worldtracer (you should be able to get to it from the code the URL that was given to you when you reported the bag as missing). Is that you US or your temporary Paris address?