AA to UA - bag recovery and claim question
 

I was flying xxx-DCA-CLT. Flight into DCA is delayed due to WX, then on arriving in DCA, no gate followed by 20 minutes at a gate where the ramp agent appears to have not known how to operate the jetway. Long story short, operational comedyshow leads to a missed flight.

AA rebooks me IAD-CLT (awesome service recovery ^) on UA.

I called AA to schedule them delivering my bag in CLT, as DCA couldn't get it to me. They told me that I need to file a delayed bag claim with UA. I'm not sure how this makes sense as UA never received the bag at any airport. Is this right?

Yes, last carrier you fly is the one who handles the bag claim. I think this applies even in this case.

Yup, agree.

(No offense, but looking at your screen name/post count I did a double take...'wait, he HAS to know this, no?!?' ;) )

Yes, always with the last carrier on that "direction" of the ticket. I've had 2 recently where AA pushed me to other carriers due to delays, but didn't bother to re-route my bags. It took days to get them to me, but the other carriers paid out my interim expenses without issue. Behind the scenes, I'm sure they request AA reimburse them, but it's of no concern to the traveler as it's clear that it's the last carrier that's responsible to you.

haha. I've never switched airports and carriers with checked bags were the second carrier never got the bag, hence my confusion. I've done an LGA-JFK change, but the bag was delivered to me at LGA and I took it to JFK. Here UA has zero knowledge of the bag or the tag number as the bag never made it to IAD.

That said, they filed the claim with no issues, so clearly I'm the one not in the know :p

Does not matter how the reroute occurs, whether from same airport and so on. Always, always, always the last delivering carrier. Been this way for 60 years.

AA will route the bag on its next flight to CLT where it will be delivered by AA to UA baggage and by UA baggage to you.

No, generally they don't. It is usually chalked up to the cost of doing business with interline agreements in place.

Agreed. Further, it should about average out.

This policy is really a solid win for pax. Suppose one flies (fictional) Jose Airline to GRU then AA to MIA with lost bags. If AA is allowed to point their finger at Jose you might as well forget about ever getting your bags back.

The last carrier will be local to you upon arrival, and much easier to deal with.

When the passenger was rebooked, the luggage also should have been dealt with too and been transferred to UA

AA is liable, but the passenger should lodge the report with UA if the bags didn't get transferred to the flight and so do not arrive

Why do you not think that UA would have been given the bags?

Because I landed at DCA on AA and flew out of IAD on UA. There was no way that UA could have gotten the bag as I had 1.5 hours to get from DCA to IAD to catch the flight. As a result the AA to UA bag transfer would have to happen at a later date or in the destination city (which ended up happening)

Update - I filed a claim with UA. Bag ended up on the morning DCA-CLT flight on AA. I called AA and they put a note in the file for AA CLT that UA has the claim and then UA that the bag was in CLT. Likely unnecessary, but wanted to speed it up as much as I could.

End result, UA got my bag and had it delivered this afternoon ^ overall, despite delays, great service recovery by AA and very good end to end service by UA.

Where this gets really complicated is when you change destination airports and the new carrier doesn't fly to your original destination.