Anthony

By way of a further update, the bag apparently didn't get put on the flight to London and LHR have had to request that BOG send it on yet again.

I've also had a call from the gate agent in PTY telling me that I shouldn't have filed a baggage report?

In the meantime I've also filed a formal complaint with AA about the conduct of their gate agents in PTY.

JJeffrey

Dear lord.

MSPeconomist

IMO at least one person needs to be fired. Unbelievable, and an inappropriate use of airline records to get your phone number to call you. I hope these guys no longer have your bag.

ctbarron

Please do let us know the final outcome of this.

I tend to believe the early post about lost/missing bags being some type of super-metric that staff in that region are measured on.

formeraa

That person would be the one who has made the PTY agents "responsible" for other airlines luggage issues. Why on earth would PTY be held responsible for this (unless they lost the luggage)?

The important part is to report this mess to the proper authorities at AA and let them know what is going on. This is totally unacceptable.

Anthony

Indeed. BOG didn't send the bag so not PTY's fault.

However they should be held to account for their conduct and I hope the report to AA customer service gets some traction.

In happier news, had a call first thing this morning to advise my bag is in London and will be delivered to me tomorrow (could have been today but nobody is home to receive it).

jmastron

Do you know if the bag never left BOG in the first place, or if after it was unclaimed/untransferred in PTY Avianca redirected it back to BOG to get it to LHR? I wonder if some AA agent along the way is supposed to proactively look for incoming transfer bags and didn't do it, thus the reason for trying to cover their error. They apparently were going to treat you as a flat-tire no-show (not even rebooked just standby for later flights), which is pretty despicable...

Anthony

My understanding is that the bag never left BOG, although the timing of the call this morning to tell me the bag had arrived suggests it may not have come in via AV since their daily flight to LHR is overnight and touches down in the early afternoon. Assuming the information I received yesterday afternoon was accurate (about LHR having to request the bag from BOG).

I don't know what the process is for interlining/transferring baggage behind the scenes but I made the point with the supervisor about the lack of proactive involvement by pointing out that:

I'd been in terminal for 6 hours.
Checkin for the flight had closed earlier (1 hour before departure?).
They called my name during boarding. Had I been in a privileged boarding group, I would have already been onboard and then what would they have done? Physically removed me from the flight? Once onboard I'm legally bound to follow instructions from flight attendants as they're crew. Ground staff, not so much.

zoegksf

Wow, sounds like typical Central American conduct. Once in MGA, there was something odd in my bag, now what I can't recall, and they paged me threatening to remove me from the flight. I just happen to know the station manager there, and their tune sure changed quickly. They actually took me out on the tarmac to open the bag and show them what it was.

Anthony

So the bag was delivered to me yesterday evening and based on the additional luggage tags, Avianca put it on their direct BOG -> LHR flight the same day I left BOG.

Not surprisingly the story I was given by the "helpful" GA at PTY (that he was arranging for it to get into PTY on AV56) was complete BS. As was their conduct tbh.

I'm awaiting a response from Customer Services with interest and will let you know what the outcome is.

corporate-wage-slave

With apologies for this dilatory response, it was mentioned to me at the BA FT Do on Friday night.

I guess what the ground agent in PTY was trying to avoid was a Property Irregularity Report (PIR), in order to avoid a paper trail for "something". Now I can think of 2 reasons for this, but both are based on both the OP and the agent incorrectly knowing that the baggage was sitting in the basement of Tocumen International. It wasn't, it was actually Avianca that somehow got it wrong, but that only emerged late in the day.

But given in the incorrect assumption, one possibility is that a PIR would have been unhelpful with the agent's manager - so in other words something on the checklist had not been done, the agent may have been advised about this previously, and the PIR would highlight (again?) something was wrong - maybe there was a tick in a box, when it could not have happened. The agent was aware of some local failing and therefore was trying to avoid any daylight being shone against it.

Alternatively, in some places as soon as baggage becomes unaccompanied, you need a PIR and additional paperwork to get a bag through local customs officials, and sometimes this causes hassle / difficulties / corruption exposure issue. If there is no paperwork, and the agent knows a helpful customs officer, then sometimes there is less problem, it's all done on a nod and a wink. I really shouldn't draw on stereotypes, but I would suggest this isn't an unusual way of operating in many parts of Latin America.

Had the agent known for sure that the bag was in another city, under another airline, I can't for one moment see the issue, the airline industry is awash with PIRs, they are unavoidable. But two theories, one perhaps to the credit of the agent concerned, one not.

BobbySteel

How did the gate agent call you in London?! Just picked up the phone to ring you???

daniellam

Isn't BOG a drug source origin airport? I remember watching a TV show where passengers of often called before boarding to go down to the baggage room to have their bags opened and often drugs would be found.

Perhaps the OP's bag (does it have external zippers?) was being used (or there was an attempt to) as a "mule" / "vehicle" by AV ramp agents in BOG to transport illicit items out of BOG and the AA staff in PTY know something about it? This might explain their reluctance in the AA staff at PTY letting the OP file a missing baggage report.

Once a missing baggage report is filed, the airline has to clear it through customs at the various ports increasing the chance illicit items may be found in the process. However, by asking the OP to e-mail them directly, they can probably redirect the bag in a way that the customs process is bypassed.

daniellam

Further to my previous post, looks like the OP is lucky this time.

Having done some google searches, much worse could have happened. Maybe you filing a lost baggage report in LON may have foiled an attempt?

The article I found is quite chilling.

https://universaldomainexchange.com/...-huge-problem/

Often1

Forget all the OT discussion about MIA and I-T-I. It has nothing to do with this situation as the bag never made it to MIA. OP did absolutely the correct thing. When his bag did not make it to LHR, he filed with AA as the last delivering carrier. In addition, if he had any interim expenses due to the delayed delivery for typical necessities, he should file those with AA for reimbursement.

The complaint to AA should be clear and succinct and should include the threat at PTY as well as the fact of the call from the PTY agent. Make sure to provide the name of the agent (or at least a good description).

Then, do a thorough search of your luggage and everything in it. Make sure that your bag was not being used as a "mule" and that there is nothing in it which doesn't belong there.