JackIs

Hi y'all. Enjoy the rant if you'd like. I was flying from MAD-MIA-CLT. MIA-CLT was delayed for 3 hours due to the normal "prior A/C maintenance delay" I get to CLT at midnight, 3 and a half hours late. Neither of my 2 bags come out from the claim. BSO is no help at all, as the moody lady refused to help. I know, they have a hard job to work in the middle of the night, but I wish they had some more common decency. The bags were offloaded from the plane at 12:10am, so there is no reason to not get them? It was 2am by now, 2 hours later, and I have been waiting for my bags, as the BSO lady advised. I wanted to file a claim with her but she would not let me as it has not been 6 hours. Eventually at 3am, one of my bags came out 3 hours after we landed. Where in the world is my other bag? Both bags were unloaded? Keep in mind that we were going to Columbia SC which is about an hour and a half ish away so we really just wanted our bags, especially because we all knew they were in CLT. The Iberia to AA change didn't do anything to the bags, it was just AA being AA. At 4am, the lady just goes "buy a hotel in Charlotte and AA will cover it if you care about that other bag so much". She probably was just trying to get me out. I was traveling with 3 other friends from Madrid to CLT who all got their bags on time. Around 2am ish, they left and took the car back to Columbia. I ended up getting the hotel as the lady advised and records show the bag arrived at the BSO at 10AM today. How does this even happen? Now I have to rent a car to drive back home, 11hours later. I don't want to be a DYKWIA but flying as an EX-Plat, this is not the service you expect at all. I mean, I fly AA pretty much every week and they never can get their stuff together. This is the breaking point for me, and you might see me on DL from now on.

moondog

Why did they route you via MIA in the first place?

JackIs

Prior delay out of MAD.

moondog

Ah, maybe EC261'can help make up for your hassle a bit.

JackIs

If i departed out of MAD and connected thru MIA to AA would EC261 help at all? I wouldn’t think it would

LBBflyer

Baggage service, both the results and the staff, at CLT has been the worst in the system in my experience. It's terrible, and I hate everytime I have to trust them with even a single bag.

Dave Noble

No it doesn't. EC261 does not cover baggage collection times.

moondog

If not weather or ATC related, being bumped off the CLT flight and arriving 12 hours later should be covered.

ZenFlyer

Just wanted to say that this situation sounds extremely frustrating, and wish you luck with its resolution.

JJeffrey

Agreed. I can't think of many things less appealing than sitting around in the CLT baggage claim at 3am arguing with a useless baggage agent and waiting for hours for bags that may not ever appear.

JackIs

Talking to a brick wall on twitter.

JackIs

Tell me about it. One bag is still nowhere to be found.

JackIs

Keep in mind, both bags were offloaded 10 mins after arriving to the gate in CLT. What was AA doing with my bags for 3 hours is my most important question.

Dave Noble

Arriving 3.5 hours late should provide for eligibility for EUR300 assuming it wasn't an extraordinary situation that could not have been reasonably prevented. The additional 3 hours waiting for bags is outside the terms of EC261

moondog

AA 749 is supposed to arrive in CLT at 330p (not sure how DST impacts this). The OP suggests that he didn't reach CLT until midnight (and the bag waiting took place after he got there). In any event, I think he might qualify for the full payout.