Jacksong

Hi all - hoping someone with more experience of these things can give me some pointers of how to get a sensible answer out of the system.

Arrived at SJC today from LHR to find my bag not there. Very annoying as I have no clothes or anything without it but I have travel insurance and can buy some clothes in the short term if I can find my sizes - I'm more worries about my ski boots in there as if they don't turn up in a day or so they mean I have to cancel the ski part of my trip or incur costs for no fun!

But delayed/lost bags happen - what is frustrating me is trying to get a sensible answer out of where my bag is/has been. The airport handed me a form, said I could track it online but when I came to do so I noticed the file reference number hadn't been completed so I couldn't. I raised a new case online but that is still saying they're looking for it with no indication of where it was last seen in the system.

All the US phone numbers closed at 8pm west coast time which was after I had got to the hotel and the UK number refuses to deal with luggage issues outside of the UK.

What I'm trying to do is get hold of a human who can just look at the computer and say "yes we last saw your bag scanned at XXX and it's not moved/been lost sight off/whatever since there" but that seems to be nigh on impossible - anyone know a way ? (and no I do not have status so no support there). All I am really trying to find out is some idea of where my bag is so I can make a judgement call on how to proceed with buying new clothes etc - do I need one days worth or 8 days worth etc etc and cancelling/re-arranging other plans but that seems to be next to impossible.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

nufnuf77

Forget trying to get hold of anyone, buy the stuff you need, including ski boots, as long as you don't go over £1000 or so it should be fine. In your online tracker update the address when you move from your hotel.
Nothing can or will be done or achieved by calling, no-one is going to physically go look for your bag whilst you hold.

ianwall

Personally I wouldn't get too stressed. One of the best ski trips I've had was when my ski luggage didn't arrive and the airline paid for me to buy new ski clothing and hire much better skis and boots than my own.

As I​​​​​​ wanted new ski clothes anyway and the conditions were better suited to powder skis, I was actually quite happy. Meanwhile the PIR tracking kept me up to date within my luggage's journey around the Caribbean, Central America and Arizona.
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Good luck.

Jacksong

Unfortunately without the boots I can't ski - they are extremely custom molded to my rather odd shaped feet on both the shell and the inliner, rentals and vanilla boots give me crippling pain.

Really i just wanted someone to yank the current info from the computer but it seems even doing that is impossible, I can;t even get a confirmation that the luggage was even scanned in at heathrow like I can with other airlines!

Oh well - guess I just have to hope I get them back eventually - they're the only thing in there that isn't relatively simple to replace and I can't fit them in a carry on.

Thanks.

nufnuf77

They would see exactly the same thing you do in world tracer.

windowontheAside

Bottom line is that there is no-one doing the role you describe, so as much as you look you won't find him/her.

All you can do is ensure your contact details are correct and let the system do its thing. Your chasing won't change anything. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Jacksong

Interesting - so that means that my bag really is lost then since the world tracer says it has no idea where my bag is and doesn't seem to show it ever having entered the system!

Saltire74

Probably not so helpful but I’d say you’ve probably got more chance of winning the lottery.

S

Swampz64

Sounds like your boots need to be in your hand luggage if they are so essential to the success of a trip.

simons1

Sadly a waste of time trying to contact anyone. You will wind yourself up doing so and if the phone is answered the operative will say anything to get you off the line.

I believe Works Tracer is updated on a batch basis and it will eventually catch up....indeed there is a decent chance your baggage will appear before it does. However this is dependent on flight frequencies etc.

Buy whatever is required, although something made to order will clearly always be an issue sadly.

scottishpoet

Phoning someone will frustrate you even more

They see what you see in world tracer, but they will tell you anything just to get you off the phone

Pour yourself a glass of wine, put your feet up and get on with your life. Normally your bags will rock up in a few days.

Buy what essentials you need and bill them to BA.

scottishpoet

Most of us would define it as lost, but the official term at the moment is delayed, it is not officially lost until it has been delayed for a couple of weeks.

Yes in the world of computers that we have today you would think technology could tell us much more than we see in World tracer.

What may have happened is the tag may have fallen off your bag in flight , so it may not be where it was when it was last scanned.

Globaliser

It's not a lot of use now, but I would echo this advice for the future.

I recently flew from London to Queenstown, arriving 36 hours before starting one of the Great Walks. If the hiking gear - particularly boots - had not turned up, the walk would have been in jeopardy. I didn't fancy my chances of buying at short notice a pair of new boots that would fit my feet, and starting a multi-day hike with brand new boots. So all the hiking gear was hand carried to ZQN, just in case. (Of course, this guaranteed that the checked bags were promptly delivered there as planned.)

It's different for anything else that can be easily replaced at the destination. And it's different on the way home when it doesn't matter if the boots don't turn up for a few days.

simons1

Let's not mislead the OP or cause alarm. It isn't lost after 24 hours. That's nonsense, especially if in a route where there is 1 rotation a day.

There is a 93% chance the bag will be reunited with the owner.

And UK airlines allow 21 days.

EsherFlyer

Is that 93% of all bags loaded, or of bags that are initially delayed?