All-

Just got back from a glorious 10 days in Positano and Capri, but unfortunately the trip ended in a rather stressful way. Long story short, we flew home yesterday on CO71 AMS-EWR but 2 of our 4 bags didnt make it. They made an announcement on the plane that the luggage belt broke and they were going to have to load the bags by hand. As a result, they didnt think that all of the bags were going to make it. Since we had just arrived from FCO, I was positive our bags would be left behind. I will give CO credit, they did their best and even delayed departure to get as many of the bags as possible but eventually had to vacate the gate for an incoming plane. Normally, I wouldnt care but my wife was going bonkers because one of the bags had stuff in it literally worth over $10,000 (mostly shoes and bags, each averaging over $500). Of course, thats one of the bags that didnt make it. My questions is this, if they knew they couldnt get all of the bags on, should we have been given the option to get off and wait with our luggage? Are we entitled to any compensation?

PS- Please dont tell me that if the stuff was so important to me we should have carried it on with us. I know that, but people check expensive things all the time.

BigPoppa,

Sorry, I don't think you are entitled to compensation. If you had been mid-trip and needed to buy things, then you would have had a case, but it sounds like the airline did all it could. As long as CO gets your bags to your home in good condition, I would just accept it as a somewhat stressful experience and move on.

Mike

It sounds as if they had no idea which bags would make it on and which would be left behind. To determine that would have taken extra time and would have resulted in less loading time and fewer bags loaded. As far as compensation is concerned, have you lost anything? Were the bags delivered in a timely fashion? You haven't complained about problems with those aspects. Stuff happens. I don't see any real problem requiring compensation here.

Bags havent been delivered yet, we were told they are on the AMS-EWR flight that gets in at 12:21 today, so hopefully we will ge them tonight. I agree 100% about "stuff happens", just wanted to get some other takes on the situation. I very rarely check bags so this is new to me.

PS- flew a 777 there and 764 home. IMO, the BF seats on the 767 BLOW the 777 out of the water in terms of comfort while sleeping.

They probably wouldn't be checking expensive things if they were familiar with Continental's baggage liability policy.

you can get compensation for being without the bags but its not that much....

and,
you're a bad jew!!!!

Hey, we get an employee discount at Saks!

I agree. The 777 seats are better in the cradle position, however, although the 767 seats are comfy enough.

Tiny compensation at this point. Perhaps $50 tops. Nothing really happened that was avoidable. And I agree with your assesment that you should NOT put expensive stuff in caryones. The TSA in NYC always seems to make the news for "borrowing items" out of luggage they are inspecting...

CM-

If they couldnt guarantee that the bags would make it on the plane (the pilot admitted as much before we took off) and we decided that we were more comfortable not having the bags out of our posession (meaning us in NY and the bags in AMS), would we have been within our right to get off and make CO rebook our BF tix on a later flight? Just curious...

Its funny that they make such a big f'in deal about positive bag matching for things like bumping people, and when its an operational situation, that all goes out the window.....

Very true, however an unavoidable, problem situation is random, a planned - don't board or get off the plane and leave your bag on the flight is intentional.

I certainly think you have a right to leave and stay with the bags. Especially since they don't guarentee the contents. HOWEVER, I also think that it would have to be space avaiable in BF. You couldn't expect them to bump people or put you on another carrier. But, if they have space... sure, I think it is reasonable to stay with the bags.

Me too -- but how easy would it have been to find the bags in question? That would have taken time and the aircraft needed to move to allow another one to access the gate.