Valet Bag Missing, Bag Number Assigned to Another Passenger in a Different Airport
#17
formerly jackvogt
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Atlanta, GA
Programs: Delta SkyMiles,
Posts: 822
I had an interesting experience with pink tagged bags last September. I was flying a CRJ to Shreveport and I was stuck in line getting a coffee so I was among the last on the plane. The GA scanned my boarding pass, scanned the pink tag, then scanned my boarding pass again. He ripped the bottom portion off and gave it to me. I got on the plane and I got a notification saying that my bag was loaded onto the plane. Once we landed in SHV, I lined up in the jetway as one does on a CRJ flight. All the valet bags were brought up and mine was not among them. I waited a little longer, showed my tag to an employee and they scanned it. It had showed up as a passenger who was flying from ATL to CRW. Panic set in but they told me to go to baggage claim and speak to the baggage office there. Well turns out that it was on the belt...weird and I am now very weary of pink tagging bags. Doesn't seem to be as well documented as regular bag checks.
#18
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: OH
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Posts: 118
My guess is that your bag never was loaded on the plane to CVG and your pink tag was never scanned.
In a post above someone asked if you had dropped your bag in the usual spot at the end of the jetbridge, and you replied that you had dropped it in the usual spot and also that you had waited until everyone boarding to wait to see if you could get the comps. And the GA told you to board and that your seat was not needed - any chance you left your bag near desk and walked down the jet bridge not even realizing ?
In a post above someone asked if you had dropped your bag in the usual spot at the end of the jetbridge, and you replied that you had dropped it in the usual spot and also that you had waited until everyone boarding to wait to see if you could get the comps. And the GA told you to board and that your seat was not needed - any chance you left your bag near desk and walked down the jet bridge not even realizing ?
#19
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Delta has tracked pink tagged bags for almost 2 years now, but I haven't seen the GAs always do it. They almost always do.
Pink tags now scanned
Pink tags now scanned
#20
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Atlanta Metro
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Posts: 2,348
Doesn't your bag have regular ID tags on it? You'd think in almost any of the situations suggested here that someone would've called you by now.
I'm leaning towards the "never got scanned, never got put on the plane" hypothesis. But I'm wondering if it just dropped onto the apron or something and, well, got destroyed.
I'm leaning towards the "never got scanned, never got put on the plane" hypothesis. But I'm wondering if it just dropped onto the apron or something and, well, got destroyed.
#22
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,277
Delta has tracked pink tagged bags for almost 2 years now, but I haven't seen the GAs always do it. They almost always do.
Pink tags now scanned
Pink tags now scanned
I had an interesting experience with pink tagged bags last September. I was flying a CRJ to Shreveport and I was stuck in line getting a coffee so I was among the last on the plane. The GA scanned my boarding pass, scanned the pink tag, then scanned my boarding pass again. He ripped the bottom portion off and gave it to me. I got on the plane and I got a notification saying that my bag was loaded onto the plane. Once we landed in SHV, I lined up in the jetway as one does on a CRJ flight. All the valet bags were brought up and mine was not among them. I waited a little longer, showed my tag to an employee and they scanned it. It had showed up as a passenger who was flying from ATL to CRW. Panic set in but they told me to go to baggage claim and speak to the baggage office there. Well turns out that it was on the belt...weird and I am now very weary of pink tagging bags. Doesn't seem to be as well documented as regular bag checks.
#23
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 44
A group of 6 of us checked in and checked 9 bags. We got to our destination and 9 bags arrived. It was at that point we realized we actually had 10 bags. That 10th bag never got tagged, it got left at the baggage checkin at the departure airport.
I had a real hard time getting Delta to open a lost bag claim because I did not have a claim number.
Despite the bag being tagged with my name and phone number I never got a call.
Three weeks later I got a letter in the mail from the Orlando airport lost and found. They had my bag the entire time and wanted to know how to get it to me.
Odds are if the bag is found, a letter will be generated, not a phone call.
#24
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Manhattan Beach, California
Programs: BMI Diamond Club Gold forever
Posts: 6,367
I had the same thing happen last summer. These numbers get reused way more often than they think, mine was assigned to someone else on the other side of the country as well. I was lazy about filing a claim and suddenly one night it appeared, roughly 4 weeks later, on the front porch of my house!
i got the same story, “ just hang tight and we’ll find it...”. They eventually did!
i got the same story, “ just hang tight and we’ll find it...”. They eventually did!
#25
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My guess is that your bag never was loaded on the plane to CVG and your pink tag was never scanned.
In a post above someone asked if you had dropped your bag in the usual spot at the end of the jetbridge, and you replied that you had dropped it in the usual spot and also that you had waited until everyone boarding to wait to see if you could get the comps. And the GA told you to board and that your seat was not needed - any chance you left your bag near desk and walked down the jet bridge not even realizing ?
In a post above someone asked if you had dropped your bag in the usual spot at the end of the jetbridge, and you replied that you had dropped it in the usual spot and also that you had waited until everyone boarding to wait to see if you could get the comps. And the GA told you to board and that your seat was not needed - any chance you left your bag near desk and walked down the jet bridge not even realizing ?
I was guessing that if the OP had been the last to board, perhaps all bags from the usual valet bag spot at the end of the jetway had already been loaded, so that the OP's bag was left behind. If no one noticed, it would have been loaded onto the next RJ departing from that gate, or perhaps viewed as a bag on the next arriving flight that someone forgot to pick up (in which case if would go to that airport's DL baggage claim office or the airport lost and found, I would think).
#26
Suspended
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: DCA
Programs: UA US CO AA DL FL
Posts: 50,262
Presuming that this was a connection (as it appears to be), the bag is covered by the Montreal Convention even though it was gate-checked on a domestic segment. Thus, OP is covered up to a fair market value of approximately $1,660. While OP was headed home and there are thus unlikely to be any interim needs, if there are, OP may make reasonable purchases and submit those to DL for reimbursement. Their value will reduce the ultimate $1,660 should the bag never turn up. At 20 days the bag is considered lost.
It really isn't OP's problem to worry about who scanned what and how the bag came not to be loaded. The reality is that if he dropped it on the jetway, it was not loaded at all, somehow fell off or got dropped on the ramp, or highly unlikely was left on the jetway and then picked up as part of the arrival of the next aircraft. Also possible that it was simply sent to baggage claim either at DTW or CVG.
If the bag tag is a mismatch, DL will eventually look for the secondary name tag and if that has fallen off too, in the bag.
Keep checking the tag # on the app as it may eventually come to be associated with the PRN when located (or not).
It really isn't OP's problem to worry about who scanned what and how the bag came not to be loaded. The reality is that if he dropped it on the jetway, it was not loaded at all, somehow fell off or got dropped on the ramp, or highly unlikely was left on the jetway and then picked up as part of the arrival of the next aircraft. Also possible that it was simply sent to baggage claim either at DTW or CVG.
If the bag tag is a mismatch, DL will eventually look for the secondary name tag and if that has fallen off too, in the bag.
Keep checking the tag # on the app as it may eventually come to be associated with the PRN when located (or not).
#27
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: RDU
Programs: DL DM+(segs)/MM, UA Ag, Hilton DM, Marriott Ti (life Pt), TSA Opt-out Platinum
Posts: 3,221
FTFY.
Those pink tags only have 6 serialized digits (The last 6). When IATA designed the BMS (Baggage Messaging System) many decades ago, 1 million bags for one carrier probably was many weeks. Now I bet DL (et al) sees 200-250K bags per day checked and maybe a third to a quarter of that number valet tagged. Valet tags are given out in bulk to agents all over the World. It's entirely possible you just got unlucky that someone in ATL had the same number tag. Unfortunate that the agent didn't attach the tag to your PNR via a scan.
Bag tag logic is like this. Say we have tag 4016123456
4 - Is a carrier specified digit. For US carriers, this number usually identifies what *type* of bag it is...a normal checked bag, a valet bag, a separated/rerouted (RUSH) bag, or even some cargo, COBUS, or other.
016 - is the originating carrier ID. i.e. UA is 016
123456 - Last four digits are just serialized and then repeat
Those pink tags only have 6 serialized digits (The last 6). When IATA designed the BMS (Baggage Messaging System) many decades ago, 1 million bags for one carrier probably was many weeks. Now I bet DL (et al) sees 200-250K bags per day checked and maybe a third to a quarter of that number valet tagged. Valet tags are given out in bulk to agents all over the World. It's entirely possible you just got unlucky that someone in ATL had the same number tag. Unfortunate that the agent didn't attach the tag to your PNR via a scan.
Bag tag logic is like this. Say we have tag 4016123456
4 - Is a carrier specified digit. For US carriers, this number usually identifies what *type* of bag it is...a normal checked bag, a valet bag, a separated/rerouted (RUSH) bag, or even some cargo, COBUS, or other.
016 - is the originating carrier ID. i.e. UA is 016
123456 - Last four digits are just serialized and then repeat
Last edited by HDQDD; Feb 19, 2019 at 1:51 pm Reason: Corrected Carrier code 016=UA. 006=DL
#28
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: GEG/DEN/ATL
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Posts: 406
FTFY.
Those pink tags only have 6 serialized digits (The last 6). When IATA designed the BMS (Baggage Messaging System) many decades ago, 1 million bags for one carrier probably was many weeks. Now I bet DL (et al) sees 200-250K bags per day checked and maybe a third to a quarter of that number valet tagged. Valet tags are given out in bulk to agents all over the World. It's entirely possible you just got unlucky that someone in ATL had the same number tag. Unfortunate that the agent didn't attach the tag to your PNR via a scan.
Bag tag logic is like this. Say we have tag 4016123456
4 - Is a carrier specified digit. For US carriers, this number usually identifies what *type* of bag it is...a normal checked bag, a valet bag, a separated/rerouted (RUSH) bag, or even some cargo, COBUS, or other.
016 - is the originating carrier ID. DL is 016
123456 - Last four digits are just serialized and then repeat
Those pink tags only have 6 serialized digits (The last 6). When IATA designed the BMS (Baggage Messaging System) many decades ago, 1 million bags for one carrier probably was many weeks. Now I bet DL (et al) sees 200-250K bags per day checked and maybe a third to a quarter of that number valet tagged. Valet tags are given out in bulk to agents all over the World. It's entirely possible you just got unlucky that someone in ATL had the same number tag. Unfortunate that the agent didn't attach the tag to your PNR via a scan.
Bag tag logic is like this. Say we have tag 4016123456
4 - Is a carrier specified digit. For US carriers, this number usually identifies what *type* of bag it is...a normal checked bag, a valet bag, a separated/rerouted (RUSH) bag, or even some cargo, COBUS, or other.
016 - is the originating carrier ID. DL is 016
123456 - Last four digits are just serialized and then repeat
#29
Join Date: Dec 2009
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#30
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On checked DL bags, I always get tags 4006XXXXXX and either the entire number of just the last six digits seem to work equally well for track my bag in the DL app.