TheHorta

It’s gotta be me. The Travel Deities have cursed me.

First DL150 LIM > ATL, now our HSV > ATL > AMS > ATH gets double whammied.

Flew this past Friday, a couple of days after finally getting home from LIM. Packed 4 checked bags to bring “supplies” from our Church to help some isolated in Armenia. 3/4 bags were supplies, 1 was our clothes, toiletries, etc. We booked a separate itinerary ATH > EVN on Aegean.

Everything starts off great, but mid-TATL I get a notification that the AMS > ATH segment is outright CANCELLED. OK, feels eerily familiar, but “stuff happens.”

Get to AMS ontime, make a beeline for the 52 Crown Lounge. We arrive within 30-ish minutes of lounge open and meet two extraordinarily helpful KLM reps at the help desk. They swoop into action, get us on the next scheduled nonstop to ATH the following day, and promise our bags will make it along with us. They hand us a stack of vouchers for meals, transport and hotel and off we go to spend some time with a friend in AMS with our newfound extended layover — really a blessing in disguise because he recently lost his wife and was in the dumps and benefitted from our time with him.

Next morning, en route back to AMS, I get a DL app notice that one or more of our bags were loaded onto DL73 heading back to ATL in <2 hours!!!

Get to the airport, rush to 25 Crown Lounge, a far less helpful agent says flat-out “That’s impossible, my computer says we have all 4 bags in our possession.” My Spidey Senses are at DEFCON-5 and I politely say “I’ll bet you €1,000 that the bag is on that DL plane heading back to ATL.” She doesn’t wager, but sticks to her guns, so I tuck tail and head back to my banana and cappuchino, but decide to call KLM baggage anyway and see if I can shake the tingles.

They basically reiterate the agent’s schtick, but open a case anyway.

We board AMS>ATH, get to baggage at ATH, and sure enough, our big Tumi with all of our personals is MIA. A few hours later, I get a notice that the bag has been offloaded in ATL.

OK… so now someone — KLM or Delta, don’t care who, will be paying for a new mini wardrobe for the two of us. Only issue is I foolishly load my newly prescribed heart meds into the pillbox with my vitamins. Yeah… amateur move, but in my feeble defense I’ve never been on any prescription before.

KLM says they’ll make it right and get the bag to EVN for us, but I’m afraid we’ll cross paths and the bag will arrive 5 minutes after we depart Armenia, and EVN doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in their competence.

So… I’m not sure if there’s anything I should press for in light of our second straight cancellation and the bag debacle. Aside from the HSV>ATL segment, everything else is KLM metal — though booked 006 DL.

As a friendly PSA, y’all should avoid any plane I happen to be on. 🥴

Oh yeah… Merry Christmas from Yerevan!

steveholt

I'm sorry you went through all this, and it's not your fault that your luggage was lost, but .... this is the rookiest of rookie mistakes, first prescription or not. At least you're owning the responsibility for making the mistake.

shoodawg

Never. Check. Baggage.

CaliguyNYC

So since your ATH flight was cancelled and you flew KLM from ATL, you will qualify for EU compensation since you arrived 24 hours later (given the mileage you should get like 600 euro each or something like that). You apply for that on KLM’s website. I believe for the baggage delay you can apply via delta.com given iticket sold by DL and it is a JV flight. DL is usually pretty generous assuming you don’t go overboard. I attended a wedding in London and they lost my mom’s bag (no status with DL). DL paid for three outfits to attend the different wedding events.

TheHorta

Yeah, 100% nailed it. I’m still trying to figure out “what was I thinking” on that score.

Fortunately, there’s a nicely stocked pharmacy on the arrivals level at ATH, just before you exit the airport, that took pity on me and let me buy the necessary meds without a prescription or consult for a very reasonable price, so I don’t have to worry about risking a couple of weeks going without.

On that note, my generic legacy of “bad luck” reared it’s ugly head, as I just happen to be one of the Chosen to get documented myocarditis / GLS from the “Big P” jab.

Go figure.

TheHorta

They wouldn’t let me carry on 4 large suitcases, as they likely wouldn’t fit in the overhead bins. 😉

moondog

How would you bring four large suitcases on four separate flights, some of which are on small planes?

If it wasn't for the Rx meds, it seems like the op is going to make out pretty well in the end. You HBO guys are missing out on Delta funded shopping sprees.

etiene

The cancellation was probably due to high winds over recent day so most likely wouldn’t qualify for compensation, just duty of care.

cvision

This is the AC (PH-BCL) that was supposed to operate the AMS-ATH flight on Saturday, if this was really due to high winds why do they fly to northern Finland (albeit delayed)?
Three of those flights in a row to Athens had been canned and instead flown to Munich and so on, so unless there's something extraordinarily going on in Athens, this should be claimable.

fuyao

incorrect, montreal convention has nothing to do with ticketing carrier.
In general, always file a montreal convention claim with all operating carriers involved, this must be done in addition to the baggage irregularity report.
And yes, you can go up to ~1600€, so no reason to hold bac

zeke3

That is some extraordinary bad luck. I’m still trying to work out how a bag that made it to AMS on KLM ended up going back to ATL on Delta. I don’t think that would have triggered automatically after AMS-ATH canceled.

northinsouth

OT: Sorry this happened to you, but enjoy Yerevan. I work there once or twice a year: if you get a chance, hit The Club for Lavash or some really great food done relatively inexpensively.

wrp96

I was about to post a personal note to avoid any flights you've booked when I saw this sentence. Hope your travel luck improves.

ShopAround

My AMS-LUX flight was canceled on the 21st, supposedly because of weather. KLM rebooked me on the 24th, which was not going to work. I got a refund and had to take three trains to get to my destination, which wasn’t fun, but at least I made it. I don’t expect I would get any compensation because they’ll claim it’s weather but rebooking me three days later is just ridiculous.

halls120

For most trips, the carry on experience works. Not for a longer trip, unless you like washing clothes every other night.