Airframe

It will probably come as no suprise to most of you, but in today's Times 07/01/05 an article regarding the different ways IATA & US carriers want to try to rectify the tracking label situation to prevent luggage loss, contains a list from 26 European airlines regarding how much baggage they lost during the period Jan - Oct 2004.

KL tops this list with 19.9 pieces per 1000 passengers.

To me that equates roughly to an average of 6-7 pieces for each long haul flight !!! ( 300-350 pax each flight )

Next on the list in second is BA - 18.7 per 1000
4th Lufthansa - 16.5 per 1000
7th Air France - 14.1 per 1000

The source of the figures was the airlines themselves ( possibly doctored then aswell ) as Aer Lingus, JAT, Olympic & Virgin refused to provide their figures. No budget airlines listed either.

Moral - When flying KL take carry on !!

RichardB0777

I'm not surprised. I took them three times in the last two months and lost at least one bag all three times.

Cris L

Ouch.

Idon't recall ever losing my baggage ! Slightly delayed a few times, but never lost, and I've been KLM elite since 1994

TonyS

Do you know something that we do not. My last few flights (to PEK, AMS etc) have all involved delayed luggage - up to three days for PEK!

johan rebel

As most of you probably know by now, I can easily beat that : I've been flying KLM since 1959 and they have never lost any bag of mine, nor has any luggage ever been delayed.

Edited to add that I nowadays of course do my utmost to avoid checking luggage, so their opportunities to loose my bags have been few and far between the last ten years or so.

johan

Cris L

Yeah - don't check bags !

TrayflowInUK

Then you get accused of being "The Ugly American"

I decided to check my guitar when I flew HAM-AMS-HUY on Monday. Yep, delayed.

KL has never lost any of my luggage, but I've had >12hr delays probably 75% of the time.

MAN Flyer

I've been fortunate to have been stung just once by KLM, and fortunately that was arriving back in MAN so no huge worries. Still took them 3 days to deliver it even though it arrived later the same day .

apirchik

I'm not surprised to see KL and BA on top of the list. It's more a function of their hub airports than the airlines themselves. Schiphol and Heathrow have some of the worst luggage systems in any major airport worldwide.

Aviatrix

I think it's pretty obvious that airlines which carry a lot of transfer passengers will be fairly high in the "lost luggage" tables. I haven't seen statistics but believe KLM with its small home base probably carries a higher percentage of transfer passengers than most other carriers in Europe, so it's not surprising that it's fairly high on the list.

Maybe a fairer way to look at lost luggage is to have tables of "lost luggage per 1000 transfer passengers".

alanw

My first ever flight on KLM was BCN-AMS-NYC, part of an itin that continued to ATL, SAN, LAX, and finally SEA over the course of a week. I was awfully new to international travel, and had a laptop case and fairly large garment bag. When I went to check the garment bag in BCN, the agent, without looking up, said, "So, you want to roll the dice, do you?"

The woman in NYC was only to happy to tell me that my luggage had not been lost, only delayed. When I got to ATL, the bag was in NYC. When I got to SAN, the bag was in ATL. When I got to LAX, the bag was sitting on my front porch in SEA, where it remained for three days until I got home.

Armed with my newly-minted WP Silver card, I dashed off a letter to NW, attaching receipts for the luggage, suit, shirts, and other miscellany I had to replace enroute. They sent me a check for $680 and three days later an extra 20,000 miles appeared in my account.

I can imagine what KL's response would be.

tim1966

Doesn't surprise me at all I have had so many problems with delayed baggage with KLM I have almost lost count. I usually bank on it getting there 24hrs later than me!!

I have just got back from Whistler in Canada where I was talking to an American guy who just got in from Chicago with United. They had managed to leave several containers behind leaving him and 40 other passengers without luggage. Not a great way to start to a skiing holiday!

PeteW

There's a sharp contrast between KL and NW practices with delayed baggage. Flying AMS-MSP-TUS 10 days ago, our bags were left in AMS - nobody in MSP was at all surprised about this (even the US Customs agent said that it happens all the time).

In TUS, NW staff gave outstanding service. They knew what had happened to the bags before we arrived, told us when to expect them and tols us we could buy essential items & claim back the cost. Checking in at TUS for the return flight, the NW agent recognised our names, volunteered that NW owed us money for expenses & asked for the receipts so he could give us a refund. He wrote us a check there and then.

Compare this with KL - it takes a series of increasingly cross letters before they'll admit liability for delayed baggage. They attempt to shunt responsibility to passengers' travel insurance - even though the EU regulations on their own website set out the airline's responsibility.

Sjoerd

This is confirmed by my experience. I have been Royal Wing / Platinum Elite on KLM for 9 out of the last 10 years, I almost always have luggage for check-in, and my bags have *never* been delayed or lost. But AMS is always my arrival or departure airport and never a transit stop for me.

I fly far less on other airlines but my bags have not made connections on LH at FRA, and on CX at HKG.

Steve Fenton

Over the last few years the baggage problem became worse and in fairness to KLM its not their fault. It is a service they pay for at AMS and all the other airports they fly to. However, I will say that when I was making my 4-6 weeks jaunts all over Europe 2 or 3 times a year, I became on first name terms with people in AMS for arranging overnight accommodation for missed connections. I think in one week I ended up in the Van Der Velke A4 3 times - I am not joking. The lounge dragons became good friends and sometimes they would see me twice a day.

I got into a routine for the lost/delayed luggage as I had no other option but to check it in as we had cases with samples in, and what I would do is try and figure out before hand how they would get it to me as once you start an trip with so many stops on they will never catch you up as they dont know where you are and the system is geared up for you to go a destination, stop there and come back.

I flew one night from Cologne to Amsterdam then Manchester. Got to Manchester and all the luggage was missing. In fact the cases were actually too big for the prop job we flew from Cologne on and never got loaded. Would have been nice to be told. Anyway I jumped in my car and headed home to my house about 1 hour away from Newcastle airport.

It was specifically agreed with the Muppets at Servisair in Manchester they would get the bags halted in AMS as the next day I was flying to Milan from Newcastle via AMS. I was asked to check with the luggage people in AMS next day and show them my boarding card and check the luggage in.

I was woken at 1.30 in the morning by a guy in a white van who had spent over an hour driving around in the middle of nowhere ( that’s where I live ) trying to find my house. I basically told him to **** off and take them back and send them to Milan as I had no way to get them to Newcastle as the airport is crap for parking. There was no way I would be allowed to pull up at the front of the airport, off load and then go and park my car.

I went the next morning to get my flight which as usual was delayed. We finally got to AMS and me and another guy who was also flying to Milan were kicked off the plane first and we legged it to the gate as we were told the flight was waiting for us only to find it being pushed back when got there. Now I NEVER run to my flight - regardless of time.

We were then flown to Brussels and then to Milan arriving some six hours late and guess what, No luggage. It took two more days to get it there.

I could write a book on things like this and one day I just might as I can make light of it all and how we compromise without luggage, samples and often people !!!!

9/11 for all it was so terrible, I could write some very funny stories about that as no way anyone was going to complain about anything and I have to say KLM were the best in my eyes the way they handled it and all those thousands of passengers stranded all over the world. We lived in the same clothes for 5 days in the Crowne Plaza in Cologne and how everyone would come in around 6pm each night, strip off and the laundry was whisked away. They laid on a special dining room for everyone to eat in their dressing gowns whilst they waited for the laundry coming back around 9pm.

Anyway bottom line is, KLM dont loose luggage, they just have to mop up the **** left behind by the baggage handlers.