octopic

Just got into Chennai. About 90 passengers had bags that didn't make the flight (I counted so don't think that I'm exaggerating the problem). Unfortunately, I was one of the 90. MAA was not set up to handle that volume of passengers with missing bags (what airport is).

Having never flown LH until yesterday I have no idea what to expect from them in this type of situation. I had been hopeful that being CO Platinum (* Gold) would've helped my bag make it, but no such luck.

andymell

I obviously have no idea what happened to the bags, but as a *G you should get substantial cash compensation on-the-spot to buy necessities until your bags arrive.

octopic

Nothing was offered as the people handling the complaints were airport and not LH employees. Also, they almos thad a riot on their hands with the number of people yelling at them.

weero

The mainstream belief on this forum is that LH is rather reliable when it comes to luggage, compensates generously, and will deliver the bag as promptly as possible to you.

I share nothing but the latest point during my LH flying years. LH always was my record holder in loosing the bags, not once paid me a single cent for the delays and the missing bags ... but they always brought them back to me swiftly. Only once did I have to wait for more than 24 hours for the bag to arrive at my door.

So good luck with obtaining any form of compensation!

CommittedLurker

My bags did not travel with me once, when arriving into CCU.

There were a few of us who did not get our bags on that flight. I got the INR equivalent of about $65, for traveling in paid Business. Y pax got about $40 or so, if I recall. It was handled by a LH Rep.

They took 3 days to get my bags, which came only on the next flight to CCU. I was disappointed with that, as they could have easily brought it in next day via DEL/BOM.

Interestingly enough, when my bags arrived, the courier wanted me to sign that I received my bag with all contents intact and nothing missing, before I had a chance to look it over.

asimha

This happened to me Sat Jan 30th arriving in Chennai late at night after approx 1 hour delay in FRA.

Maybe 15 pax did not get their luggage however compensation was offered (in cash) only to C class / SEN pax.

Luggage showed up the following night and was delivered on Monday morning at my hotel.

Guess I was lucky :-)

Staff in Chennai were very helpful considering the situation!

toyotaboy95

I had a similar incident, not on LH but on SU (handled by AF upon arriving at CDG). 20+ other pax also had bags that did not make connection at SVO. Was given a SkyTeam emergency amenity kit and that was the end of it, got my baggage 2 days later.

Too bad this wasn't CX, they give HK$800/day (US$103).

totti

*Gs normally get the same compensation as SEN card holders. Hopefully LH will deliver your bags soon. Form my experience LH is rather reliable when it comes to luggage. Cases like the one mentioned by to OP are one of the reasons why I still have my AMEX. Their delayed luggage compensation can be really useful in such cases.

oliver2002

My advice to the OP would be to keep all the receipts on the expenses you had and write up a complaint to LH USA when you retrun home. The will refund you resonable expenses at 50%. (if no cash compensation was offered in MAA)

NZguy

When there is a long line (90+ people), I don't even wait. i go to my hotel, call the appropriate number and speak to someone to put the trace on. They scold me for leaving, but wha't the point? Waiting for an hour only burns up an hour of stressful post-flight time (especially long haul international), and it doen't get your bags back any sooner.

I've lost bags a couple of times in the past couple of years. it is amazing how long it takes a bag to catch up sometimes. 24 hours on a long flight seems reasonalbe, since there might not be another flight from, say, singapore until the next day. But more than tha is outrageous and has happened to me three times in the past two years.

I guess that's what travel insurance is for.

octopic

Wouldn't have helped in this case as they still aren't answering the phone in Chennai (the outgoing message says that nobody is available to take the call and try again later). It has been like that during their business hours for the past two days. I did get an update from them (they called me) that they have no idea where my bag is. What boggles my mind is how they end up in a situation with that many people missing bags. Did we end up weight restricted or did they just massively screw up at FRA?

supermasterphil

I doubt weight restriction is the issue. They have to unload cargo first unless there are IATA spare parts for a plane on there but I doubt that all their cargo contained that.

Mayor screw up. What was your connection time? 90 pax with no bags looks more like they forgot an entire baggage container.

octopic

I had a 2.5 hour connection. I purposely took a flight that gave me plenty of time so that I would avoid issues like this

octopic

My bag just showed up. 48 hours later, the original bag tag was in place and everything was in the bag. Not sure what happened, but alls well that ends well.