Lost Baggage when flying QR Business - question re: UA interline & bag tags
 

I just flew Qatar Business IAD-DOH-BKK - and currently trying to figure out what happened to my luggage and how to track it down.

I was originally scheduled to fly IAD (UA) - YUL (QR) - DOH (QR) - BKK (ticket booked through UA) but UA was able to re-route me on the direct IAD - DOH flight after IAD - YUL was cancelled .
The bag was sent to the direct flight as well, while still keeping the UA tag number. QR agent at IAD confirmed that it wasn't a problem and that the bag would be on the flight.

The real mystery is the fact that the Qatar agents at the premium terminal in DOH were also able to confirm that the bag made it on my flight from IAD and was transferred to the BKK flight - which it clearly wasn't.

Is there any way to verify with 100% certainty whether UA transferred the bag to QR? UA is having some major IT issues right now, so I can't help but wonder if something happened on their end (my cancelled IAD - YUL flight is showing on United.com as having departed IAD at 8 PM and arrived at YUL at 6:50 pm - neither of which is accurate or even possible.)

BTW, I've filed a lost baggage claim at BKK upon arrival, but they've had absolutely 0 luck finding the bag so far. I've also tried calling UA and they won't even bother checking whether the bag was transferred to QR - they simply insist that the flights I ended up flying where fully operated by QR and it's their problem.

To sum it up, a few questions:
- is there any way to check whether UA transferred the bag to QR?
- is there a number I could call in Doha to find out whether the bag is still there? So far, Customer Service is bouncing me to Lost & Found, who is bouncing me to baggage services, who is in turn attempting to bounce me to the Premium Terminal.
- Would going to QR office in downtown Bangkok make any sense, or are they powerless to do anything?
- Has anyone here dealt with a similar situation. If so, what was the outcome. I haven't had bags lost in years, so very surprised that it just happened without any major weather issues.

The worst part is that I am scheduled to depart BKK tomorrow and it would be rather difficult for the bag to catch up with me afterwards.

No, there is no way to check for sure. Neither airline will admit guilt. But I suspect it was UA's problem and that they may not have correctly re-labelled the bag in the first place.

I've had similar situation when my bag was simply left in DOH cos on QR's computers it showed me as no-show, and the bag did not go on, even with me on the flight. My booking was for FRA-x/DOH-BKK. FRA-DOH was cancelled so QR rebooked me on LH. I had already checked in my bags. So QR at FRA said that they will let baggage services know. But for some strange reason did not cancel the originl QR FRA-DOH flight. Or that they could not cancel cos the flight disappeared? But in whatever case, that was the reason. So I suspect that could be the case, in that when UA rebooked you , they did not cancel the original YUL-DOH segment but simply added the IAD-DOH sector to the booking. So even though the check in system shows your bag is on the flights, on QR's systems, you actually were not on the YUL-DOH flight and the bag might have been off loaded in DOH for the onward connecting flight to BKK.

I don't know what else to tell you. QR has to find the bag for you. Mine took about 4 days to find. QR did not compensate me. It ended up messy as I've got to write in with my claims to arriving city's main office who would then forward to Doha for approval. In the end I didn't bother and just claimed about $1000 with my travel insurance.

1. Under IATA convention, this is a QR problem as the delivering carrier.

2. Nonetheless, you are right to be proactive yourself.

3. It's unlikely that UA was able to reroute a bag initially destined for Canada to another country. My guess is that the bag is either wending its way to you through its original routing (delayed to next flight) or its sitting at IAD.

I would push QR hard to get on the horn to UA at IAD and YUL and then to their own people at YUL & DOH. Forget what the computer tells them.

Thank you for the suggestions. So far, I've spent quiet a bit of time talking with Qatar reps in Bangkok and Dulles and the only thing that has been established is that it doesn't look like the bag was ever placed on the IAD - DOH flight. It isn't clear however whether it went on to YUL or is still sitting at Dulles. Will be calling Qatar at YUL once they open for the day to get that part figured out.

If the bag is stuck in YUL, would Qatar only send it on it's own flights, or would they be willing to use the fastest method possible? If the former, this will make the situation worse as they only fly to YUL 3 times a week.

I am not as concerned about compensation at this point as I am about just getting the bag as quickly as possible and continuing with the trip. What really bothers me is the fact that the gate agents at both IAD and DOH confirmed that the bag was loaded onto the flights - while it looks like it never actually was.

BTW, does anyone have the number for the relevant office/person at DOH who might be able to help with this in case I don't get anywhere with IAD, BKK, and YUL?


Update for anyone curious: Montreal found the bag and will be sending out this evening. Will wait to celebrate until it actually gets here, but really glad to see some progress.

Michael / Alex?

Hello, kindly let us know if the bag has arrived. If it hasn't, we will elevate the issue to the relevant folks.

We regret this happened to you and hope you'll continue to put your trust with us in the future. For now, our main priority is getting your bag back into your hands.

Thank you.
MS @ The Qatar Airways Community

Hello,
The bag has not arrived yet. I spoke with BKK baggage services this morning (BKK time) and was informed that the bag is expected to arrive this evening (Aug 9).

However, around 2 pm I received a phone call that it will actually be arriving tomorrow afternoon/evening instead . The agent didn't know why the estimated arrival date changed. So still waiting.

Sounds similar to my situation, but in reverse.

Checked luggage from EBB-DOH-LHR-IAD-HSV. QR until LHR, and UA after LHR. 2 of the 6 bags never made it, and in IAD at customs they said the 2 bags were still in DOH. Now, 80 hours later, UA still can't tell me where the additional 2 bags are. They just say they are "looking for them". I'm assuming they are gone into the dark abyss now and we won't see them again. Of course they could randomly show up, but I'm assuming it's not really likely since they supposedly were half-way around the world last time they were scanned.

Since we were in Global First, UA said we would get 3 bags free each, but QR wouldn't honor that leaving EBB, so they charged us $200 each for 2 additional bags, or they told us we could leave our bags at EBB. Thus far, UA has been no help in contacting QR to find the bags. Has anyone found a good QR number to call and push the issue? I'm not really sure if this is UA's problem, since they were the ticketed carrier, and carried me to the final destination, or QR's problem, since they checked me in.

It's the final carrier that is flying you to your destination that is responsible. So the onus is with UA and not QR to find your missing bags. It is irrelevant on whose ticket stock it is issued on.

Global First means nothing to QR cos they are not *A partners. So QR's baggage rules apply hence its only 2 bags each per person.