michelle64075

Well i have had an experience with the southwest airlines, i do not fly much at all. i was flying from kansas city to florida I used the mobile check in on the way to MCI (Kansas City) when we pulled up to curbside luggage i had 2 bags he asked for ID and i gave him drivers license he checked the first one and it was 10lbs over weight he gave me my license back and i took luggage back to vehicle and removed items then to back to curbside luggage the same gentleman took and weighed again now it was only 4 lbs over so i repeated again. the same gentlemen then came to the vehicle and carried it to the curbside luggage and he gave me the thumbs up, so i went on inside airport and immediately went through the screening and borded the plane. I now have arrived in florida and i did not receive luggage (and will be here for 2 weeks)!!!! come to find out that my luggage is sitting at kansas city airport police department and they are telling me that it was listed as unattended luggage which is BS. Now does this fall under the compensation of $3300.00??????

garykung

Did you have the baggage tag before you leave the area?

If so, WN would be SOL.

sbrower

Right or wrong, it sounds to me like "No tip, no service."

jeffandnicole

Being that it's known where your luggage is, you won't get $3, much less $3,300. $3,300 is the limit for the amount of the cost of your possessions you no longer have for permanently lost luggage, or a claim you had to file to purchase new clothing during the period of time the airline couldn't find your luggage. It's not automatic compensation because your luggage didn't make the plane.

It sounds like the guy simply weighed the luggage for you. You still needed to check it and get your receipt (aka claim check). You must have been confused at the entire process, but unfortunately this sounds like you'll have to talk to the police department and/or Southwest in order to try to get the luggage down to you. As it appears you never actually checked it, I'm not sure what they can do for you at this point.

Lost

Some questions for clarification...

-Who exactly took your bag? Was the person who took your bags a Southwest employee or (more likely) a contractor? The few times I've been through MCI I haven't checked a bag so I don't know exactly how they work at curbside.

-Did they put a Southwest bag tag on your luggage?

-Most importantly... did you receive the little checked bag receipt when they took your bag? You would have received one for each checked bag.

If there was a Southwest bag tag on the bags and you received the little receipts I do believe Southwest would be responsible for reimbursing you for reasonable costs (a change of clothes, toiletries, etc...) for the amount of time you do have your bags. Don't expect a check for the full $3300 though. That wouldn't be considered "reasonable".

If there was no Southwest bag tag on the luggage hopefully you put your own name/address/phone number tag on the bags. I'm guessing so since the police verified that they have your bags. My best guess as to what would happen is if Southwest can confirm that you do own the bags they have, they'll get a very thorough hand search, then they'll be put on a flight to your destination for you to pick up at the airport, or shipped to you in Florida if driving to the airport would be difficult.

Often1

Once the bags are checked in, they become WN's responsibility and WN has the responsibility to get them to OP and to cover his out-of-pocket during the time it takes to get the bags to him.

If OP did not check the bags in (he should have a WN bag tag receipt for each bag), it is not surprising that the bags were collected by law enforcement as they presumably were simply sitting unattended.

Need a specific answer from OP as to whether he has a bag tag receipt.

NextTrip

It seems the original poster didn't understand how curbside checkin works. If curbside checkin just weighed the bags but never saw his boarding pass, they wouldn't even know where the bags were to go. He didn't complete the process before walking away.

joshua362

I checked bags at WN MCI for almost 20 years and always found the bag contractors extremely nice, efficient & cooperative (typical mid-west tude), although more diligent than others about weighing bags that appear close. Perhaps he judged it as overweight immediately, went to the scale to confirm, gave everything back for the OP to correct (twice) and "thumbed up" the success of the weight (only). OP took off, bags treated as abandoned. This is how I would place my wager.

OP is SOL without those tags.

ursine1

OP said she gave her ID to the attendant.

This is pretty simple. If the OP has a bag claim ticket as proof they checked the bags, then it's Southwest's problem. If not, then it's the OPs problem.

joshua362

Yes, and got it back along with the rejected bag. If he went through the check-in motions first then took the bag over for a weigh in, then maybe she has a case. But, from experience, a bag even a few pounds over is going noticed, questioned and weighed immediately before wasting time on the check in. It does all hinge on the claim tags.

ursine1

"OP said she gave her ID to the attendant," was a reply to, "If curbside checkin just weighed the bags but never saw his boarding pass, they wouldn't even know where the bags were to go."

Curbside reps begin with the passenger's ID, boarding pass (if printed) and/or destination. The passenger record is generally called up before bags are taken / placed on the scale. In this case, that passenger info was likely cleared when the bag was returned to the passenger, which may be the root of the problem.

NextTrip

Exactly. Curbside checkin idoesn't leave a transaction half done and hold up a line while a PAX goes off to fiddle with their bag...TWICE!

photomikey

On a 60lb bag no less. There's no way even a rookie traveller wouldn't know it was overweight, hell, you'd hardly be able to carry it!

Often1

Nobody here knows what happened and until (if) OP returns with a simple answer to a simple question, it isn't worth speculating about what someone would have done because we don't know.

I also don't think that it matters whether OP is a first-time flyer or flies every week. If you know the rules, that is great. If you don't, you look them up or you ask. WN's bag rules are not only on its website, but as with all e-tickets receipts, the charges, if any and the limitations, e.g. weight, for the first & second bags are listed for each segment.

Hopefully we'll hear back. If we don't, there will be endless speculation.

joshua362

Tru dat. But again, from experience, the bag scale at MCI is away from the check-in desk, not built in like an airplane counter. Highly doubtful the computer and line was held up while she did the repacking and reweighing dance twice. Perhaps the luggage Gentleman was being overly helpful by helping bring it to and fro the car but likely the OP ran away before the transaction was completed.

I'll even speculate the bags didn't have external tags or they would have taken steps to page her inside the airport or at the gate!