Carry-On was taken without my knowledge. Looking for options.
 

Hi everyone; I am new here on the forums.

Long story short, I recently flew on Southwest from San Diego to Oakland. I fell asleep before the plane started takeoff, and my bag apparently shifted around. The person sitting behind me saw my bag, did not know it was mine, and pointed it out to the flight attendant. Without asking the plane if anyone knew whose it was, and without even asking the person (me) whose seat it was directly underneath, my bag was taken and left in San Diego without a word. It took a day for my bag to be found by luggage claims, and after getting in contact they are requesting that I create a FedEx account and that the bag be shipped at my expense. I would like to know if I have any options at my disposal as far as requesting that they cover shipping costs, as I am not at fault for the loss of my bag. Thank you!

Edit:

Hey everyone, it looks like responders are looking for more details in order to give me a proper response. Again, new here, and I did not expect so much activity so quickly! I will give all the details I can.

• I put my bag under the seat in front of me. When I woke up, I asked the man seated behind me. He stated that he didn't know whose bag it was and handed it to the flight attendant. I did not mean to make it sound like the bag was "magically" underneath my seat; I do not know where it was. I just assume that if the person next to me paid any attention to it then it must have shifted around.
• I was not on any sort of substance. The flight was later in the night, and I had gotten almost no sleep the night before. I was just waiting to crash as soon as I got on.
• I was nodding on and off for about 20 minutes as the flight boarded and got ready for takeoff. I was early in group B and one of the first to board. I have no idea exactly when my bag was taken, but given that I did not notice anything I assume I must have been nodded off.
• I realized about 5-10 minutes after takeoff that I could not find my bag. That is when I asked the person behind me if he saw my bag, and he relayed to me the story in the first bullet point. I then asked a FA if he knew what they did with the bag, and he said it was left in San Diego. He said that I needed to speak with baggage claims in Oakland and they could help me.
• I arrived in Oakland, immediately went to baggage claim, and after contacting San Diego they told me that they did not have my bag. I called the next morning, and they had found it.
• I feel that there was some kind of misconduct on the part of the airline because the bag was removed without any effort whatsoever to find if it was a passenger's. As said above, I was not out like "sleeping beauty." I was nodding in and out, and most definitely would have noticed any announcements or a flight attendant asking about a bag. I know this because I was woken up by a FA asking around about drinks. I am posting because I want to know if it is permissible on the half of the airline to take a bag off of a flight without a word to passengers. Can they just pick up any bag and leave with it?

Did you put the bag under your seat? Even if you were sitting in the front row, that's a no-no. I don't see how a bag can move all by itself from the row in front of you to the row behind you before the plane starts moving. Southwest apparently doesn't believe that happened. Yet it would have made sense to ask everyone if they recognized the bag. If you were drugged asleep (Ambien is powerful) you might have appeared to respond and not recall what happened.

Twitter @SouthwestAir might be your best bet since local people didn't seem to understand your situation.

OP should definitely clarify the situation a little more. The way the post was written, it could easily be read that they very much were at fault and should be lucky their "unidentified bag" didn't cause a much larger incident.

Wow, you sure are able fall asleep at the drop of a hat!

Please explain. I don't understand how a bag gets removed from the plane as folks are boarding. How do you know they didn't ask who's bag it was if you were already asleep? When did you realize your bag was missing? What was said by you to the flight crew or gate agent at the time?

Since it sounds like you were pretty dare sleepy, is there any possibility you left the bag unattended in the terminal when you boarded?

East the shipping charge and be glad you are getting the bag returned, maybe ask for bag to be sent to OAK airport if more convenient for you . It could have been destroyed out of "an abundance of caution."

I had a DL flight with a mystery carry on, myself and others demanded the removal during departure and taxi. Airport police met plane on taxiway and door was opened to remove bag.

I think we need the long version, addressing at least the following:

1. When did you wake up and notice the problem?

2. "without even asking the person (me) whose seat it was directly underneath". How do you know it was under that seat? Did the FA tell you it was retrieved from there? Did you put it there yourself?

3. Were you under the influence of something which could have interfered with your memory of the removal process, or which could have made it impossible to get a response from you? Ambien or alcohol, especially in combination, can do this.

I concur that you could have lost your items entirely. In that way you are fortunate. The degree of blame Southwest bears depends on the facts. Your long version will help us give you informed opinions.

Since OP stated s/he was directly underneath the bag I assume it was stored in a bin overhead - not under a seat!

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Wrong assumption.

Read it again.

Whoops... when I read it correctly it sounds very fishy..... sorry for the misreading.

LOL at the victim blaming without all the facts. It never gets old.

I asked for more facts but the OP has not returned. In these forums it's sadly common for a poster to raise a complaint while presenting a favorably slanted view of his own role. In the AA account police thread almost every complaint of unfair enforcement contains lies by omission. Only rarely will the poster return to admit lying to readers.

I hope this situation is different, and that the omitted facts support the complaint. Otherwise readers' time has been wasted answering the wrong question.