deveras

I'm moving to London in September from New York and have an obscene amount of luggage to take along with me. Since London is not the most economical place to catch a cab into town, and taking the Tube with 150lbs. of luggage is not within my capabilities, the sinister thought occurred to me that if my bags were lost they'd be delivered to my door.

I should also add that I have a circuitous routing to arrive to Heathrow, (3 stops, don't ask) on two partner airlines, AA and Aer Lingus, so it's more likely to happen on its own anyway. As time is not of the essence in receiving my bags, do you think there is any way to for my bags to magically fail to arrive with my plane? Is there any way I could make this scenario more likely to happen? Or is this a terrible thing to try to do in general?

Be gentle!

sadiqhassan

Mess with the tags.

Once when travelling from LAX to LHR via YYZ we wanted to take bags off in Toronto but the agent refused. So we took off the "in-transit" tags and scratched out the "LHR" portion of the tags (as per the agents recommendation!)

Or you could leave old tags on and hope it goes to that destination

Cheers

wahooflyer

Why not just fail to claim your bags at your destination?

I'd think that the airline would have no choice but to hold them in their baggage service office for a few days before shipping them off somewhere.

They probably wouldn't pay for the delivery, but if you're close to the airport a COD probably doesn't cost too much (in the US, baggage couriers generally charge about $1 per mile).

LapLap

I was imaginging it would cost at least 30GBO ($60) per 30kg bag (60lbs??)

And this website gives a price of little less than that
http://www.directbaggage.com/prices.asp

Sorry! But this is not a cheap service in the UK (unlike in Japan which has the marvellous takkyubin)

KyRoamer

Delay at your own risk. Delayed could be delayed forever. Hire a car in advance for less than taxi cost. Too much risk otherwise.

dfwoods

Maybe not the gentle response you are looking for, but why not ship the excess separately? I am not really crazy about the thought of intentionally creating extra costs for the airline as it means that I am going to end up paying for your "lost" bags in my ticket price down the road.

jgoodm

I am sure if you went via the Sky Cap and were nice enough to let him know what you think of his mother he would be glad to see to it that your bags are delayed. You might also try giving a tip of only 35 cents and making a big deal about how nice you are for giving it.

remyontheroad

Actually, funny you should mention it.

There is a specific combo of AF flights from JFK-CDG-IST that has missed the baggage transfer the last three times I took it.

I haven't tried it intentionally -- in which case it probably wouldn't work -- but I always keep it in mind in case I have heavy bags....

In your case, I depending on how tight the connections are, you have a pretty good chance of the bags missing one of them...

gosha83

Or you could fly US Airways and be guaranteed that they will misplace your bags...and will eventually deliver them to your place a few days/weeks/months/eternity later.

mecabq

I will gently echo what some other posters have suggested. Come up with a solution and pay for it -- e.g., rent a cart, book a van in advance, ship your bags, etc. -- instead of trying to cheat the airline.

P.S. If your bags did manage to mis-connect, and the airline delivered them to your new London home, would you tip the driver who brought them?

EWR ATC Hold

Remember that its not the same as a domestic delayed bag--they're not customs cleared yet, so you might find your bags delayed even more than you want them to. I actually just moved to London and ironically forgot a bag at Gatwick . . . I had to go back to the airport to claim it and they were actually really nice about it, but they even wanted to originally escort me back through customs to claim it properly (but finally brought it out to me).

Personally, I'd also hope the airline sticks it to you if they catch you doing this. Don't pack what you can't carry . . .

nimeta

I usually use Kenwood Cars to collect me from LHR, and you can ask for an estate car or a people carrier for a small extra charge.

Their number is +442083468558

They are much cheaper than black cabs and extremely reliable!!

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Amazing! This actually happened to me would you believe - but in the reverse direction (ex London).

I was leaving London for the last time to return to Australia and had mountains of luggage - about 102 kilos. No problems on the transatlantic portion (was flying via the states for a week's break) as was flying biz class on VS and allowed three bags (back in the days of 32 kg each). Got to my US destination ok and then connected to LAX for onward flight. Domestic was on UA in F and again, allowed three bags... but I spent the whole transcon wondering how I could scam the extra weight on Malaysia Airlines who only allowed 2PC. I was thinking of every trick in the book, hoping one would work!

Anyways - got to LAX only to find, after waiting for ages, only two bags arrived and the third was still in Chicago. I filled out the missing bag claim and they said they would ferry the bag to my hotel in LAX (where I had a 7 hour transit).

'Noooo' I screeched - and I made something up about not really going to stay at the hotel. 'The only possibility' I said 'is to ship the bag to Australia'.

'No problems' they said and it duly arrived - no excess charges. Mind you, as I flew MH via KL, my bag arrived a day before I did.

Nice story but a one in a million stroke of luck!

regards

lme ff

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7130e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

You could always try the Henny Youngman approach:

You: I'd like you to send the first bag to London, the second bag to Tokyo, and the third bag to Los Angeles.

Agent: Sir, we can't do that!

You: Why not? You did it last month!

Ryantek

Fly US Airways through PHL!!!