prestonh

Sorry for your trouble. It's not clear from your post if you made a lost/delayed baggage claim with ua. Imo this is a necessary first step regardless of outcome. Also check your travel insurance as most have delayed/lost baggage coverage.

jsloan

And, Australia has ratified the Montreal Convention, so it applies, rather than the Warsaw Convention.

1288 SDR is about $1725, give or take, at current exchange rates.

Aussienarelle

Thank you jsloan . This was the part i did not understand.

i filed the claim as soon as I landed and United is still tracing the bag.

TerryK

You need to call UA baggage tracing. Track My Bags is not reliable. I have had several instances where Track My Bags showed no information when phone agent was able to trace it and eventually delivered it.

CPS89

I had a bag "delayed" on a IAH-ORD flight four days ago. I watched from the plane as my bag was loaded on the plane at IAH, but I can't recall if it got scanned onto the plane. I am certain it was my bag as it's pretty unique. I am almost certain my bag is sitting in ORD somewhere.

ORD is my home airport. I have called the premier baggage desk twice in the past two days to see if they would authorize reimbursing me for a new bag purchase as I depart again on Monday morning at 6am. Both times they told me they found the bag in IAH and they are sending it on a flight that morning. It did not come on a flight yesterday morning, and it appears that it did not come on a flight this morning.

FWIW the baggage claim tracker says they're still looking for the bag in IAH. I am not sure where the agents are seeing that they found the bag and are sending it.

Do I just buy a new bag and send it in for reimbursement and hope they pay it? Has anyone experienced this situation?

cfischer

Call 1K. There is still a special bag desk for 1K ... they were very helpful to track down a bag for me before.

Usually UA will reimburse reasonable expenses, depending on your ticketed cabin and status that can be less or more. I have never had issues submitting say $200 in receipts for a 3 day delay ... assuming you'll get it back soon.

lincolnjkc

FYI -- I've heard that UA is still working through the collateral damage of last week's meltdown and while certain things require the BRC to authorize (based on either time since loss or value or both) the BRC is backed up and there is a somewhat unusual method being used to express through that logjam. Essentially, though it sounds as if an airport BSO agent tells someone that something will be done as far as compensation (and follows the appropriate internal documentation steps) the BRC will rubber stamp it and process it as quickly as they can.

I don't think the baggage claim tracker has ever reflected my bag being found -- even days after it's been delivered to me. Granted my sample size is 2-3 times per year but I wouldn't put too much faith in that. What I would be tempted to do -- though ORD being a hub (and see above meltdown comment) would be to either call the ORD BSO's local number or pop in to the BSO and (politely) tell them that the BRC says your bag has been sent and ask if they're able to check, and if they can't check or can't find it at ORD ask if the BSO can authorize the replacement bag buy (or give you one of their spares, or give you an ETC equivalent to a bag purchase -- which would be easier to process on-the-spot at the airport level)

CPS89

Thanks for the advice. I tried it out as I had a couple of hours free today and popped into the ORD BSO.

For anyone that's thinking about trying this in the future, it wasn't worth the effort. The lady at the BSO did a cursory check for my bag, and she didn't find it. She was unaware of it being shipped in from IAH. Referred me back to the BRC phone line.

I also tried calling the 1K desk, and they forwarded me to the same outsourced call center that I've been dealing with. The agent told me it'll be sent on the next available flight as they did for the last five days. I'm sure they just couldn't fit it on the other ~50 IAH-ORD flights in that time period.

I just filed a claim and chalked it up as a lost bag. Thanks again for all the great advice here- even if it didn't work for me this time!

Aussienarelle

So I did finally receive my bag after 9 nine days. I had good experiences with the 1K baggage line the first two times I called in, albeit long wait times, but the third time the person was so unhelpful. The third person stated that as the bag had been handed off to VA there was nothing they could do, even though the flight she told me had been two days earlier and had been cancelled and I shared that information with her that a cancelled flight two days earlier was of no assistance to me tracking down my bag. I contacted a few different folks at United as there was most definitely something that could be done - contact baggage service with VA, contact the station manager in Melbourne or Sydney. At no time was my bag supposed to go to Melbourne and then be put on a VA flight and I was planning on the morning of Day 10 on going out to Sydney airport to see the station manager at Sydney airport. Heck I was happy to get on a flight to Melbourne is necessary to find my bag.

I have now submitted my claims for the purchases I made over a few days - just a couple of each day in the hope that my luggage would turn up that day.

Uncertain why there are not better processes for tracking luggage. I am thinking of getting the air tags after this experience.

Aussienarelle

Impressed with the reimbursement side of the delayed luggage. When filing the claim it did say 6-8 weeks which was fairly understandable based on the number of delayed and cancelled flights during the period for my delayed luggage but I received a response after 10 days and they approved the claims less the initial amount they had already put into my bank account the day I landed and I was told when claiming that amount this would likely happen). It states I should reveive a check within 21 days which means I will have the funds in time to pay my credit card bill which is good timing.

As an FYI for the eight day delay (really closer to nine days) my claim was significantly less then the maximum of $1,500 but came out to just under $100/day. (I attempted to be very reasonable with my purchases and tried to purchase things on sale as i had a couple of functions and events that were planned that i needed to attend and it is Winter and has been quite cold.)

Although I was not happy about the delayed luggage experience - nine days of which 7 were sitting in an airport in another city, United made it right in the end.

Goodwill has been generated by the quick turn around time on the claim and makes up for the horrible experience with the 1K baggage claim call - had two wonderful folks and then the third person was so unhelpful and dismissive that I wrote into 1K voice on how that agent could have provided help and perhaps they should update their SOPs and not tell a customer there is nothing they can do.

CPS89

I am so frustrated with UA and am looking for how the more experienced members here would move forward in my situation. My bag was delayed ORD-IAH beginning of July. Was told bag was found and to be sent on the next available flight for five straight days, and was never sent. Was told to file a claim after 5th day- which I did. I have since replaced 90% of the stuff including the bag.

Lost bag was delivered to me on 7/26. Arrived with popped open lock/damaged bag and roughly 30% of the value of the bag missing. First thought was CBP grabbed/opened my bag but there's no note. I called 1K and they sent me to the outsourced baggage center which wanted to open a new claim. I hung up when they said they wanted to open a new claim- I have zero trust in this team to do anything after our first 5-6 conversations.

I wrote to customer care and 1K voice and said they were investigating on 7/8. They have not responded and I'm hesitant to reach out again. My instinct is to just wait it out and see if they pay the initial claim. My worry with this route is that the deny the claim because the bag was delivered, then deny a new claim because it wasn't sent in time.

Alternately, I'm considering reaching out to DOT. It was a 14 day trip and the claim is just short of $3000- I don't want to screw this up.

Flying Machine

if I recall correctly United pays $1500 after five days if the bag is missing. I’m not an expert in this field, is the $3000 what you’ve replaced so far and have receipts? I’ll leave it to the other Sage Flyertalkers to communicate more specifically. Many years in the past there was a 1K baggage office, does that no longer exist? Best of luck

WineCountryUA

UA removed that statement a couple months ago but at least one poster mentioned getting that attemp (without receipts) last month.

DOT (for domestic itins) requires airlines to cover up to $3,800 with receipts (but seems to accept estimates for older items). Note airlines do not offer replacement but rather depreciated value.

CPS89

I have receipts for replacements for about $2300. I'm concerned because it was hard to do a replacement at the same price point. The same bag in the modern model was $200 more expensive to replace vs the purchase price in 2018. One of the items was a 2pc suit that was purchased for $850 in 2018. I replaced it with a different suit at ~$1000- will they cover full replacement cost or just $850? In addition, I was able to purchase a few of the same dress shirts/pants, but they're now 20% more expensive than when originally purchased. If I get reimbursed, is it at purchase price or original price?

I called the 1K line twice and asked to be transferred to the 1K baggage desk, and was sent to the ICC both times. Both times were outside M-F 9-5 and I don't know if that makes a difference.

SPN Lifer

Or the original price minus depreciation, that is, the "fair market value", of the missing items?