seenitall

Ouch. I didn't read that OP is on separate tickets. My statement below is valid only if the bag is tagged for interline.

For baggage, it is the final delivering carrier (e.g., Fiji Air in your example) that has responsibility for getting your bag back to you. This is the opposite of PAX where the late-delivering airline has responsibility for getting the PAX to their ultimate destination.

smxflyer

Flew SYR-YYZ-CPH, bag didn't make it on YYZ-CPH. Was delivered to hotel the next day in CPH. I believe AC's handling company had to take the bag through customs. They did not have me sign any forms or declarations.

Also flew LIS-YYZ-SYR. Misconnected and then my bag was lost for about 30 days. They eventually found the bag and shipped it from Montreal via Fedex. The bag was held up in customs in Memphis and I had to submit a customs declaration before CBP would release the bag.

Conclusion: don't fly AC. They are 0/2 with my bags.

threeoh

I think the poster was asking what happens if you have completely separate tickets and don't interline bags. UA tags your bags to SYD, you fly to SYD intending to grab your bags from the carousel and re-check them, but they don't make your flight so no bags to grab. You go ahead and board your flight to Fiji. Does UA have to get your bags to SYD? To Fiji? Just return them to your home airport and hold?

It is a little off topic because OP is flying UA and partner airlines on the whole itinerary and is asking the bags to be returned to a UA station.

chavala

seenitall

Yes, thanks for pointing that out. In the case of separate tickets, if the bag was tagged to be interlined to the final carrier. it would still be the final carrier that is responsible for delivery. If the bag was tagged only to an intermediate point, it would be the carrier that delivered the PAX to this intermediate point that would have responsibility.

threeoh

Yes, but responsibility for what? Getting the bag to a remote island? Or getting the bag to SYD?

Can I fly ORD-LGA and then tell UA they have to deliver my bag to rural Cameroon?

chavala

gengar

When UA is not the final carrier and my bags have been delayed, UA has always refused to assist with actual luggage location and/or delivery, whether on separate tickets or not. It doesn't matter if they serve the final destination. I've had the misfortune of dealing with this on multiple occasions. They will hide behind the industry standard that it is the final carrier's responsibility. Even the time UA lost track of my bag on an interline intinerary when I was 1K and UA staff admitted they had my bag and never turned it over to the final carrier, they still refused to help.

threeoh

They did this even when your bags weren't interlined?

We're talking about a case where bags are not checked through, and UA has no knowledge of your onward flight.

mozilla

Thanks both. @smxflyer the second bag going through FedEx would probably be treated as a shipment and would be subject to other rules and treaties which could explain the different handling.

I do think it is interesting that an airline would assume the risk of carrying the bag through customs without asking the pax to sign any declaration. What if the bag has items that need to be declared to customs?

And what if illegal goods were in the bag? I know, the airline will say "well it's the bag of passenger X", but pax can also say "I haven't been with this bag in 72 hours, many people touched it in meanwhile, someone else must've put that item in my bag". Not a situation I'd want to be in as an airline.

gengar

I thought my point was pretty clear, in that IME, UA has denied any assistance when given any possible opportunity to deflect responsibility, even on itineraries on the same ticket and to airports that they serve - therefore I certainly would not expect UA to assist on separate tickets to non-partner airlines to destinations they don't even serve.

lincolnjkc

Funny thing from when CO and UA were operating under the same banner -- one of my first flights "trying" UA (IIRC, CLE-IAD-MCO, all UA flights) went sideways, so UA rebooked me on CO flights CLE-IAH-MCO and sent me to CO for boarding passes. the CO agent asked (I think literally) "What the heck is United smoking? I don't have space for you to Houston, but I do have space on the nonstop...You would like the nonstop, right?" And thus I wound up on a CO nonstop with UA tagged bags.

Got to MCO and my bag wasn't there... Being newer at this at the time, I went to United's BSO in MCO and before I got both feet through the door, let alone opened my mouth, the dragon screamed "You gotta use the kiosk!" while doing a single-finger point at a bank of kiosks outside the office. I punch my details in and it tells me to "Please see a United Agent for Assistance". I go back in to the BSO and the dragon, disbelieving me, comes out, punches my details into a different kiosk gets the same error... and as best I can describe it the agent and the kiosk stared each other down for a good minute and a half; the agent realizing the kiosk wasn't backing down shrugged her shoulders and said "Try Continental?", pointing in the direction of the CO BSO and went back to her perch.

CO agent was more enthusiastic about helping, took the report and eventually delivered the bag later that night (If I recall correctly it came by way of Houston).

trooper

You are NOT "connecting" if on separate tickets. If YOU miss the next flight for whatever reason most airlines feel no obligation to carry you...you were a "no show". (There seem to be some exceptions to this...AA reportedly seems quite generous in treating separate OW to AA tickets as if they were one) In the case you mention if the UA flight was so late that you missed the FJ one you could well be required to buy another ticket. UA will state they got you to the destination you contracted with them to get to...SYD. FJ will say you simply didn't turn up. As a result Its REALLY hard to see why they would treat baggage any more generously... Arriving in SYD and being unable to use the International Connections route (if you have to check in again with FJ) would make it all even more difficult I think...

threeoh

Yes, but the IATA rule and also United's policy is last delivering carrier handles baggage claims. It's been that way for many decades. Might have seemed unhelpful to you and you might have wished United would follow a customer service spirit rather than the letter of the rule, but there is a rule that says that.

Off topic OP was asking what is the IATA rule / United policy for what happens when bags are late and then you are no longer near that airport when they arrive.

If I fly ORD-CDG // LHR-EWR double open jaw on all United metal and my bags are lost on the first leg, and I'm in EWR by the time they find them, I don't expect the airline to put the bags on the CDG baggage carousel a week after my flight and say "ok our obligation has been satisfied, come to Paris if you want your bags". If your bags don't show on the carousel, the carrier's obligation changes to deliver them to where you are; in this case I'd expect United to get the bags to EWR, whether they were found in ORD or CDG or somewhere else. OP is about United clearly failing to do that (though OP is not in FRA yet so we'll see). Off topic OP (and I) are curious about the extent of that obligation.

For example, I've had carriers deliver late bags to a hotel over 3 hours' drive from the airport in rural Mexico, because that's where I was when they found the bags. Would they deliver 6 hours away? Would they deliver to an airport not served by any interlining partners? Would they deliver them to Fiji somehow?

lincolnjkc

It's not a direct correlation since it was all on UA (and domestic) but as I mentioned upthread I had one ticket CLE-somewhere-CLE and the next day a separate ticket CLE-RIC-CLE, both on UA but completely separate tickets (different projects so for accounting was easier to ticket them differently, plus both had a >60% of being rescheduled when originally booked so just easier to come home for the night than try to string everything on to one ticket). My bag didn't make it to Cleveland from Newark on the tail end of trip #1 .

Baggage service office in Cleveland took the report and said if it didn't come in on the last flight of the night they'd call for further instructions since they couldn't just have Newark send it to RIC instead of CLE. It didn't make it and in Richmond got a call that my bag was in Cleveland. Told the BSO that I was in Richmond now and asked if they could forward it. "Sure. Hold for pickup at the airport or do you want it delivered?" -- no questions at all about how I got to Richmond (I could have driven for all they knew or flown a different airline), no "Well, tough, it will be in Cleveland whenever you want to get it". I've also had UA route bags over AA to get them to me more efficiently when it missed my flight. [I flew DCA-ORD-MEM; my bag flew DCA-MEM] Given the lack of "qualification" for my forwarding request I can't imagine it would be very different as long as the new airline(s) had interline baggage agreements with UA it wouldn't be wholly unreasonable, though it may be dependent on the particular agent's mood.

I think bags are seen as the innocent victim in a way -- if you don't make your originating flight for whatever reason that's generally your fault, but if your bag doesn't make it, chances are it's not the bag's fault. And once the bag goes AWOL the ultimate goal is to reunite it with the pax.

I remember an old Eastern magazine ad that had the caption "Baggage claim is an airline's last chance to disappoint a customer" -- and poor recovery from a baggage issue may have long term effects. Heck, if you look at me, at the root cause it was a baggage issue and Delta's handling of it that made me swear that DL1661 on August 23, 2004 would be the last time Delta saw money from me. (If there's one thing I've inherited from my mother it's the ability to hold a grudge )