tods27

So, my niece had DEN-ORD-SYR flights on Saturday and the DEN-ORD segment was delayed enough that she was going to misconnect in ORD. Given that this was a heavy travel weekend, there were no open seats into SYR until Tuesday. Rather than sit in ORD for two days, they rebooked her on a flight this AM and she just stayed in DEN. She requested to get her bags in DEN so she would have clothes for the two day delay. This is where things went awry. After 3 hours of waiting for her bag, they finally figured out that the bag had not been pulled and went on to ORD and finally SYR. It seems like this process is broken for UA. When they offloaded her from the flight, more than an hour before the DEN-ORD plane was even there, it seems like they should have had plenty of time to pull her bag. Additionally, don't they scan the bags when they load them? It would seem that there should be some alert that says "this bag shouldn't go on this plane". It also seems that the CS agents in the baggage area don't actually have access to real-time baggage info as they kept saying the bag was in DEN, but finally called the baggage department who told them the bag had gone out on the DEN-ORD flight. Not to mention that we couldn't put in a claim for the bag, as that can only be done at the final destination airport (again, seems like a broken process when you are pulling a bag at the departure airport, which is now your final destination on that day.) Just curious if others have had issues with pulling bags from a flight at the departure airport. There were a lot of people in DEN who had been waiting 3-4 hours for their bags.

malgudi

You can track bags via the app

jsloan

If they called down to the baggage office immediately, there might have been time to do that -- but I suspect it was a madhouse given the weather.

Yes, they scan the bags when they load them, but pulling a bag is generally handled manually, so there probably wasn't a record in the system that the bag had been rerouted. (You could argue that there should have been; I'm just passing along what I've observed).

They should have had access to the system that would have told them it was scanned onto the plane; it's odd that they didn't.

You should be able to file a claim from anywhere; the Baggage Resolution Service Center can file them centrally from Houston. As to whether or not you'd have gotten access to the bag before Tuesday... no promises.

PTahCha

Unless it was proactively done at the gate, they need more than an hour to pull a bag that has been loaded on the plane. Also, the only time when the bag would be flagged is if the bag does not belong to the flight (I believe), regardless of whether the passenger has been re-routed.

The silver lining is the bag will be waiting for her at her destination. Hopefully the ticket was purchased with a credit card that offers trip interruption insurance so she can buy some replacement items.

cfischer

It is not a simple process to pull bags; takes an agent to be willing to help and grab a bag. Had that happen for me multiple times from the lounge in Boston putting a new tag on when re-routing during irops, or pulling it. I can imagine DEN was just a disorganized mess.

tods27

The plane wasn't even there when she requested it be pulled, so it certainly wasn't loaded on the plane.

I tried to use the app to track the bag, but when I put in the bag claim ticket number, the system just kept telling me the bag didn't exist. Same when searching by PNR.

It was certainly a zoo on Saturday, so I understand that things could take longer, but given the responses on this thread, it certainly seems that UA needs to improve this process and probably needs some training for their CS agents in the baggage area.

PTahCha

The disconnect, based on your initial account, was what the actual response from the baggage claim CS folks when your niece requested to pull the checked bag. When a bag pull is requested, they usually provide an estimated amount of time, or they would say no can't do - I forgot which airport, but at one time they had a sign stating that it takes up to 3 hours to pull a bag.

The baggage claim folks have real-time information on the bag tracker, so it may be true that the bag is in Denver during the whole time, but someone dropped the ball in trying to pull the bag (or lack of trying).

This may be a question for resident UA airport employees on the board, but when a check-in is cancelled in order to facilitate the rebooking, does it wipe out the baggage record as well?

Collierkr

Any chance they used a different airplane than the one originally scheduled to come into DEN? Regardless, pulling bags once deposited is a crapshoot.

mozilla

Just my 2¢ but I fully agree with this constructive feedback. This is an area where UA can and should improve. Nowadays there are absolutely no technical limitations to having a system in place that prevents bags from being loaded on planes that with 100% certainty won't carry their pax. Even if no one is willing to pull the bag, the final loading scan should simply beep loudly and instruct the loader not to load the bag and bring it back upstairs.

Note, I'm not referring to PPBM at all, this is not relevant here. It's about preventing pax/bag separation and all the inconveniences that come with that. A customer service and friendliness issue, not a security issue.

jsloan

Nine times out of 10, it's better for everyone to get the bag on its way sooner rather than later. This was the tenth out of ten.

I agree that they could build this system, but I'd only want it to activate if someone had put in a request to pull the bag.

mozilla

I agree, making it a strictly "on-demand" solution would be the safest bet vs letting the system decide.

Nowadays it should absolutely be possible to provide this service to the customer, on the condition that the request to pull the bag was made in time.

emcampbe

Last time I had a bag pulled, it was in ORD, and misconnected to YYZ on a Labor Day weekend (this was a couple of years ago). It was a late afternoon/early evening flight we were scheduled on, and even with 8 flights to YYZ/day, plus however many in AC, the first available was on the same flight 24 hours later. Don’t know how much going to a location outside of the US, requiring PPBM, helped, but even at that, was told you needed a minimum of 2 hours to have a bag pulled. I think that was meant to be until the scheduled flight time. We got it back, but not for at least 3-4 hours, IIRC. So it can be done, given enough time, and given that PPBM applies to all international flights, there should be an ability to do it. How they implement, and why they can’t do it on a domestic flight upon request more quickly is a different story, but theretically, it should be possible to implement this kind of system, even in domestic flights.

Interestingly enough, on Monday, we were quite late into ORD (ironically, also from YYZ), and our connection (scheduled for over 2 and a half hours) was cut to about 50 minutes. But we came into B22 and were scheduled out of E8, so with 2 hungry kids, and a long walk, we used the IRROPS tool to rebook on a longer connection - 1 hour later (could have likely made it, just didn’t want to rush, which gets harder with little ones). Of our 3 bags, 1 made it on the original flight, the other 2 made our new flight. Am unclear why the split - I actually expected all of them to make our original flight. Also not the first story like this - back in day, in 2001, maybe within a month after DCA opened again after 9/11, I booked in, again via ORD. My bag, on PMUA, made a flight I couldn’t book because it was below MCT. So domestically, going back years, IME, they will just put it on the first flight to your domestic destination.

tods27

I should note that the agents in DEN quoted 3-4 hours to pull the bag. This seems to be a somewhat accurate estimate. The issue that my niece had was that she specifically asked them if the bag had left on her original flight and was told no, that the bag was still in Denver (this was 30-40 minutes after the flight left). 2 hours later, the CS agent in the baggage area "called the baggage people" and found out that the bag had left on the flight. This is my biggest complaint. We waited 2 more hours than needed and as I noted in my original post, this indicates that the CS agent either didn't have the training to access the correct system, or didn't have the access to determine that the bag had actually already left Denver.

Often1

It would be better if UA simply warned passengers that it will do what it can to retrieve the bag, but that the system is not designed for it, it is a manual process and the tracking information is often inaccurate.

That is the reality in a system where the vast majority of bags separated from their owners are still intended to go to the final ticketed destination even if on a different flight or even routing than the passenger.

It didn't work well here, but it is the system I would prefer, given the choices.

Long Zhiren

If you think that was bad during IRROPS, good luck trying to pull bags when you're overseas.
It took so long at NRT, that I couldn't catch an optional flight...the next day! Trying to catch somebody who can help is the first hurdle. In the middle of the night, it's a lost cause.
At PEK, I had to wait hours. The airport staff really did try to help, but it was tricky.
I've found UA's domestic communications to be hit or miss. Nearly 50% of the time, their communications when it's not completely non-existent, is completely falsified and unreliable. It's like they're too proud to dig further or simply say "I don't know" if they don't know.

Makes you wonder how fast they can do it, if you miss your flight. That is considering the warnings you get at AMS, etc. "If you're not at the gate by xxx, your bags will be off-loaded."