Skibum9

I flew SFO-ORD-BOS Saturday after thanksgiving. One of my bags lost its tag and presumably found its way to the ORD baggage office as I was in BOS with no bag and I had gate checked the bag in SFO. After 72 hours and still no bag found I had my Mother-in-law head down to ORD. With her assistance and a basic description (green carryon size eagle creek bag roller) they were able to find it out of the 1000 or so in a few minutes...bag was identified by a sweatshirt inside as I had nothing with my name on it. Going down to ORD is in no way a waste of time. If I had not sent my M.I.L. down there I have little doubt my clothing would be for sale in Alabama about mid March.

gengar

While including a piece of paper in checked luggage with your routing and destination address won't speed up employees' actual processing of bags in the lost luggage area, it is recommended by United and this thread is probably a good time to remind everyone of that. I always put such a piece of paper in the outside pocket of the bag and also one on top of all the stuff in the inside compartment.

legionnaire

Interesting data point that's common to my situation and u2vox, our bags were scanned at origin but don't seem to have been scanned getting off at ORD.

ORD is the common point between both and the date of travel (1/1/2010).

I wonder if ORD is backed up for some reason.

ericjkelly

I had a similar issue last week flying into Denver. My bag was lost, never scanned out of Indianapolis. I called United and told them that I needed clothes for work and they basically told me to buy what I needed for a day or two of clothes...They found my bag 36 hours later. I would call them and explain your situation. It helped that I am a Premier Executive.

legionnaire

At this point (after 24 hrs of calling every 3 hrs), their best guess is that the bag arrived in ORD from BOS, but the tag has probably been ripped off as they haven't been able to locate it quickly.

Its unclear what process they have to manually locate a bag based on identifying information that I have conveyed. Its also unclear if they have a mechanism to classify "ripped tag" bags based on the flight/date they came off of.

Anyone know?

euslaner

My bag was recently "delayed" when I switched flights in FRA and the agents didn't switch my bag with me (even though there was plenty of time). When I got to IAD, the UA agent asked me to describe the bag and also to tell them some of the items in the bag that might help them identify the bag in case both their tag and mine were lost. I did (it didn't hurt that there were several academic journals and publications that would not be likely to be found in a random person's luggage). But they did find the bag within a day and they delivered it to my house. If you can identify the bag (wheels? dimensions? color? manufacturer? condition?) and the items inside, that will help.

For the future, it always helps to have some identification inside the bag as well as outside.

legionnaire

In response to euslaner's post, I have provided a description of unique items inside the bag (including a few books). In addition, the bag has a name tag on it on the outside and my business card inside the bag.

When talking to the people on the 1.800 bag #, its clear these people are overseas (Philippines, Mumbai/India) and can at best look at the system for any updates from ORD or BOS. They have attempted calling folks in ORD but no one seems to pick up at ORD.

Net, we are left at the mercy of folks in ORD actually getting to the bags and attempting a manual id. Depending on staffing and priority, this could take a while.

DarkHelmetII

my bag once showed up 30 days later based solely on physical description. no UA tag (was gate checked but given no stub). No personal ID tag.

jhayes_1780

Please do not hold me to the absolutes of this story, but the timeline is correct, but the places and $$$ amounts are ony IIRC.

Anywat, this thread just reminded me of a former VP of our company.... He was traveling HKG-CKS (or it might have been PVG-NRT) about 10 years ago....

UA lost his bag. So he was given the amenity kit, and claim form, and told bag should be there on the next flight. Unfortunately, after 4 days of work, the bag never showed. UA told him they would forward it to his home in DEN. 2 weeks pass, and nothing. So UA has him file a claim (just clothes and toiletries).... IIRC they gave him 250.00 and a couple of paper SWU's.

Fast forward ONE YEAR, he was flying a similar flight. He checks into his hotel... the bag was delivered to the hotel about 2 weeks before his arrival.

dgcpaphd

This is also not an identical situation. However, the above post confirms that at least BA allows passengers into the lost luggage department.

Several years ago, I lost a bag on Lufthansa. After several days of not finding the bag, Lufthansa allowed me (escorted by a Lufthansa employee) access to their lost luggage room in Frankfurt.

I post this because of the above post and because I think you should ask United if there is a possibility that you could look (escorted) for your bag.

You could site that BA and Lufthansa allow passengers with lost luggage claim tickets to access their luggage room.

Just a thought considering that you said you might go to Chicago to look for the bag if allowed by United.

u2vox

Appreciate the continual replies. legionnaire has continued to describe my situation as well. I have indeed provided extremely detailed information to the 1K baggage line, including bag description and contents. There are even a couple of unique characteristics on the bag that would help someone go "a-ha!" if they saw it.

Unfortunately, we seem to be at the mercy of manual intervention at ORD. The 1K baggage folks tell me they've tried calling down to the ORD bag folks numerous times, have faxed them info, etc., but can't get through. They did get through once, and the bag wasn't located after an initial cursory look, apparently - but they keep saying there are 1000s of bags and things are likely behind, so to hold tight for more ORD checking. What that ultimately, means, I'm not really sure - but it certainly doesn't speak well to the process and the level of person power they have devoted to this currently. I understand it's the holidays, so you have a combination of more UA people taking time off and more people than usual traveling (and therefore more bags to deal with).

I have asked two separate 1K bag agents about the possibility of me going there and being escorted into the baggage area to look for it - but they say no-go due to security issues. I'm not sure if my experience would be different if I actually showed up. Or, had someone else show up. As others have suggested, it has worked for other airlines, and even with UA. At this point, I'm investigating having someone in Chicago do me a huge favor and go try to light a fire under them in person. My father in law lives there, and is kind of "known" as a local broadcaster - so perhaps with a little charm and insistence, something will happen. Until then, patience - thought getting harder...

legionnaire

48hrs since the bag went AWOL after checkin at BOS. Talking to the 1.800 bag # is ineffective. They simply look at the information updated to the system and send 'messages' to ORD which ORD never responds to.

Does anyone have suggestions on getting to someone in ORD? I am a 1P (no access to 1K desk etc.).

Fredd

That's almost Rod Serling material.

We spent some time wandering around the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama two years ago. A strange and interesting place.

Best of luck to the OP and others with similar problems.

u2vox

On a related note -- as we sit here filling out the detailed claim form listing items, purchase prices, dates purchased, where purchased, blah blah blah -- can anyone provide any insight on how to best fill this out to our advantage, give your experience with how United compensates?

For example, it says to attach receipts for anything over $100. As I've mentioned previously, my wife has numerous clothing items in the bag worth well more than $100 - but we do not have receipts for these things she's accumulated over the years. Does UA take a hard stance on this and say that, if you have no receipt, the max they'll give you is $100?

Do they do replacement value? E.g., the bag was a nice Victorinox bag purchase for roughly $350 3-4 years ago. To replace that today would be about the same $$. But will United only pay the depreciated value, whatever they deem that to be?

Thanks again...

ONLY_no_One

I had a similar thing happened except stuff was stolen from my bag and the airline concerned demanded i fax them a lot of information only to received a denial of compensation letter in the end.

I'm not sure about United but perhaps it would wise to file against the insurance/credit card company if available first.