jhayes_1780

Talk about twilight zone... I have not mentioned his name in a long time....

I just got a call he passed away tonight.

WineCountryUA

unless this the twilight zone experience
Rod Serling of the Twilight Zone passed away June 28, 1975

Fredd

You're referring to the "former VP of our company?"

Sorry to hear that. It's odd when those types of little coincidences occur.

legionnaire

The Bag Trace (PDF) form asks for SSN. Is that required? What happens if I do not fill it? Why does UA require SSN, in any case?

jhayes_1780

Yes it was my friend the former VP.

Only reason I can think of is if the claim is large enough they need to 1099 you.

TerryK

UA needs SSN in order to make payment to you. I would assume you can leave it out for now, but you need to supply it before UA will send you a check for $600 or more.@:-)

legionnaire

ICC said that they need the SSN to verify I am a valid US resident. In my case, while that's true, what if a pax is visiting the US? Doesn't make sense.

TerryK's explanation seems more reasonable.

cordelli

My father in law lost a bag once, I think it was in San Juan. He was on a one week trip, it was a connection point to whatever island he was going to. He called them two or three times a day, as the bag was scanned off in San Juan but never back onto another flight.

Sorry, nope, nobody has seen the bag. Sorry, nope, nobody has seen the bag.

He had to buy all new stuff, but because it was an island vacation that really wasn't that much.

In any case on the flight back he stopped to see if there was any progress. The counter had a rack behind it with bags on it, his bag, fully tagged, was right behind the guy who he has been talking to several times a day for a week.

Oh, that's your bag.

They don't care. They don't answer the phone, because they don't have to answer the phone. It's not limited to United, I have had horrible experiences with other airlines too. It's totally accepted that for the most part, the people working in baggage claim can totally do whatever they want and just say sorry, can't find your bag,

u2vox

This is exactly my fear, and expectation as to what is happening. There is no way to know what efforts they are putting in to try to locate / match up the bag to the description, especially since the contact we have is only through intermediaries removed from the situation, who themselves can't even get through to the bag folks. The only way to know for sure would be to show up and not take no for an answer until either confirming it's there or confirming it's NOT there - both of which would be useful pieces of information. I'm working with my father-in-law, who lives in Chicago, to try to get him to go out there and work some magic, as a first in-person attempt. We'll see.

legionnaire

One thought, filing a claim might probably make them sit up and take notice and try to locate the bag. Since otherwise, they would need to fork out the money.

u2vox

A claim has been filed (couple of days ago), both via email and, per the suggestion of a 1K bag services agent, via fax to the 1K bag folks. 9 days and counting. Not looking good.

legionnaire

Similar story here. Claim filed via mail and fax two days ago. Got an e-mail acknowledgement and united.com/bagtrack status changed with the boilerplate ack.

After filing the claim, recalled a few more items. Is there a way to update the claim?

Talking to 1P agents, ICC, Manila CC is futile since none of them seem to be able to get to ORD operations.

legionnaire

Got a call from someone in ORD this morning that bag has been located and will be fedexed. Didn't have a tracking # yet but claimed that the website would be updated once they have it in a couple of hours.

u2vox

Congrats!! Did they give any info on how/where it was located or where it was being held when it was located? Still no dice on my end.

legionnaire

Very minimal information. The person who called (mark) wasn't inclined to chit chat beyond the basics. It was located in ORD. No information on where its being held. They refused to provide a contact # other than the standard 1.800 bag 3. they advised calling back 4 hrs later to get the fedex tracking #.

I called back thrice at the 4 hr, 8 hr and 24 hr mark since the above call. All three times, they said Chicago has not updated the system with information reflecting that the bag had been located. Neither do they have a tracking #.

Leads me to doubt my own sanity if I did really receive a call from ORD or it was a figment of my imagination.