This is a bit lengthy; bear with me.

My original itinerary for the outbound leg of this trip was BDL-IAD-FRA-LNZ. Ticketed through on United, but the FRA-LNZ leg was operated by Lufthansa. Left Bradley very late due to a weather hold at Dulles - 2.5 hour delay at gate and another 2.5 hours sitting on the plane on the tarmac waiting for clearance to take off. I obviously did not make my connection to Frankfurt and United reticketed me for the next day.

I didn't pack in my rollaboard for good reason - I needed to bring my large laptop bag with multiple measuring instruments as well as quite a bit of bulky safety equipment that left literally no room for clothing. So I put my toiletries in my carryon laptop bag and my clothes and safety equipment in my checked bag. In retrospect, not my best-ever move, but an understandable one.

Upon arrival at Dulles and after an hourlong wait in line I was informed that it would be too much hassle to collect my bag and that United would store it overnight and automatically re-check it for me and re-route it on my flight to Frankfurt and through to Linz. When checking in at Dulles for the flight on Monday, I re-checked that the checked bag was re-routed and this was confirmed for me by a United supervisor who told me there would be no problems.

At this point I'd spent more than a day in the same clothes and was looking forward to getting to Austria and changing. Of course my bag didn't make it to Linz Tuesday morning when I did, and upon filing a delayed baggage claim with Lufthansa they were unable to trace it - indicating that the bag had never arrived on the United flight from Dulles to begin with. This was Tuesday morning and I had been in my clothes since Sunday morning when my trip began.

After several hours of effort by my husband in the US, he got through to a live human being at United who told him my bag was in Dulles and that he (husband) had to call Lufthansa's US number and ask to speak to their baggage people at Dulles, who were then to go to United and get the bag on the next available flight. Husband was not given an explanation as to why he would have to do the legwork and make these phone calls instead of the United personnel.

He tried again later (after spending nearly 45 minutes on hold) and spoke to a more helpful United employee who told him the first guy was insane and that she could do everything through the computer system.

I then got an immediate call from Lufthansa that my bag was located and would be on the next flight over. I was told it would be at my hotel by noon on Wednesday (today). At this point I am unable to perform my work properly due to not having safety equipment, not to mention feeling disgusted by my 3-days' worn clothing.

I called today at 2 PM and apparently at Frankfurt, United had not bothered to transfer my bag to Lufthansa for immediate transport to Linz. Instead of getting on the morning flight, I had to wait until the evening. Lufthansa had my bag at the hotel within 45 minutes of the plane touching down.

My bag finally arrived at 7:30 PM and I was thrilled to have my clothing and equipment, until I unzipped the bag and found most of my clothes to be wet. Although the fabric is water-resistant the zippers are not. My guess is that the bag was left exposed to rain in Frankfurt during the 8+ hours it sat there waiting to go to Linz. I was most distressed, needless to say.

My main issues:

1) United assured me on two occasions that re-routing luggage was no problem and that my bag would go on my flights with me to Linz. Someone dropped the ball at Dulles and it caused me significant inconvenience. Lufthansa did their best considering they never had possession of the bag. Their customer service people kept me informed as to tracking status and when my bag would arrive. United couldn't care less - to the extent that their baggage CSR told my husband that HE had to contact Lufthansa at Dulles and tell them to get the bag from United if I wanted to get my luggage at all! That was completely inappropriate.


2) It was a further inconvenience to have my clothing arrive wet. I understand that if it's raining it can be difficult to keep luggage dry but this bag looked like it had been blasted with a firehose. This was not a little bit of water, this was fully-saturated clothing.


Now, I like flying United and am heading home Saturday via VIE-MUC-IAD-BDL on Lufthansa/United/United (seated in Economy Plus on both United flights). My in-flight experiences are always pleasant and it is upsetting to me to have this happen with regard to baggage. I doubt I will ever be comfortable checking a bag on United again.

I do not want to piss the airline off but I believe there was a serious breakdown in customer service and would like some acknowledgement of such. Will it do me any good to send a complaint letter to United?

As long as your letter is polite and sticks to the facts, there's no reason for you to fear "p***ing the airline off".

This was an unacceptable breakdown in service and letting the company know what happened might actually be helpful for them (identifying weaknesses and correcting them). I also believe that you should be entitled to some form of compensation, perhaps in the form of airmiles.

Yes, do send a letter. At the very least, you should have received compensation through the airline or your travel insurance to purchase some clothes.

All credit to Lufthansa for doing what they could, a wonderful airline.

For the future, you may want to try this. When I travel, even if my bag is 'waterproof' I always line it with plastic bags (I just buy a roll of garbage bags). It's a habit I picked up from camping.

FWIW, last year I didn't make a connection from UX to UA at IAD (all domestic) and had to stay overnight (of course they claimed it was weather related, so no comp). As I recall, agents in the gate area wouldn't do anything toward helping me retrieve my checked luggage; same line you were given. However, I went to the front counter and the agent was great: she instructed me exactly where to go near the baggage area and told me whom to speak with there. I did, gave him my information, and after a little while, someone brought my luggage.

However, I did complain to UA CS that if the UX plane had not been late (unrelated to the weather), it wouldn't have been further delayed by the late afternoon thunderstorms and that if the UA/UA agent had protected me when I first requested it after they mentioned a delay, I would not have had to stay in IAD overnight. CS, while not admitting that anything had been done wrong, did provide me with a discount certificate for use on a future flight as a "customer courtesy." I had requested reimbursement of the hotel, cab, and airport meals. So complaining politely does work sometimes.

As long as you're not being a PITA and you address your concerns in a professional manner on the letter, your complaint should receive attention and they should respond showing concerns. Remember, the company's best customers are the "voicers" - speaks out when the level of service received is not in par with company standards, thus giving the firm the opportunity to make corrections and improve in the future.

It worked for me.

It is best to describe the facts and then how it inconvenienced you in such a way to put the spotlight on the fact that there was really no way you could have avoided this problem, or that you did everything you could to avoid it. I had a (far less messed up) problem with another airline, and they gave me several thousand frequent flyer miles to "make it up to me."

I think if you put it the way you did in your post to us here, you might experience a similar outcome. The main thing is definitely avoiding subjective arguments or making emotionally-charged statements. I know you wont, but I am speaking to anyone reading this. It does no good to yell at people that weren't even responsible for what went wrong with you that day. And honestly, it doesn't even help to yell at those who ARE, it wont fix the problem, it wont make people who don't do their jobs right, suddenly start doing their jobs right, and to those who regret having caused any inconvenience, further punishing them with a bad attitude is, in my opinion, not an adult approach to take.

I wrote a complaint letter to AA recently (details of the incident not relevant here) and got 5,000 miles for my trouble. No indication in the nice reply that anything had been entered into my "permanent record."

this belongs in the United forum, so let's continue it over there. Thanks

--richard, moderator

It depends on what you mean by "work" when you ask if it works to complain. If you mean receiving some form of compensation, then yes, it usually does work ... if you instead mean that the airline makes the changes to avoid a similar situation in the future, then no, complaining rarely works.

The IAD UA baggage staff are largely awful IME. There are a couple of good ones there, yes, but largely they have come across to me as lazy and incompetent in my dealings with them. Fortunately, with the lines what they are at check-in these days, I tend not to check bags and don't have to deal with them, although sometimes it's unavoidable.

A short tidbit from one of my experiences with IAD's baggage staff: when I lost my cell phone while boarding a flight, I filled out a claim at IAD and was given a number to call (which was answered by a full voice mail box). I called the UA staff at CRW, and yes, they had found it and were putting it in a box and sending it on the next flight. IAD's staff then LOSES that box, as I discover after a wasted trip to the airport by my wife. I spoke to the apparently one helpful person there who says he's going to look for it, and he leaves me a voice mail late that night saying he found the box and has left it with the baggage desk. The next day when I go to pick it up, the baggage office staff claims they have no idea what I'm talking about and are mad at the helpful guy for "committing them to something without talking to them." All this time, my box is sitting right behind the woman I'm talking to.

Anybody have some advice as to where to call when a situation seems to have been ignored? I have a bag story similar to the OP, and I really just want it acknowledged. Not looking for compensation, but hearing nothing whatsoever concerns me.

A search didn't turn up a good phone number to follow up with, since there has been no response to the letters I sent (one to Customer Service, cced to Baggage Services).

Definetely write a complaint, keep it polite, and ask the airline for a suggestion in how to avoid this problem in the future. I have had lost bags three times this year on the exact same connection in ORD. Each time, I clear customs, hand the bags to the re-check, and then after a 2 hour connection, the bags don't make it. The last two times I have searched out a cust. rep to try to ensure the bags are being left in the correct locations and they will make it, but they never do (and always at the end of a 28 hour trip). First time UAL apologized with a letter, 2nd time UAL apologized with a letter and $x cert. third time they apologized with emails, a phone call, and $x cert times 6. Constructive critism never hurts and hopefully will make things better.

Of course, as soon as I posted that yesterday, I went home and there was a letter response.
It was a standard "bedbug" letter, but the 4x500s was nice.
I do seriously hope the issue is addressed, though--I'd rather have 0 upgrades and my luggage in less than a week next time.