Anybody have some experience/guidance on lost luggage? 2 weeks ago while returning to San Diego from Redding, CA, on United, my luggage was lost upon my arrival in San Diego. Baggage service in San Diego they confirmed my bag was tracked to San Diego and presume somebody walked off with my bag at the carousel. I submitted a misplaced claim form and tracked the status of my claim number online. After a week, the bag was not found and the United web site now says the claim is under review at the Corporate Offfice. I called United baggage claim service and they're supposed to be mailing me out a claim form to complete. How does this replacement process work? Am I supposed to submit an itemized inventory and estimated cost of the contents of the missing suitacase items, or do I have to replace everything first and then submit receipts (which could wind up costing a sizeable amount). Thanks for any insight.

Welcome to Flyertalk, cybermac. As your question is directly related to an incident on United, I am going to move this thread over to the UAL Forum.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

I had a permanent lost luggage situation with NW several years back. I can tell you with them, the "claim" price was only the purchased value of items lost and not the replacement value (ie. I needed to get the receipts for the items that I lost). I don't know if this is regulated by the government? There is a cap for all contents (like $2500 for domestic, and $800 if international). I was able to download a claim form on-line with NW. There was also a 10% devaluation, based on each year owned - so it pays to claim newer stuff. You might want to check the government website (ie. FAA) first.

Here's an update of my first lost luggage posting.
After 2 weeks without the luggage being found by UA, on 1/23/07, I mailed back a completed Baggage Tracing/Claim Form. It's now in the mysterious, deep hole of Baggage Claim services in Chicago. Hopefully, I'll get reimbursed for the missing items.

"Reimbursement" is a relative term, because there is no way you'll get paid what the items cost, even if you had just purchased them and (e.g., for clothing) had never worn them. Many items that you might have had in your luggage (camera, electronics, etc.) won't be covered at all.

Here's an article that should help you adjust to what is realistic.

If you have camera or electronics in your checked luggage, even if your luggage is not lost, your stuff will probably be stolen by the baggage handlers at any airports. It always remind people not to put any expensive items in your checked luggage, but seems like no one ever listen, and then they complain afterwards.

I think that there is an international standard on how much they are required to cover for lost luggage. I don't know the exact details but I had some items go missing from within a bag a few years back and they told me that they were only liable to pay a certain amount but in my case increased it because of my 1K status.

A lot of credit cards have lost luggage 'insurance' if you bought the tix with their car. Im not sure of the details on it, but it may be worth it to check out.
good luck!