Tips on retreiving lost luggage?

[perkyderky]

When dealing with lost luggage, do you find dealing with the airlines directly is most helpful, or is dealing with our travel insurance company better?

Although our trip to Italy was AWESOME, the return left something to be desired (although it does give us a good story!)

I tried to search the topic, but didn't see anything.....

[Deleted]

Call the airline. Once I had to call Delta twice a day for 4 days until they located my luggage. I didn't have travel insurance, so that wasn't an option. I don't know if they would've done a better job.

[hz80408]

Can we hear the story?

[perkyderky]

We were "victims" of one of those sit-on-the-tarmac for 4 hours with just water and pretzels, to have them cancel the flight, then to have us go to one customer service desk--no no no, this isn't the correct one, you need to go here--where one (tiny little, completely overwhelmed) CS rep had to deal with all 300+ of us. She wasn't even at a desk--just sitting in some chairs in the baggage claim area dealing with our mob. They gave us a # to call for our re-scheduled flight information but that # didn't work for 1/2 of us, the other half got German-only speaking reps. DH's luggage didn't come out of the luggage carousel and we meet up with a couple from our Florence flight where neither one of them got theirs (mine DID arrive on our flight).

The airline gave us a voucher for a hotel and dinner (both of which were decent), but then when we got to the airport the next day, we spent another 2 hours just checking in because once again, the airline was vastly understaffed--thankfully, the partner airline (that had a much bigger presence at the airport) did provide a few agents to help with the re-booking, but it felt like we were just WAITING everywhere we went. Thankfully, the main flight back was uneventful, and the staff was smart in trying to make light of the situation (I think by this point most of us were).

When we arrived Stateside, we got a call that our connecting flight was delayed almost an hour and a half. OK. That gives us more time to hopefully get DH's luggage (which by this time was traced to the OTHER German airport--why it went there, we have no idea, but we had 2 different clerks look it up and it was scheduled for the next flight to Philly--OK). We go through passport control/customs, get my bag, get on line to check it to the connecting flight, and while there, we get another call that our connecting flight had moved UP an hour. Weird--but OK, we're here anyway (we initially had a 2 hour window between when the plane that DH's luggage was supposedly on and when our connector was supposed to leave--so now we're fluctuating between 2.5 hours and 3.5 or so).

We stand in line to go through security again which is just a cluster (anyone know why the security lines at Philly are SO effed up? The disparity in the lines was OBVIOUS--one line served 10 people in 10 minutes another did 10 people in 2 minutes--bringing up other questions, but that's not for this post). We get to our gate, and they have the original (delayed) time on the board, so we really have no idea why we were called a 2nd time. While waiting there, a rep comes on the intercom to let us know that this already delayed flight was going to be delayed longer--that the new flight wasn't scheduled to leave the OTHER airport until the time we were scheduled to leave our airport. The explanation was sort of sketchy as to the reasons for the initial delay--we were told our original plane was changed due to a mechanical cancellation due to weather (what does that mean? did the plane get hit by lightning?) so the plane we flew was a totally different/new flight just to accommodate us (which I do appreciate). DH's bags were not on our connecting flight when we arrived at our little airport 2.5 hours later than we were originally scheduled.

This morning when DH called the travel insurance, the bag was only traced to Germany. That since now we're out of the system, it's a low priority and will only make the trip if there's "room". I told Dh to call the airline directly, but at this point, I'm not even sure which airline to bring the issue up to--the one who originally didn't connect the bag, or the one that's supposed to be bringing us the bag, or perhaps both?

[hz80408]

Agh; what a nightmare! I'm so sorry and I hope his bag turns up soon!!

[Deleted]

I am sorry for your luggage drama. I can't help you with that but can give you a tip on European Parliament Regulation (EC) 261/2004.

Check it out:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_261/2004

We were delayed in Barcelona for 9 hours and received 250E per person. It took some paperwork and about 6 months but the money did show up.

There was someone on the International Living board and I can't remember her screen name that had a horrible experience on BA and ended up getting a ton of money back because it was a longer flight.

If the the cancellation was caused by extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided by any reasonable measure you won't get the money. For example, when the volcano exploded in Iceland and air travel was shut down for weeks, you wouldn't have received a refund. But if they were understaffed, they will pay you the money. Our flight was underbooked so they cancelled it.

Good luck!

[allibally]

Keep calling the airline non-stop and bother them. Two of H's bag didn't make one of our connecting flights when we moved. Best part was we couldn't figure out who had it Delta or American Airlines. It was a total run-around.

You have to keep calling.