Part I, in which my ostensibly gate-checked carry on travels 12,000 miles without me: A few days ago I chronicled my gate checked bag saga. To quickly recap what happened: We were flying Atlanta to New York on Delta and New York to Sao Paulo on American We were forced to gate check our bags…
Continue reading: Reunited With My Carry On: A Story In Three Parts
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The song lyric "reunited and it feels so good" comes to mind. Although that's an old one so maybe before your time.
Quite the saga! Glad to hear all reunited. I head to GRU, then FLN tomorrow. Hope my handluggage has better fortune.
Part III, second paragraph, did you mean, "To be clear, my issue wasn’t that the bag didn’t make it to the destination to begin with, but rather how things were handled afterwards" and not "To be clear, my issue wasn’t that the big didn’t make it to the destination to begin with, but rather how things were handled afterwards"
Ben,
Just a word of advice...lose the Alaska CREW tag. Even on mainline flights, crew bags are brought up to the jetway upon arrival, rather than being sent to baggage claim since so many commuting crew members end up boarding late (cleared from the standby list) and have to check. I can't say for sure that it had anything to do with your lost bag, but I'd bet that's why your bag never got transferred to AA.
Andrew
It's only going to get better at the new AA after they start merging yet another airline to already not so merged one.
"It’s only going to get better at the new AA after they start merging yet another airline to already not so merged one."
If there's a domestic airline that has worse dependability and customer service that what came from America Worst + US Air Biscuit I'm not aware of it. And now that mess of customer disservice is going to be running American Airlines? How nice.
Going for point 2. Are you talking about those people that sit on the opposite side of the baggage hall under the sign that says "these people are not employed nor have any affiliation to the Port of seattle?"
I am glad my port badge gives me a, for lack of a better term, cloak of invisibility, but I sure feel embarrassed for them.
That's a better response from AA than UA would give me as a Premier 1K. Consider yourself lucky.
I'm actually surprised the worst thing that happened during your Delta marathon was that you would lose your bag. There was no way you were getting through that gauntlet without irrops at some point.
Why did you and your friend have to drive to the airport and not have the airlines use a delivery service to handle pick-up and drop-off?
I'd actually be curious to have you address the crew tag issue. I have a good friend who is a flight attendant and she gave me a crew tag. I've been meaning to put it on my bag. Is it really an issue? I think of it as just kinda cool for an air travel enthusiast. Never occurred to me that it might cause issues.
Have you had any other issues? Anyone care that you're not really crew?
I used to date an FA and she put one of her CREW tags on my bag (for whatever good it might do) and I really never thought much of it.
One day while going through security a TSA Employees noticed the tag and asked to see my ID. I took out my passport and handed it to the agent, but he responded, no your airline ID. I looked at him confused as I had no idea what he was walking about and he pointed to the CREW tag on my bag and said where is your airline ID.
I explained that I do not work for the airline but I date a FA and she put one of her crew tags on my bag.
To make a very long story short after calling a Supervisor, the Police and the airline who my GF (at the time) works for determined that I had no right to keep the "crew tag" on my bag unless I was traveling with GF.
To this day I do not actually know what is policy or not, but it was enough to scare me from even contemplating using that tag ever again without my GF present.
I always keep a small "go-bag" inside my carry on. I've had a few bad experiences where the gate clowns decided they were going to punish me and check my carry on bag.
So, I open it up in front of them, grab my small bag, and then let them gate check it.
#1 They always lose my checked carry on bag.
#2 I always have something to wear when I get to point B.
@ Eric -- I've had crew tags from various airlines on my bag over the years, and have never had anyone mention anything. It doesn't get any special privileges, so it's not like an employee ID or anything.
Most people don't get anything when bags are waylaid - lucky to even get the lost bag returned. I would not kick the 10k gift which seems overly generous under the circumstances.
As for the email, what did you seriously expect? Everybody gets form letters, particularly for something so trivial. For a guy that flies as much as you do, your expectations are pretty lofty. Or maybe you are just unaccustomed to receiving the same treatment that most people get? Honestly as a UA 1K I would not expect much more.
Glad you got your bag back, and I'm glad to know I'm not the only high mileage traveler who's compulsively attached to their bag.
@ Boraxo — Mishandling baggage every now and again is understandable, and I wouldn't hold it against an airline provided that the bag is returned in a timely fashion and any incidental expenses resulting from the delay are reimbursed. Ben's four-hour+ ordeal, on the other hand, was unacceptable, and compensation and apologies were certainly warranted.
Against conventional wisdom, I check a bag on almost every trip. Perhaps once or twice a year, it somehow misses a connection that I myself manage to make. Delta usually delivers it to my home within a couple hours of the next flight. The one time my bag was lost for several days, and then ended up sitting in the DCA claim office rather than being delivered, Delta paid for the clothing and toiletries that I purchased for a weekend at the lake and threw in a $100 voucher on top of it.
@ Boraxo — Mishandling baggage every now and again is understandable, and I wouldn't hold it against an airline provided that the bag is returned in a timely fashion and any incidental expenses resulting from the delay are reimbursed. Ben's four-hour+ ordeal, on the other hand, was unacceptable, and compensation and apologies were certainly warranted.
Against conventional wisdom, I check a bag on almost every trip. Perhaps once or twice a year, it somehow misses a connection that I myself manage to make. Delta usually delivers it to my home within a couple hours of the next flight. The one time my bag was lost for several days, and then ended up sitting in the DCA claim office rather than being delivered, Delta paid for the clothing and toiletries that I purchased for a weekend at the lake and threw in a $100 voucher on top of it.
Whew, you finally got your stuff back!!!
Out of curiosity, what is it required to drive back to the airport both times or, if you'd wanted, airline could come by to pick up the wrong bag and the redeliver the correct one? If I had to do that in here in Houston and take time off work, I'd not be happy.
@ Ivan Y -- They didn't offer to pick up my bag from my home and deliver it to the airport, though they did offer to deliver the bag that was being sent to me all the way to my home. That being said, the flight my bag was on landed shortly after 8PM, and they don't do deliveries after 8PM. And I really didn't want to wait another day for my bag.
@ Lucky - thank you! I don't fly a lot these days but having to gate-check is always in my mind. Perhaps I will use Allen's idea of having a small bag with essentials inside a carryon so it can be taken out.