Why cant airlines manage baggage 16 December 2008 at 10:15PM in England 3 replies 774 views

ldcb

Not sure if this belongs here, but here goes. I went on holiday last week and had a lovely relaxing time in the sun away from gloomy depressing England. Only trouble is that Virgin and American Airlines failed to transfer my bags in time through Miami to the Turks and Caicos Islands. It was after all about 3 hours through Miami. So the bags arrived a day late and I thought well this is this part of the world, managed in my togs, had a spare pair of knickers and hey had a good time. On the way back, it was an 10 hour stop over in Miami, with AA arriving at 9:30 am and Virgin leaving at 8pm. On arriving at Heathrow my bags didn't arrive, still stranded in Miami. Can anyone tell me why with such a long time bags cannot be moved from one place to another. Virgin's call centre, another in India, left an incomprehesible message. I called and yes the bags would be delivered today. No they weren't. Another big brand I cannot trust. From now on it is cabin bags or my handbag only when I travel. Any other unreasonable people out there who expect bags to travel with them and arrive on the airport baggage belt? Or am I the only idiot?

dixie_dean_2

Most airlines have a very low incidence of lost/misplaced baggage, around 0.5%, with the worstr offenders going as high as 2% or so. These are rough figures but the point is that when they handle thousands of bags every day, some, through human or machine error, will go missing as no system is perfect. No consolation when it happens to you but just a fact of life.

soolin

I returned from the Domincan Republic on Friday minus bags, and the worrying thing is as at this morning no one has found them and I've been told to claim from my insurance.

It was chaos at Gatwick as there were two DR flights in and the baggage handlers were using the same baggage reclaim for both. My bags appear to be the only ones lost from my flight, but there were about 100 other pasengers from the other flight also with lost bags.

I'm beginning to give up hope that I shalls see it again.

butler_helen

On a good note, I had two bags arrive on a Qatar airways flight from Malaysia, which had clearly been abused. They were smashed in the corner and dirty/stained.

The airline were really helpful and within two days I had two new suitcases delivered to my door (which were bigger and better than the originals) free of charge with no claims to my insurance policy.

I hope you get your bags back, I've had to wait for lost luggage before and it isn't fun!