Lost bags, who's the worst

[Lear Wanna Be]

Just reported on NBC national news that US Air is the worst when it comes to losing passenger's bags. They were followed by Delta and American. The study was based on bags lost per passengers. Not the total number lost in any given year.

Hey CAs, send the FO down to supervise.

 

[Pickle]

Hey CAs, send the FO down to supervise.

Yeah, 'cuz when you're trying to turn a late flight in 30 minutes or whatever you just don't have enough to occupy your time, what with doing the walk-around, weight and balance, takeoff performance, picking up the clearance, putting away the arrival and approach charts, getting out the departure, taking a whiz, calling the wife, calling the road wife, bitching about the latest round of concessions, bitching about the captain who hasn't gotten off his lazy butt and done ONE SINGLE walk-around the whole 5 day pairing...... you get the picture.

 

[Diesel]

airline 4 times a month and check my bag all the time. Never been lost, even when i've decided to take a later flight to have lunch with my father in law at the airport. The bag still made it.

The worst was
Company booked me bos-lga-atl (like delta doesn't go direct to atl from bos?)
So I get to atl and go to the delta bag claim and suprise suprise my bag didn't come out. Figure it got lost in lga, oh well. Go to the bag office and they tell me, "oh your bag has been here for 4 hours."

Turns out my bag decided to take the direct flight. Arrrgh.

 

[starchkr]

Does it matter who has the worst record when 30,000,000 bags are lost every year around the world?

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Well yes. If you are work for USA, AAL, or DAL and account for a major part of that 30 Million. There is some room for improvement. Of course I should be posting this to bagthrowersinfo.com.

I get your point though starcheck.

 

[CaptainMark]

Fedex didn't lose any bags...but boxes may be a different story!!!

 

[Osmosis]

I like what NWA told me last week when they lost my bags. "We have no idea where your bags are, sir." Well when they did arrive at my doorstep the next day, they were soaked and wet. My guess is my bags decided to take a vacation to the beach and took a swim, and then caught the next flight home. The bags aren't talking on their location, and guess what, neither is NWA. The answer on why my bags were soaked, NWA is liable for, blah, blah, blah, but not for wet luggage.

Those darn bags sure do the craziest things... kind of like taking that direct Delta flight. If you would have only thought about that...

 

[FN FAL]

Just reported on NBC national news that US Air is the worst when it comes to losing passenger's bags. They were followed by Delta and American. The study was based on bags lost per passengers. Not the total number lost in any given year.

The answer is simple, if your employer is paying you to travel you should cash in the airline ticket or get re-embursed for the milage and drive if you don't want your luggage lost.

 

[starchkr]

Simple solution...ship bags ahead of time and save the hassle of actually checking them on the airlines and running the risk of losing them. It's working in Europe right now, and a few airlines are having great success with it. We just need to convince the US flying public that it will work in their favor to do it that way...then no lost luggage, it's always waiting for you at your destination when you arrive.

Lear Wanna Be...I wasn't trying to poke fun at anyone or make trouble, i was just trying to point out a weakness in the current baggage systems around the world...last statistic i saw was that it cost airlines over 2B (yes with a "B") every year to locate and deliver lost luggage...that would be quite the savings for the airlines that are in trouble right now if they could eliminate this hassle.

 

[FN FAL]

Simple solution...ship bags ahead of time and save the hassle of actually checking them on the airlines and running the risk of losing them. It's working in Europe right now, and a few airlines are having great success with it. We just need to convince the US flying public that it will work in their favor to do it that way...then no lost luggage, it's always waiting for you at your destination when you arrive.

That's comforting to know, that it's ok to not trust that my luggage will get there on the airlines, but my ass will. I don't know, kind of seems backwards to me.

Maybe I should let my luggage take a risk on the airlines and I'll just ship my self ahead of time to make sure I'm there to pick up my luggage.

 

[starchkr]

That's comforting to know, that it's ok to not trust that my luggage will get there on the airlines, but my ass will. I don't know, kind of seems backwards to me.

Maybe I should let my luggage take a risk on the airlines and I'll just ship my self ahead of time to make sure I'm there to pick up my luggage.

I'm sure you were trying to be ironic (in your own "way off" sense of humor), but that is what is already happening...we ship ourselves ahead of our bags and then have to wait for them to show up a few days later.

 

[Lear Wanna Be]

Lear Wanna Be...I wasn't trying to poke fun at anyone or make trouble, i was just trying to point out a weakness in the current baggage systems around the world...last statistic i saw was that it cost airlines over 2B (yes with a "B") every year to locate and deliver lost luggage...that would be quite the savings for the airlines that are in trouble right now if they could eliminate this hassle.

We all know all the problems the airlines have and how cheap tickets are part of the problem, so leave that for another discussion. But, I flew from ORD-DEN round trip a few years ago...route was ORD-IAH-DEN-IAH-ORD, fare was $113 on COA. They sent my bags to ORF instead of ORD on the way home. They gave me $100 voucher and paid some courier to deliver them to me a few days later. Seems they were on the losing end to begin with, but after all of that they sure were.

Same trip my GF met me out in DEN a few days later. Flew NWA via code share with COA for $128. Route was MDW-DTW-DEN-IAH-ORD. Her bags missed the connection in DTW and then somehow did not make the next flight. They gave her a $50 voucher and put us up in a hotel that night. Wonder what they would have done if she would have been one of those jacka$$ people that shout, rant, and make fools of themselves. Needless to say, that was another loser trip for the airlines.

So to say they spend $2B a year, well that does not surprise me. That was the first and only time I have ever had bags lost.

 

[starchkr]

I just flew with a captain who had his luggage lost both directions on his trip to Germany a couple weeks ago...BOTH WAYS...can you imagine? Not only to have them get it wrong once, but twice on the same trip. There is a company out there now who is actually trying to get luggage off airlines and ship it separately days ahead of the scheduled trip, this will not only eliminate this problem, but will save the airlines money by eliminating this $2B they pay yearly plus the money they spend on the TSA to screen this luggage, also in the Billions yearly. I would say that eliminating 3-4 billion worth of expenses a year would greatly help out ailing airlines right now, but the major holdup is the flying public.

You are right about the fact that low ticket prices are the hinderance of the airline system right now...as you say, how can they charge you $113 and then give you a voucher plus extras surely valued at close to $150+ and expect to make money...they can't. Like i mentioned before, the system i mentioned above is working in Europe, and it should be more widely recognized here in the US in a few months to a year. The airlines in Europe who are participating actually charge upwards of $50 per piece of checked luggage if you show up at the airport with bags, on top of the fare they already charged, so in their case, if they lose a bag, they still profit...although i have not seen any numbers on the lost luggage side for those airlines, which i would "believe" should be lower with less bags to have to move around.

Alright, anyway, it does suck to have your luggage lost, it happened to me once, and it's not fun having to go out and buy new stuff so you can get through the days before your bag catches up to you. Just stay away from USAir apparently.