Lost baggage, take 2

By | July 6, 2007

July 6, 2007

Continental Airlines, Inc.
Post Office Box 4607-NHCCR
Houston, TX 77210-4607

To whom it may concern:

I am writing about your handling of my delayed baggage on a recent Continental flight.

On June 27, I flew from Tel Aviv to Newark on Continental flight 85. I was then supposed to fly from Newark to Boston on flight 1198, but my flight was canceled. I asked at the Continental baggage office what would happen to my bags, and I was told that they would be sent to Boston on the next flight. I asked if I needed to file any sort of paperwork, and I was told that all I needed to do was to call the phone number on my ticket envelope after I arrived in Boston to arrange for delivery of my bags.

Upon arrival in Boston on June 28, I called the number and filed a lost baggage report (file reference BOSCO#####) as instructed. According to your on-line baggage tracing service, one of my two bags made it to Boston on June 29, but the other one did not.

Two days later, on the morning of July 1, I received a telephone call from a baggage handler in Dallas. She informed me that one of my bags was there and asked me to confirm that it should be sent to Boston, because she couldn’t find my file in the baggage tracing system.

The bag made it to Boston that same day, and at around 10:30pm that night, I received a phone call to arrange delivery. The bags were delivered as promised several hours later.

There are some things about this experience with which I am quite pleased. First of all, I am impressed that the baggage handler in Dallas contacted me to find out what to do about my bag. Second, I am impressed that she got my bag to Boston so quickly after speaking with me about it. And third, I am impressed that both of my bags were delivered to me so quickly once the second one arrived in Boston.

However, your handling of my lost bags was not entirely positive. It shouldn’t have taken four days for my bags to be returned to me. My second bag should never have ended up in Dallas (how did that happen?). The baggage handler there should have been able to find my baggage claim information. Finally, the first bag should have been delivered soon after it was received in Boston, rather than held until the second bag arrived.

In short, although this was certainly not the worst delayed baggage experience I’ve had, you could have done better, and I hope that you will in the future.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

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4 thoughts on “Lost baggage, take 2

  1. latika bose

    Hello,
    This is Latika bose , i boarded the flight BA194 on 7th of february 2009 which took a hault at the london airport . From london i boarded the flight BA139 on 8th of february 2009 which was flying to India
    (Mumbai) . I am seriously worried about my black suitcase which is been missing from 9th february 2009 . My suitcase contains very precious and valuable things which are very important for me … the tag number of my baggage is BA128702 …. i have made several calls from Mumbai to the baggage complaint centre of british airways but no response from there has been given yet… this is a shame if you treat your passengers in such manner… I am eagerly waiting for a reply from someone … Thank you

    sincerely,
    Latika Bose.

    Reply
  2. Thomas

    Eurofly Stole My Luggage

    For just an instant I felt uneasy as I approached the check-in counter at Naples Airport. There were three hulking security guards standing next to the desk, laughing and pointing at us. I focused my attention on handing our passports and tickets to the Eurofly Airlines representative, and then putting our bags on the scale. Then she announced something I’d never experienced in 40-plus years of air travel: “You only gave me three bags.” Now my daughter and I had been lugging two bags each from New York for the whole trip, and obviously had passed all four bags over to the clerk. “No, I gave your four bags!” was my verbal response. In my head I knew it was impossible for her to warn me I’d only given her three bags, unless she knew I had given her more. “Well, I only tagged three.” I hurriedly asked her to stop the conveyor so she could tag the bag. She refused, saying it was too late, because the bag had already “gone through”. The bag contained a year’s worth of my daughter’s musical scores, other heavy things like SLR and camcorder batteries, and some precious family hand-me-downs. I then insisted she stop the chute. As if rehearsed, those three security guards marched between me and the clerk, crossed their arms, and shooed me away.

    Fast-forward by 4 months. I never got the bag. I never got the promised reimbursement. I never got an apology. What did I get? I sent an itemized list of the contents’ value to an address Eurofly gave me. It came back in the mail today. “No Such Address” was stamped on the front. The Eurofly telephone representative curtly said the airline probably put my bag in an insecure area and it had therefore been stolen. She said they had no one who could look for our bag in Naples, but instead said they’d do a computer search of all the other airports in the world! She said they’d reimburse me in 6 weeks. Our wonderful American Express representative tried calling them for 21 straight days before finally getting this response: no one knew where my bag was.

    Naples Airport is a bad place. It has a 50% lost baggage rate. Thus why wouldn’t Eurofly have someone at the airport to look for lost bags? My experience must be a common occurrence. I rather think this airport is set up to steal luggage. How could anything else explain what happened? So Eurofly splits the profits after they auction the bags or sell the contents on e-Bay. At best, they turn a blind eye to the problem and care zero about their customers.

    This message is a warning to anyone who intends to take anything they don’t wish to have stolen to Naples Airport…carry it on, or don’t take it. And further, if you fly one of these rinky-dink airlines, prepare to be treated like the mile-high piles of garbage in Naples.

    So after all is said and done, what did I get from Eurofly Airlines? I got railroaded. Don’t fly them.

    Reply
  3. jewell

    This types of problem I also faced during my journey from Newyork to Dhaka. Its really a big problem of our journey. So I registered myself in globalbagtag company. They provide the security of baggage by using latest technology. You can try it.

    Reply
  4. G7

    At least it was a LITTLE better than the British Airways incident.

    Reply

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