Airlines make passengers wait days for lost bags

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Airline: Aerolineas Argentinas
Date: 2 July 2013
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Flight: AA1181 (Sydney to Buenos Aires)

Baggage did not arrive in Buenos Aires. Waited four days. No news. Have continually been contacting Aerolineas Argentinas. No satisfactory response. Had to replace necessary medication and purchase items after four days in same clothes. Have had to visit doctor again and alter travel plans and spend considerable sums on additional travel changes due to delays. Have heard from the airline once saying that they found my luggage, but they gave me the incorrect baggage loss number.

Finding luggage at this stage really is of no importance as I have had to replace and change all my plans because of this incident. Extremely unhappy with any dealings with Aerolineas Argentinas with any communication over this problem.

AirSafe.com suggestion As discussed on the Baggage Basics page, you should never put critical, hard to replace items in checked bags. That would include prescription medications and other items that you need to use immediately after arrival.

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Airline: Singapore Airlines
Date: 10 August 2013
Location: San Francisco
Flight: SQ0016 (Seoul, South Korea to San Francisco)

I have checked in eight bags from VTZ-SFO on Singapore Airlines and when I landed in SFO on August 10th, one of the bags did not arrive in SFO. I was told that this bag was missing and will be traced and provide status to me. They provided me with a Property Irregularity Report form and asked me to follow up with them regularly. I called on 11th August and they told me that the bag has been traced and will be sent to my home that night. Until now, I have not receive that bag and whenever I call them no one answers the phone and when I leave a voice mail no one calls me back. It has already been 10 days since I landed in SFO, and I do not know the status of my bag .

Not happy with Spirit Airlines and their inconsistent flight schedules baggage scales

Date: 19 June 2013
Airline: Spirit
Flight: 212
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL to St. Thomas, VI

We were booked to go to St. Thomas on 6/19/13, our flight was to leave at 12:25pm. We left at 4:30pm because they decided to "swap out the plane." So we had to wait until the plane they wanted to swap for our scheduled plane arrived from Atlanta.

While waiting for our flight I observed a Spirit flight to NY cancelled, then re-established, then delayed. Nearly all departing Spirit flights were delayed that afternoon, and there were multiple gate changes. Our return trip was the same, instead of leaving St. Thomas at 4pm, we left about 5:20 because the arriving plane from Tampa was "late." This was after the desk clerk asked me if I would be willing to fly to Miami instead of Ft. Lauderdale. When I asked why, she said that the plane we were scheduled to leave on was late and there were adverse winds.

Well I guess nobody was willing to fly to Miami because our plane was nearly full. I have never seen an airline run in such a haphazard fashion. It appears that everyone is confused, and that changes are instituted at whim, not to mention the fees. Leaving I had to pay extra because my bag was over 40 lbs It was 42 lbs. Upon my return the same bag weighed 6 lbs more after we had purposely taken things out of it. Who says their scales are correct? All this to sit on a plane with approximately 6 inches of room between my 5'4" legs and the seat in front of me, unless of course, I was willing to shell out an extra $50 for a regular seat. This airline is unacceptable.

Coach class passengers treated with no class by Korean Air

Date: 28 May 2013
Airline: Korean Air
Flight: KE 0019
Location: Incheon, South Korea to LAX

Once my son and I boarded the airplane and settled in, the captain told us the airlines were having some difficulties and we would be leaving shortly. After waiting another 15 minutes, the captain again mentioned some struggles happening with the luggage. He also said he didn’t want to leave until everyone’s luggage was onboard. In essence, we were delayed numerous times before departing on our soon to be long and unpleasant flight.

During food service, my son and I requested chicken for our choice of dinner but was rudely denied by one of the flight attendants. She said, "There isn’t any chicken left, pasta is all that we have." Immediately I asked why this had happened and the [Steward] rudely replied, "I'm sorry but that’s what happens when you sit in the back." I explained that I paid just as much as everyone else for my ticket and deserved the same option for food.

During the second round of serving drinks, my son and I requested Ginger Ale and were told by another Stuart that the airlines had run out. Once more, this Stuart said, "This is what happens when you sit in the back of the plane."

My son and I didn’t ask to be seated in the last row neither deserve the treatment we were given. This was a very long, disturbing, and uncomfortable flight for the both of us. (Keep in mind; we flew 10 plus hours across the country)

Upon arrival at LAX we were soon notified our luggage hadn’t come in and had remained in London. We would not be receiving our luggage until the following day but was once again told it would not arrive until the day after the original date.

All in all, the treatment we received was unacceptable. I feel every customer should be received and treated with equal respect no matter where their seated, business or standard class. After speaking to a representative on the phone, we're still feeling those raw emotions from the flight. What a bad experience this was for the both of us...

United and US Airways Ruins Wedding trip to Puerto Rico

Part 1 - Outbound Flights

Date: 29 December 2011
Airline: US Airways, flight 706
Location: San Francisco, CA to San, Juan, PR

Written on 2/1/2012 to the airline: On December 29th, my fiance and I were en route to our wedding in Puerto Rico via United Airlines, where he is a longstanding Premiere member. He surprised me with first class tickets and we were so excited to depart. After hours on the tarmac, they finally offloaded and cancelled the flight to to a computer glitch/ mechanical issues.

The stewards were really nice but had no information; the booking agent at the counter was very rude and pushy - she refused to walk me through multiple booking options and instead, tried to force us to take a red eye to Puerto Rico, leaving SF late at night. Finally, we were able to rebook with an agent on the phone who was helpful.

We were routed through Philadelphia, where we had to spend the night. We were given a very dingy room ar Four Points and two lame $10 meal vouchers that weren't even worth appetizers. This was not how we envisioned the beginning of our wedding trip. On top of this frustrating experience, we missed our first night in Puerto Rico at the Sheraton in Old San Juan, where we had booked with saved points for the occasion that have yet to be refunded. Overall, and despite nicely voicing our frustrations, the United agents we encountered failed to understand the unique circumstances of our trip-- which we had been planning and saving for since 2010.

We are disappointed with our United experience and hope that your customer relations personnel are able to address and respond to our concerns. As always, it is important to give both people and companies second chances, as long as we communicate our frustrations. However, this traveling experience was intolerable and without the appropriate response, I will hesitate to fly United again.

Part 2 - Return Flights

Date: 9 January 2012
Flight: US Airways, operated by United flights 700 and 975
Location: San, Juan, PR to San Francisco, CA

On January 9th, 2012, my husband and I returned from our wedding in Puerto Rico via US Airways, where he surprised me with First Class tickets. Our flight to Washington, DC was just fine, but after four hours of delays for our flight from DC to San Francisco (including hours in the terminal and on the plane and de-icing), our flight was cancelled due to mechanical issues.

A Premiere representative was able to help us re-book for a later flight the same day to San Francisco; however, the flights were not first class. She took our email addresses and old boarding passes and promised to arrange for first class vouchers for future flights. We have not heard from her since. We have tried calling and emailing through your online system. After two weeks, we still have heard no response and are feeling very frustrated. How do we resolve this issue and receive either monetary compensation or vouchers for our downgrade to the main cabin?

Our flight home was a miserable experience. After hours of traveling and exhaustion, our stewardess was horrible. She refused to give me a bottle of water, and I was at the onset of a panic attack. Luckily, an Air Force paramedic sitting next to me was able to help and my husband was able to get my medicine, but I spent a good portion of the flight in tears. The stewardess was very rude, until she realized what was going on- still, she didn't need to behave that way to begin with.

Upon arrival in SF, all of our luggage was lost. We were told it would arrive the following day on the next flight to San Francisco from DC. It did not. We got three out of four bags two days later and the fourth bag arrived 5 days later. The process for contacting US Airways about our bags was arduous, to say the least and extremely frustrating. It required hours of follow-up on our part. Overall, our experience on the second leg of our trip was horrible. We are looking forward to hearing your response to this situation.

I hope that US Airways Customer Service is able to appropriately address these multiple issues. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best man misses wedding and Delta owes compensation

Date: 17 May 2012
Airline: Delta, flight 2
Location: Dusseldorf, Germany

Letter to Delta:

We have received the Transportation Credit Voucher. This is not the compensation that we were promised by the ticket agent at Dusseldorf. We printed a copy of Regulation EC 261/2004 from your website which clearly states that when a reserved flight originating in the EU (European Union) is cancelled by Delta, we are eligible for a 600 Euro (about $760) compensation per passenger.

We had to wait until the next day to catch another flight. One member of our flight missed part of his brother's wedding (he was the best man by the way) due to the cancellation. The regulation also clearly states that the compensation will be paid in cash or electronic transfer. Only with our written consent should we be compensated with travel vouchers and if
so, the Transportation Voucher amounts will be higher than the cash amounts.

The $200 credit per passenger is obviously not according to the terms outlined by the regulation. Please issue the 600 Euro credit per passenger rather than the travel vouchers.

It is important to note that the flight was not delayed; it was
cancelled. You mentioned in your email that it was delayed by 4.36 hours. There was no Flight 25 that day and we were forced to catch another flight the following day.

Also, we did not receive reimbursement for the taxi fare to the hotel or back to the airport the next day. We have our receipts and we turned them in by mail to Delta. We have not heard back from Delta about the taxi reimbursement.

Bag with wedding clothes arrives after epic journey

Date: 3 May 2012
Airline: United, flight 6179H
Location: Chicago, IL; Albany, NY; and Wilkes-Barre, PA

Although traveling with United in the past has generally been a reasonably smooth experience, I would like to report that my most recent travel experience was borderline disastrous due to a number of incidents demonstrating incompetence, rudeness, and total disregard for customer satisfaction.

The Four-hour Delay
My wife and I were scheduled to fly from Chicago (ORD) landing in Wilkes-Barre (AVP) on May 3, 7:16 PM, flight UA 6179H. The weather was causing some delays on various planes that night, with many of them being cancelled. Although delays are understandable, the manner in which this was handled was unacceptable. At one point, a frustrated gate attendant began audibly cursing and slamming his phone around, clearly causing an uncomfortable atmosphere to people already on edge from constant 15 minute delays totaling over 4 hours. Despite many flights being cancelled due to plane damage, ours was thankfully not, and nearly 5 hours later we boarded our plane.

After sitting on the plane for about 30 minutes, our pilot informed us that the flight was canceled, because the flight would mean him working over 16 hours. We then waited almost 40 minutes to get off the plane, since there was no gate available for us to return to. This is completely unacceptable, because a very basic calculation would have prevented us from wasting several hours of our time boarding a plane that could have never possibly taken off—United should have been able to calculate hours before that the flight could not occur due to the pilot being unable to work longer.

We were then shuffled off to a customer service area where an airline employee was rudely yelling and acting impatient with understandably outraged customers, as if she was annoyed that she had to perform her duties. Eventually we were seen by a representative.

A Key Checked Bag Gets Lost
Now, my wife and I were traveling to Wilkes-Barre where we would spend the night with my family and drive to Schenectady NY together the next morning. The next flight to Wilkes-Barre was too late the next day such that our family would not be there to pick us up, as there was a very important wedding rehearsal dinner occurring at 6:00 PM in Schenectady. In order for us to attend this dinner, we needed to change our flight destination to Albany, NY. After some debate with a United representative who was saying we’d have to pay for the new flight despite our original one being cancelled (which he comically denied ever happened, even though the room was full of people from the same cancelled flight!), we were finally transferred to a new flight to Albany, flight UA5905, departing March 4th at 7:49 AM.

Before leaving the airport to try to get a little sleep, we were told that our luggage (one bag) was not automatically transferred for us and that we’d need to go to United baggage services to ensure that it was transferred. The lady there looked at our boarding passes and said that they were already transferred, which is of course impossible considering what we had just been told. We asked her to make sure, and she did something on her computer and then assured us that it was done.

More Delays the Next Day
After returning to the airport the next morning and reaching our gate, we once again were informed that our plane to Albany was delayed. Except this time, the delay was handled with extreme unprofessionalism. We were moved to a number of different gates over and over. At one point, we were told to go to another gate because our plane was there waiting for us. It was not waiting for us, meaning we were blatantly lied to by a United representative.

At another time, we were told it was ‘on its way from the hanger’, and then told an hour later that it was still sitting at the hanger. We received completely different stories depending on who we asked. Eventually, we learned that the reason our plane hadn’t arrived at the gate, almost four hours later, is because there was no personnel to taxi the plane from the hanger to the gate. Our pilot had been sitting at the gate for over an hour at this point, and he was then summoned to be driven over to the hanger so he could taxi the plane himself. Note that if communication wasn’t so terrible, this could have been done at least an hour before.

Moments before boarding the plane, I spoke directly with the person loading the bags onto the plane. Skeptical that my bag was properly transferred, I had him take a look at my baggage claim ticket, asking him if he could please verify that my luggage was loaded onto the plane. After consulting with another man, inputting some numbers, and then scanning my baggage claim ticket, he assured us that the bag was on the plane.

United Unsure of Bag Location
We arrived in Albany shortly after, but our baggage did not. It was now 2:45 PM, meaning we’d have to go to a rehearsal dinner without the clothing in our baggage. A man at United baggage services in Albany filed a report (Reference [redacted]), and was unable to locate where our bag actually was, although he suspected it was still in Chicago since it wasn’t in Albany and wasn’t in Wilkes-Barre. Luckily there was another flight to Albany that evening, since we had a wedding the next day at 4PM, and desperately needed our clothing (suits, dresses, toiletries, medication, etc.).

I spent a great deal of that afternoon and evening speaking with various representatives from the provided hotline, 1-800-355-2247, making sure that the bags would indeed be sent on the next flight to Albany, where we could pick it up that evening as to be prepared for the wedding the next day. Some of these representatives were confused about the current location of the bag, insisting that it was in Albany since it was scanned onto the Albany flight (I suspect this is because the aforementioned bag loader scanned my claim ticket). After insisting that no, the bag was not in Albany, I received yet more reassurance that the bag would be sent out on the next flight to Albany.

The Bag Shows Up in the Wrong City
That evening, I called the hotline again to check on the status of the bag, since by about that time it should have been en route to Albany, and would have been scanned. The representative said that yes, it had been scanned, but to Wilkes-Barre! So, after spending hours on the phone with baggage services, it’s as if everything I had requested had been completely ignored. At this point, my wife and I were very worried that we’re not going to receive our baggage in time for the wedding. Although there was a flight from Wilkes-Barre to Albany the next morning, my confidence in the ability of United to properly execute any request has been demolished. Regardless, I asked them to do this, which of course they assured me would be done.

United Customer Service Continues to Fall Short
Note that the calls themselves also demonstrated extreme unprofessionalism on the part of United. On at least one occasion I was told I would be called back by a supervisor, only to never be called. On others, I was put on hold for 20 minutes while a representative tried to answer a very simple question. Asking for a supervisor was a huge ordeal, as the representative I spoke to completely ignored my request and tried to solve my problem herself, despite the fact that several had failed before her. At no point was there any respect for the urgency of the situation, nor were there ever any options for me to escalate the problem to someone with more power or knowledge.

Another Company Saves the Day
The morning of the wedding, I received a call—not from United, but from ‘Best Value Passenger Services’ at the Wilkes-Barre airport (AVP). So, United failed to act on my request yet again, and my bag was a three-hour drive away with no more flights available before the wedding. However, I was relieved, because finally my bag was in the hands of somebody that wasn’t United Airlines. And thanks to them, we were able to receive our bag about an hour before the wedding, because an employee of theirs delivered our bag directly to us, a 3 hour drive away.

Overall, my wife and I are extremely disappointed in the quality of service we received from United. Our trip was certainly marred and came very close to being completely ruined. At no point during the entire support process were we ever offered any compensation. We do believe we should be compensated for the flight and baggage charges and look forward to hearing what United can offer us.

-Eric