Laurel bought her backpack from Timbuk2 in 2006. While that’s practically the blink of an eye if you’re the person in charge of stocking electronics and video games at Walmart, seven years is kind of a long time as far as product warranties go. Not for Timbuk2, though. When they learned that her bag was no longer water-resistant and had lost the rubber coating its bottom, that would not do. She sent an e-mail asking whether she could send it in for a warranty repair. They couldn’t fix it for her. Instead, they sent her a credit for a replacement bag. [More]
Timbuk2 Can’t Fix My Backpack: Sends Me $100 Credit Toward A New One Instead
By May 22, 2013
Luggage Tag Already Filled Out With Contact Info Of Customer Who Didn’t Actually Buy The Bag
By April 29, 2013
Things get returned to retailers and sent back out to other customers. It happens. What isn’t supposed to happen is that one customer gets the item with all of the personal information of the person who returned it. That’s what happened to reader Justin when he bought some luggage for his wife from o.co, the retailer formerly known as Overstock.com, that had a tag filled out with the information of a stranger. [More]
AA Loses Luggage, Turns Dream 60th Birthday Rome Vacation Into Nightmare
By July 6, 2011
Donna was all set to fly to Rome for a beautiful two-week 60th birthday trip with her friends. They had been planning and preparing for it for a year. It was to be the trip of a lifetime. Then they flew American Airlines. [More]
Delta Introduces Online Tracking For Baggage
By April 22, 2011
Next time you’re getting off a Delta flight, you should have a better idea of how long you’ll be waiting for your checked luggage at baggage claim. The airline has introduced a new tracking system that lets users plug in their luggage tag number for up-to-date tracking info. [More]
Louis Vuitton Tattoo Sleeve Takes Brand Loyalty Too Far
By January 18, 2011
This is a picture of some cool guy who got a Louis Vuitton tattoo sleeve (that’s what it’s called when you have tattoos all up and down your arm and ending at your wrist, like a sleeve might). Apparently he decided he never wants to be the number one term life insurance salesman. It’s a sick day when people give their bodies up for free advertising for shallow brands, hoping they’ll be able to embed some of the brand’s cachet into their flesh. Why doesn’t anyone ever tattoo pages from Watership Down on their body, huh? [More]
American And Delta Too Busy To Tag Your Bags, Want You To Do It Yourself
By November 3, 2010
Thought there wasn’t much more the airlines could fob off on the customer? You were wrong. Apparently, the employees at American and Delta are so slow at tagging your checked bags that the airlines think you’d do it better yourself. [More]
Delta Fined $100,000 For Lying To Passengers About Lost Luggage Liability
By November 1, 2010
According to federal regulations, airlines “shall not limit its liability for provable direct or consequential damages” to less than $3,300 per passenger. Someone should have told that to Delta, which was recently slapped with a $100,000 fine by the Dept. of Transportation for distributing pamphlets telling customers something very different. [More]
Pack Like A Pro
By September 15, 2010
This guy show off a cool “clown-car” technique for packing a lot of clothes into your luggage. [More]
Southwest Also Breaks Guitars
By September 3, 2010
Brian hasn’t written a song about it yet, but he tells Consumerist that Southwest Airlines broke his guitar. However, they won’t take responsibility for the situation because the case wasn’t broken [More]
Know How Much Your Bag Weighs Before Flying
By August 9, 2010
Delta tried to charge “Frustrated Traveler” an illegitimate bag fee yesterday by claiming it was over the weight limit. He knew, however, that unless the bag had been eating tubs of frosting throughout the flight, it was still the same 47 pounds it was when he weighed it himself before boarding. [More]
Spirit Starts Charging Up To $45 For Carry-On Bags
By August 1, 2010
Prepare to shift that carry-on bag to your other hand as you reach for your wallet because today is the day Spirit rolls out their new fee for carry-on bags. Billed as an ostensible solution to gate delays, the worst problem you never experienced, the fee ranges from $20 to $45. [More]
Buy These Suitcase Stickers If You Want To Get Frisked
By July 22, 2010
If you want to get an equal amount of eye-rolls, giggles and terrified looks from those standing around you in airport security lines, affix one of these security-provoking decals to your luggage. [More]
Luggage Emerges From United Airlines Flight Totally Mauled
By June 22, 2010
A Gothamist reader’s bags didn’t show up until three days after she got off the United Airlines flight, and when they did, they looked like they’d been ravaged by the gnashing of an angry monster. The bags and contents were torn, soaked, and moldy, and several items were missing. [More]
VIDEO: How To Pack For A Weekend Beach Getaway
By June 11, 2010
In case you hadn’t notice, the summer vacation season is upon us. And even if people don’t have the cash to rent a beach house for a full week, plenty of folks are still going off for weekends on the water. And in the interest of keeping your luggage to a minimum, the editors at Lucky Magazine had put together a handy, perhaps even dandy, guide for how to get everything you need in one bag. [More]
Delta Smashed My Bike And Won't Refund The Baggage Fee
By June 9, 2010
This guy is trying to raise money to build dams in Africa by doing 20 half Ironman races. Consequently, he has to travel with his bike a lot. He says that during a recent trip back from Hawaii Delta smashed his bike and won’t even refund the $200 fee he paid them to transport it. This makes him sad. [More]
Stop Luggage Thieves
By May 28, 2010
Frugal for Life has some suggestions for avoiding your baggage getting stolen, the most surefire one being to not check a bag in the first place. You can also use a cheap, neon bag, as thieves prefer more nondescript bags and tend to target those fancy “LV” emblazoned bags. Also, you can insure your bag, usually as part of trip insurance, which usually costs 5-8% of the total trip price. Do you use any special tactics to thwart luggage thieves? Leave your thoughts in the comments. [More]
Unevenly Packed Bags Results In $1500 Delta Disaster
By April 14, 2010
Reader Ariel writes in after Delta refused to let her check her bags curbside because one was 5lbs too heavy, despite the fact that her other one 10lbs under. She says she was told it was Delta’s policy that she couldn’t move 5lbs of her crap to the other bag. This set off a chain of events that cost her $1500. [More]
