After a long day of traveling the last thing you want to deal with is lost baggage, but, unfortunately, that’s a very real situation for millions of consumers: over the last five years, the Transportation Security Administration paid out $3 million for lost, stolen and damaged baggage. American Airlines is trying to give travelers piece of mind that their bags are well within reach by launching a new bag tracking service. [More]
lost luggage
American Airlines Leaves Travelers Stranded Around Globe Without Luggage
By 2.23.15
Beyond just getting you through security and into your seat on the plane, there are a lot of systems that have to work together to get a flight off the ground with all its passengers and all their stuff. But when one important system went down at a major airport on Friday, American Airlines decided to fly a bunch of planes without luggage rather than delay or cancel flights. [More]
The Unclaimed Baggage Center: A Wonderful Tale Of Lost Wedding Dresses & Rattlesnakes
By 10.5.12
We need to plan a field trip to Scottsboro, Ala. ASAP. Why? Just because of a magical place called the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a warehouse that sells off all the wonderful and not so wonderful things left behind in luggage that was never reunited with airline passengers. Sure, some bags might be full of dirty socks and empty Cheetos bags (I assume), but others contain things like wedding dresses, rattlesnakes… or even shrunken heads. [More]
Delta Misplaces My Backpack Of Essentials, Shrugs
By 9.5.12
Seann got on a Delta plane with only a carry-on, and was told that he would need to gate-check his bag. That was the last time he ever saw it. The tag he was supposed to receive never materialized, and neither did his backpack. This would be tolerable if he had just been toting a carry-on full of clothes, but the gate-checked bag happened to be his backpack, stuffed with his laptop, video camera, and other valuable items filled with tasty data. [More]
Complaints Against Airlines Rise Despite Fewer Lost Bags, Passengers Bumped
By 2.15.12
Even though airlines lost fewer passengers’ bags and bumped them off flights less often last year, people still found plenty to complain about. Figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation say that complaints against domestic and foreign service surged 5 percent in 2011, rising to 11,545 instances. [More]
AA Loses Luggage, Turns Dream 60th Birthday Rome Vacation Into Nightmare
By 7.6.11
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]
Get More Money When Airline Loses Luggage By Having Receipts For Every Piece Of Clothing
By 6.8.11
Airlines play the lowball game when they lose your luggage, offering paltry compensation and making it hard for you to get a fair value for your lost items. It demands a bit of an anal mentality but you can help yourself if you’ve saved the receipts for everything in your baggage, writes the Airfarewatchdogblog. [More]
How Delta Made Enemies Of Standup Eugene Mirman
By 3.7.11
I stumbled across this clip of standup comedian Eugene Mirman describing how Delta Airlines became his enemy. It all started when they lost his bag and at the counter they looked at his ticket and asked him if his name was “Barbara Riddle.” He said no and then they proceeded to deliver Ms. Riddle’s bag to his house, twice, before finally giving up and telling him he’d have to file a claim for his luggage. Fast-forward to 5:57 to hear him tell the tale and read aloud the hate letter he wrote them as a result. [More]
JetBlue Loses My Luggage, Doesn't Care
By 3.15.10
Justin says JetBlue lost his family’s luggage, and ever since he’s been locked in a long, losing battle in which he’s tried unsuccesfully to get the airline to give a damn. He says he’s been met with indifference at every stage of the arduous complaint process. [More]
DOT To Airlines: Sorry, But People Like To Change Their Underwear
By 10.14.09
The United States Department of Transportation has finally warned airlines: Most people don’t like to go for more than 24 hours without brushing their teeth and changing their underwear.
Greyhound Tells Passengers With Missing Luggage To 'Get Together And Do Something About It'
By 8.18.08
Is this Greyhound CSR trying to start a revolution among its customers, or simply telling the wife of a passenger that Greyhound doesn’t care about lost luggage? She claims he told her to “‘get together with everyone else’ who lost luggage ‘and do something about it.'” Like what—start a support group? Meet him behind the bleachers for a fist fight? Open a detective agency in Tupelo?
By 9.24.07
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British Airways had the ability to sell this passenger’s lost folding chiropractic table, but not the inclination to Google “Dr. Marta Callotta, Sports Chiropractic” imprinted on the front of it it to return it to it’s rightful owner. [Elliot via Rick Seany]
Phone Number For JetBlue's Main Baggage Office
By 4.11.07
If JetBlue lost your luggage, here’s the number for their main baggage office: 866-538-5438
USAirways Loses Costumes, Ruins Carnivale
By 3.13.07
Some of my friends and I went to Venice for the Carnivale last month, and we wound up without our costumes, due to incompetence or theft overseen by US Airways….We were trying to connect from a US Airways flight to Philadelphia onto another airline, we got separated from our bags, and only the bag with “boring” contents came through – the suitcase containing the “interesting” contents has somehow still not been located!
