Monday, July 30, 2007

Airlines and luggage.........RANT

OMG! I'm completely in awe at how airlines handle luggage. I've flown very few times in my life, and lost my luggage (excuse me, had it delayed) more than 1/2 of my flights. And they really don't care! As long as you get your luggage within 24 hours, they are not responsible for anything. Even after 24 hours the responsibility is extremely low.

My first flight ever was to NYC in 2004. We flew out of Wichita, layover in Chicago, then on to NYC. Back we had a layover in Dallas. No problems at all.

Then off to Vegas from KC, direct flight both ways, in 2005. No problems.

My 3rd flying trip was in 2007 to MSP, layover in Atlanta. I get to MSP, no bag. This one really was lost. No record of it other than leaving Wichita. According to reports, it left Wichita, but did not arrive anywhere.
I was spending the weekend in MSP, meeting 20 some other knotties, with nothing to wear. I was leaving there, straight to Vegas for a conference. Well, I of course had to go shopping, and since the airlines had no clue what happened to my luggage, I shopped for the week in Vegas. Figured it would be easier and cheaper than shopping in Vegas.
I had arrived in MSP Friday. I have no idea how many phone calls I made trying to find my bags. Finally on Sunday, I got someone who actually got off her butt and went to look. Sure enough, there were my bags, still in Atlanta. She shipped them off to Vegas for me.
When I got my bag, it was shredded......well, for 2 days of no clothes and a shredded bag, I got a whopping $100. Wow.

This month I flew to Mexico. We were to leave KC, layover in Chicago and land in Cancun at 12:33 pm. Our KC flight left late and our Chicago flight left early. It was quite the site, me carrying my wedding dress, running through the Chicago airport.
The only way now to get to Cancun was to have another layover in Atlanta. So, off to Atlanta we went. Of course I knew I was going to loose my luggage. When we got on the plane in Atlanta, headed to Cancun, I was watching the bags being loaded on. And I saw one of mine! Whew, the sense of joy I had at that moment was wonderful. Then, all of a sudden they drive off, with my bag still on it!!! WTF!?!?!? FI tried to tell me I was crazy, it wasn't my bag. But, I knew it was. I saw the tear and the special tags........it was mine! And, of course, when we got to Cancun, 10 hours late, my bag wasn't there. In fact, 4 of our bags didn't make it. They were lost. The computer didn't know where they were.
While shopping in Playa del Carmen for new clothes, we saw another American and said something about lost luggage. She said "let me guess, Atlanta" I guess they are famous for lost and delayed luggage.
The four bags did show up late the next day. It had all of my clothes, all of my mothers clothes, my sons clothes and most of my wedding stuff. Talk about a stressed bride.

Now here we are returning to the states. We land in DC and have to claim and recheck all of our luggage. It is all there. We land in KC. We are missing 2 bags. WTF? Of course KC doesn't fly to Wichita, so how are we supposed to get them? This is great. We called the next day, Sunday and they say our bags are in KC. Well, we tell them they were supposed to go to Wichita.
The bitch didn't put that on our claim. In fact, we find out she didn't even do a claim. She filled out the form and wrote the bag numbers, but she didn't file the claim or assign a number to it. So, the guy on the phone does. Great. Our bags will be flown to Chicago, then to Wichita,. Today I get a call from a delivery guy saying he is delivering our bag. One bag?? Yes, only one bag. So, we call again. Guess where our other bag is? Memphis. Another WTF?!?!? It will be in Wichita tomorrow.

So much for getting all the laundry done today.

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