Baggage delayed and not informed.

[Ribbo83]

Hi,

My wife and I recently flew Victoria - Vancouver - Sydney in J Class. The Victoria to Vancouver leg was Air Canada economy (dash-8) but our bags were tagged priority and our booking was on the one PNR and bags checked through to Sydney.

When we arrived in Sydney our oversized ski bag didn't come out, asked the baggage handler about bags on our flight and he suggested to continue to wait as he thought there were still bags to come. After 45 mins we lined up at baggage claim and they had no info on it. We ended up leaving over 1 hour after we landed.

After calling qantas for 4 days they eventually found it, still in Vancouver, air Canada left it off the first sector and it never made the qantas flight home, another 5 days later the bag was delivered, un damaged and all contents in check.

We logged a complaint with Qantas and received a reply today, basically apologising and saying that they would let the baggage teams know.

Am I expecting to much that as J class passengers with Priority marked bags they could have got a message to us at some point in the 15 hour flight so we weren't waiting round looking for a bag that wasn't in the country. Should qantas offer anything more than an apology?

 

[gaz0303]

Nope. You have clearly stated that Air Canada forgot to load the bags. These things happen. Be glad that QF investigated, found the bag and returned it. I'm assuming that no skiing was missed.

 

[RooFlyer]

Sorry, agree with gaz0303 on this one. In an ideal world, the tracking you are expecting may work, but that's not how things work, unfortunately.

I know from experience, and subsequent engagement with QF managers, that even with a pure QF flight LAX-SYD, Qantas in Sydney does not know what bags are actually on the flight until they emerge on the baggage carousel. I waited until the last bag appeared before I realised the bag wasn't on the flight, so like the OP was considerably delayed at the carousel for no result. On subsequent flights when the bag should have come, I discovered that again, no-one knew if my bag was on a particular flight until it emerged out of customs (for un-accompanied bag). I didn't like it, but learned that was how it is.

 

[straitman]

Hi,My wife and I recently flew Victoria - Vancouver - Sydney in J Class. The Victoria to Vancouver leg was Air Canada economy (dash-8) but our bags were tagged priority and our booking was on the one PNR and bags checked through to Sydney.When we arrived in Sydney our oversized ski bag didn't come out, asked the baggage handler about bags on our flight and he suggested to continue to wait as he thought there were still bags to come. After 45 mins we lined up at baggage claim and they had no info on it. We ended up leaving over 1 hour after we landed.After calling qantas for 4 days they eventually found it, still in Vancouver, air Canada left it off the first sector and it never made the qantas flight home, another 5 days later the bag was delivered, un damaged and all contents in check.We logged a complaint with Qantas and received a reply today, basically apologising and saying that they would let the baggage teams know. Am I expecting to much that as J class passengers with Priority marked bags they could have got a message to us at some point in the 15 hour flight so we weren't waiting round looking for a bag that wasn't in the country. Should qantas offer anything more than an apology?

We flew CDG-LON-DXB-MEL in Qantas first two years ago. On arrival in MEL our bags were not to be found.

Our F hostess went into a spin until the a/c captain, who I knew from RAAF days, arrived and his bags were missing also. After about 2 hrs and a few laughs and a catchup they found some of the bags.

As we headed into Melbourne I got a call that the other bags had been located and would be sent straight to the hotel. I gave the hotel strict instructions not to deliver the bags until I rang for them in the morning.

Moral of the story is that BA and QF did all the right things but the baggage handlers at MEL managed to screw it up. As they say: S**T happens :!:

 

[drron]

Did QF even know they were meant to be loaded in Vancouver?
But no matter what you do to try and minimise lost baggage it still happens.We had a cancelled US flight PHL-CDG.So rebooked PHL-EWR-ORL.The EWR-ORL leg was BA.I had a feeling there was probably going to be a stuff up so as I was leaving the lounge at EWR I asked the BA agent if our bags were on the flight.She looked at our tags then the computer and assured me they were.They weren't.Then they lost them again getting from ORL-AMS.

 

[JohnPhelan]

Hi,

My wife and I recently flew Victoria - Vancouver - Sydney in J Class. The Victoria to Vancouver leg was Air Canada economy (dash-8) but our bags were tagged priority and our booking was on the one PNR and bags checked through to Sydney.

When we arrived in Sydney our oversized ski bag didn't come out, asked the baggage handler about bags on our flight and he suggested to continue to wait as he thought there were still bags to come. After 45 mins we lined up at baggage claim and they had no info on it. We ended up leaving over 1 hour after we landed.

After calling qantas for 4 days they eventually found it, still in Vancouver, air Canada left it off the first sector and it never made the qantas flight home, another 5 days later the bag was delivered, un damaged and all contents in check.

We logged a complaint with Qantas and received a reply today, basically apologising and saying that they would let the baggage teams know.

Am I expecting to much that as J class passengers with Priority marked bags they could have got a message to us at some point in the 15 hour flight so we weren't waiting round looking for a bag that wasn't in the country. Should qantas offer anything more than an apology?

Why do you believe QF are psychic? They didn't even know about the missing bag, as it had not been passed on to them by Air Canada.

 

[amaroo]

One of the joys of travel - does no one any good getting uptight about it.

Some of our examples...

We've flown BNE-SYD-BKK-LHR-MAD all but the first and last sector BA F ... half our bags missing. Turns out they arrived in MAD before we did on an EK flight. No one had a clue until EK finally called and wanted to know when I was going to collect them.

At BNE QF checkin our bags were tagged for Athens, Georgia when they should have been going to the one in Greece. It was only the quick thinking of another AFF'er who was working the next counter that caught and corrected the mistake.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Have had bags lost several times. Airlines could do more to keep you informed and compensate you for delays. Reality is they dont care and the problem is becoming more frequent.

Don't ever leave anything in your baggage that you aren't prepared to never see again.

 

[cmon0005]

I know from experience, and subsequent engagement with QF managers, that even with a pure QF flight LAX-SYD, Qantas in Sydney does not know what bags are actually on the flight until they emerge on the baggage carousel. I waited until the last bag appeared before I realised the bag wasn't on the flight, so like the OP was considerably delayed at the carousel for no result. On subsequent flights when the bag should have come, I discovered that again, no-one knew if my bag was on a particular flight until it emerged out of customs (for un-accompanied bag). I didn't like it, but learned that was how it is.

Recently I flew CMB-HKG (UL) on one ticket, then HKG-MEL (QF) on a separate ticket, UL still tag bags through onto other Oneworld carriers luckily for us.

One of our bags (actually a stroller) that was tagged all the way to MEL somehow missed being loaded in HKG, upon landing in MEL our name was called to go see QF baggage services, they advised that our stroller was currently on a CX flight a few hours behind us, and would be delivered to our house.
QF certainly knew about it before we landed and already had organised carriage on CX.

 

[TheInsider]

QF certainly knew about it before we landed and already had organised carriage on CX.

The airline only knows ahead of time if the bag has a;ready been forwarded on to another flight. If it is still in 'transit or lost' then the receiving airline won't see anything on where the bag is.

Unfortunately what ever carrier is the last carrier, they will deliver the bags out at their own cost, no matter who actually didn't load the bag to start with.

 

[Aus ATC]

You would think that with barcode tags, the fact that when you check in that the bag count for each passenger is known "to the system" etc, that it would be reasonable that the airline could let a passenger know of a baggage anomaly before, or on arrival - particularly for F or J passengers, but seemingly not.

I have only had a bag go missing once - BNE-SYD-MEL-DXB-LHR (the good old days of JASA status runs). We were late out of BNE, so a tight connection in SYD saw me make my flight, but my bag miss out. Arrived in LHR - no bag. Someone came and assisted me, filled out some forms, and gave me GBP65 compensation , and told me my bag was on the BA15 flight. Over to T5, only to be told, no, it was actually on QF1. Back to T3 in time for the QF1 arrival, and there it was!

Why the system did not know (initially at least) that the bag was on QF1 is beyond me. I provided feedback to Qantas, and got the usual non-committal answers. I was not so much concerned that my bag wasn't on the flight, but that the information about where it actually was, was wrong, and that they could have told me (at least something) in DXB.

 

[Pleb Status]

Why do you believe QF are psychic? They didn't even know about the missing bag, as it had not been passed on to them by Air Canada.

QF would have known that the bag was 'missing' because the QF PNR would have had an AC baggage reference number added in Victoria for the 'missing' bag. When loading all of the bags onto the QF aircraft in YVR, they scan each one and they would have known that an 'expected' bag was missing. There are not going to do anything about it however.

I had the opposite occur whilst transiting LHR recently. For some reason, BA in CDG assigned two BA baggage reference numbers to my AA PNR even though I only had one bag. When I went to the AA lounge in LHR prior to my onward AA flight to JFK they asked if I had two bags and I stated that I only had one. This turned into a bit of a drama (for them a least and I do not know why it had to involve me) as they had to find which BA baggage reference was actually my bag and cancel or deal with the other baggage reference prior to the flight departure.

DL is supposed to have rolled out real time baggage data for their FF which updates every time your bag gets scanned through their system. So I assume if your aircraft pushes back and the app shows no record of your bag being scanned for the flight then it is not on the flight.

 

[Franky]

We recently flew AUH-PER in J on EY, and on arrival our first bag came off in the front of the queue. The longer we waited for the second bag, the more we thought we were'nt going to see it. Well before all the bags had been collected by the rest of the passengers, we were paged to visit the baggage desk, to be told the bag was on the next flight. They obvioulsy knew during our flight that this would be the case, so some airlines do keep count. Whether this was due to our J status or otherwise, who knows?

 

[Himeno]

A few years ago, I was flying BCN-MAD-LHR-DXB. Day visit in Dubai before DXB-LHR-SIN.
At check in in BCN with IB, the computer refused to check the bag across to BA in MAD and there wasn't enough time in MAD to collect and recheck, so the agent did a manual tag through to DXB.

Get to Dubai the next morning, no bags. It seems the bag made the connection in MAD, then never got loaded in LHR. Off to talk to Dnata who told me the bag was on the next flight and would arrive in Dubai that night. When I mentioned I was only in Dubai for the day, they looked at my itinerary and saw that I wasn't going to be anywhere long enough for the bag to "catch up" if it followed me on the same route, so they planned to transfer it to SQ and have the bag meet me in SIN.

After I left the baggage office, but before heading into the city, I was able to research their plan and realized that the BA flight it was on into DXB was the same aircraft I was flying back to LHR on, so I contacted Dnata again and arranged to collect the bag that night off the BA flight before heading over to check in.

 

[TheInsider]

They obvioulsy knew during our flight that this would be the case, so some airlines do keep count. Whether this was due to our J status or otherwise, who knows?

Nothing to do with status or travel class. It's got to to with the what ever port the bag went missing from to send a message that the bag is being forwarded on to the final destination, or for them to send the message that the bag is not on board and what they are going to do with it. If the bag is untraceable, like a missing tag, then no message will be sent at all.

 

[JohnK]

I have had many baggage delays over the years. Just be glad you get your luggage back and in my case glad to get the golf clubs next day so I could still play golf.

Note with all these baggage delays in different countries you start to realise that most of the time it is pure luck that you are actually reunited with your delayed luggage. Delayed/lost bags are delivered to lost baggage in different airports and the bags are not even scanned as received and here you are waiting for an update. You then happen to be passing through that airport and visit lost baggage and accidentally find your luggage in storage just as you had given up.

Very poor. But keep complaining as there is hope that one day some of the staff that work for baggage services will actually care about their jobs and have some respect for other people's property. One day...?

 

[Assassin]

Bumping an oldish thread... I arrived into Sydney on QF12 in J on Sunday morning. Bag did not show. I had connected from an AA flight from SLC. AA have a bag tracking service on their web-site. It was showing the bag as loaded in SLC but nothing since. Nothing on Worldtracer either (tracing is continuing...). I fear the bag is gone for good. Any suggestions on which department to contact at Qantas to see if I can get some movement? Also, any suggestions on preparing for a travel insurance claim? Thanks