What happens when airline loses your luggage?

[QVickiB]

Has anyone ever lost their luggage on their flight in?

Last month I was picking a friend up from Orlando airport, and her luggage didn’t make it. Not a big deal for her, but the lady next to her was on her way to a cruise. This was the night before, and since we got the missing bag at 4am, I am guessing she got hers sometime before break of dawn. But it got me thinking, what if it was later, and closer to sailing time? Most airlines say that you have to be without your bags for 24 hours before they will reimburse your purchases. What if you’re leaving on a cruise in 3 hours?

Has anyone had this happen? Did you just go to the nearest WalMart, or the mall? Did you get permission from the airline first, to purchase stuff before they said it was reimbursable, or did you just say “to heck with it” and go on a shopping spree?

I had a dream last night that this happened to me, but it wasn’t the airline, we just left my suitcase at home. It would take too long to drive back home, so we went to the nearest Target. Funny thing is that in my dream, I purchased half the amount of shorts I would have packed (and survived! LOL). But each time I was ready to go to the register, something else popped up – did I get a dress for dressy night? Then, oh, need shoes for that dress. Got back to the register to realize that I only had the bra I had on, which was strapless, and would need a new bra, too…. and so on.

I think I managed in my dream, but I’m just wondering if it’s actually happened to anyone, and what did you do?

[firefly333]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1387692

 

We were discussing this person's flight in where they also almost didnt make the ship themselves ... no luggage.

 

They had to go out and buy stuff. I think if you read thru it, delta said they would reimburse them up to $499?

 

they bought stuff onboard to get by and rushed to buy a bathing suit in the first port to take the excursion.

[camaj]

I had it happen to me. They delivered my luggage to me two days later while we were in in Grand Cayman. I had only the clothes in my garment bag (which fortunately had a change of underwear). There were no socks or underwear at the gifts shops on board so I had to wait until our first port to go shopping and ended up doing laundry just to wash the few things that I had. The only positive thing that came out of it was I ended up buying around $200 worth of clothes and the airline reimbursed me for all of it, so at least i got some free clothes out of it. At that time my DH packed all his clothes in one suitcase and I packed all my clothes in one suitcase (he did not lose his fotunately). Now we pack half of our clothes in each suitcase so if it ever happens again we will still have half of our clothes.

[Bigal1017]

We arrived in Miami around 11:00 PM Saturday night before Easter prior to our cruise which sailed on Easter Day a few years ago but unfortunately none of our luggage did. Needless to say everything was closed so we tried to obtain as much as possible from the Hotel front desk.

 

The airline was extremely helpful, figured out the bags were still in Chicago and manged to get most them to us at our Hotel around 4:30 am.

 

We were still missing one bag when we boarded the ship. We spent part of our first port day shopping for the clothes our teenage daughter was missing. Low and behold when we returned to our room our bag was waiting for us. The airline flew the bag to Cozumel and sent it to the ship.

Needless to say I was impressed.

 

The flight home ended up just as eventful . The original flight was canceled due to weather so we took a later flight home. Unfortunately our luggage took three days to arrive home.

[RumpunchGirl]

DH and I have travel insurance that covers the lost of luggage. But that wouldn't help if you had only a short amount of time to get on the cruise. So we always pack our bags with some of each of our clothes. Cross-packing I suppose you could call it. In our carry ons we pack a few changes of clothes, swimsuits, toiletries, etc. Our thinking is, hopefully only one bag would be lost not all of them. I pray that it never happens to me!:eek:

[QVickiB]

That is good to know that the airlines stepped up to the plate. I just figured that they'd say "We got your bags to your final destination within 24 hours, we aren't responsible for reimbursing you". So basically they do understand the cruise aspect.

And holy cow, I never imagined that they'd manage to get your bags to you WHILE on the cruise.

Although I don't fly for cruises (yet) I'm happy to hear that!

[PA Dutchman]

2 years ago we went into Miami 2 days early and the airlines lost my bag. We always get insurance and we called and they went after the airlines and I got it back the next night around 1130. I was told to get what ever I need up to $500. They called us every 4 hrs with a update and told me where the lost bag was. They never loaded it on the plane from harrisburg.

We were impressed.

[WhansaMi]

This happened to my sister-in-law. She flew in from California to Ft. Lauderdale the day of the cruise, and, no bags. She got in about 10 am, and the ship left at 5pm. She and my BIL headed to the mall, but SIL is about six foot, two, and so finding thngs she could wear was difficult! She came onboard with two dresses, two bathing suits, and some undies. Then, to her great chagrin, the sales clerk had left the security device on one of the bathing suits! Her steward sent it off to engineering, who managed to get it off, but it was one of those with ink inside, so the bathing suit ended up with a big blue stain on the side.

 

The good news is that my SIL is a good sport -- very gregarious and positive. Soon the whole ship knew about "the lady whose luggage was lost", and offers of help flooded in. I don't think she was able to actually take anyone up on their offers (not many 6'2" women out there), but no one looked at her sideways when she came to formal evening in a sundress.

 

While she was promised the bags at the first port by the airline, if I recall correctly, they didn't actually get to her until the second port.

 

Of course, this makes for a great story for her to tell!

[waterbug123]

And holy cow, I never imagined that they'd manage to get your bags to you WHILE on the cruise.

Although I don't fly for cruises (yet) I'm happy to hear that!

 

It doesn't always happen that way. A few years ago my BF's nephew flew to Europe for a cruise but his bag didn't make it. Supposedly it followed him around Europe, always arriving in port a day after the ship left. It was several months before it showed up; airline had reimbursed him for stuff by that time, but as far as the cruise, he more or less made due with the clothes he was wearing, some toiletries and t-shirts from the ship, and a ship tuxedo rental for formal nights. He did a little shopping in ports if I recall correctly, but it's not like you dock in Nice or Citavecchia and just run to the nearest Target down the block!

[chipmaster]

For every cruise we ALWAYS bring a carryon if we are flying for each person with the assumption that our checked luggage won't arrive.

 

Carryon has essentials that we can survive with, checked in has stuff like formal wear, toiletries, shoes, etc. etc.

 

I think in my many years of traveling the checked hasn't arrived maybe 1/20 times or so. For a vacation more than willing to lug the maximum amount+ as carryon even internantional.

 

Plan for the worst, hope for the best :D

[6rugrats]

That is good to know that the airlines stepped up to the plate. I just figured that they'd say "We got your bags to your final destination within 24 hours, we aren't responsible for reimbursing you". So basically they do understand the cruise aspect.

And holy cow, I never imagined that they'd manage to get your bags to you WHILE on the cruise.

Although I don't fly for cruises (yet) I'm happy to hear that!

Don't count on this happening. If you want to know what the airline will do for you if your bag doesn't arrive with you, you need to go to that airline's Contract of Carriage (CoC), and read exactly what they will do.

 

It seems by reading these boards, that many cruisers love Southwest. Go here (start reading at page 24) to see what Southwest will do for you if your bags don't immediately show up:

http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/coc.pdf

 

I don't see any guarantee that they will deliver bags to your next port of call; and in fact, as Southwest has no international flights, I don't know how this would be possible for example, if you were on a Caribbean cruise.

[twoputt.plusone]

It just happened to me last month when my Air Canada flight that connected through Denver was late arriving. When I booked the flights, we had enough time for lunch in Denver before boarding our United flight to Phoenix. As it turned out, we had no lunch and barely made our next flight but our luggage didn't. We found out while waiting at the carousel in Phoenix when I heard my name being paged. BTW - generally speaking, having your name paged in an airport is not a good thing. :p I gave the United agent my cell phone number and the address of the condo we had rented. It was to be delivered early the next morning. Sure.... :rolleyes: Mid afternoon the courier phoned and said that ours had to wait until they delivered someone else's golf clubs. They were first because they had a tee time to meet. I lost it at that point and rather loudly said that clean clothes trumped a tee time. We had it within the hour. :D

[Gsel]

Take pictures before you pack each bag so you have a record of exactly what is in the bag. Never put anything in a checked bag you cannot replace. Take one copy of the pictures with you and leave the other at home. If you have to prove to the airlines what was in the bag you have your pictures (hopefully with digital date).

[QVickiB]

Don't count on this happening. If you want to know what the airline will do for you if your bag doesn't arrive with you, you need to go to that airline's Contract of Carriage (CoC), and read exactly what they will do.

 

It seems by reading these boards, that many cruisers love Southwest. Go here (start reading at page 24) to see what Southwest will do for you if your bags don't immediately show up:

http://www.southwest.com/travel_center/coc.pdf

 

I don't see any guarantee that they will deliver bags to your next port of call; and in fact, as Southwest has no international flights, I don't know how this would be possible for example, if you were on a Caribbean cruise.

 

I'd never count on it getting to port, I was just amazed that it was a possibility.

After my dream I checked out that there is a target 10 minutes from POM, so I think if I ever fly to a cruise, besides coming in the night before, I will check where the nearest target or Walmart is ahead of time.

[paul929207]

Five years ago we took a cruise from Papette, and one bag did not make it on the flight there. Fortunately, we had three nights before we boarded and the bag arrive the next morning.

[CtheW0rld]

happened to me on a cruise leaving from dubai. fortunately, i had a change of clothes in the carry-on and was staying in dubai for 2 days pre-cruise. i did have to have some things washed and i bought a few things, but insurance reimbursed me for that. the luggage arrived 3 hours before i boarded the ship. i was never so happy to see it.

[UKBayern]

He did a little shopping in ports if I recall correctly, but it's not like you dock in Nice or Citavecchia and just run to the nearest Target down the block!

 

Target no, but in every town there are poor people or people on middle income. They shop for clothes too. The locals with normal jobs (tourist info, bus driver, someone at the port, check-out lady in the supermarket, somebody at McDonalds etc) can tell you where to go for cheap clothes.

[waterbug123]

Target no, but in every town there are poor people or people on middle income. They shop for clothes too. The locals with normal jobs (tourist info, bus driver, someone at the port, check-out lady in the supermarket, somebody at McDonalds etc) can tell you where to go for cheap clothes.

 

Yes, I realize all of that. My point was simply that it can be much more difficult, stressful and time-consuming to to do "lost luggage" shopping in a foreign port the port.... the port city itself may be very small and not always offer much in the way of shopping selections, the cab driver may not speak English very well and so may not really understand what kind of store you're looking for, you may not be familiar with the local currency and so have trouble figuring out how much you're really paying for something, etc. etc.

[minikiss]

DH and I sailed for the 1st time last Nov on the Caribbean Princess and booked the flights as a cruise package. The flight to MIA was fine but it was the next leg in San Juan. We arrived on the 1st plane of the day and only got one of 2 of our cases. Lucky for us we always pack half mine to half his. So thought we would be ok! Plus American Airlines reassured us that they had 5 more flights coming from MIA so it would be on one of those and sent on to ship for us. We handed all the details to the airport rep and went to board as if nothing was wrong.

One of the first things we did was to report it to the pursuers deck so we could be kept in formed just as well as the case was not put on one of those 5 planes after all! So despite sailing many hours after we arrived on board we set off on our Birthday cruise with only 1/2 of our clothes and luggage. Not so bad you may say but when we unpacked what we did have we realised we hadn't packed very well after all. I had dresses but no shoes. tops but not the trousers to wear with them. Hubby had packed his Tux but all we got was his dress shirt and tie. no shoes, socks or Tux, first formal night which we were both very much looking forward to, was the following night and that was 1st day was a sea day! no chance of it getting on board by then.

So after a bad night sleep - got sea sick and had no tablets as you can now guess where they were packed! we had breakfast and then headed to the P desk. What we were told was they were missing 67 cases in total before sail away as a whole plane load got delayed. These were with Delta but to reduce the amount missing they had delayed us sailing 1/2 hour later to get 35 of those on board first. This left them missing 32 with ours amongst them. So it's a very common thing to happen and considering they had 6 or 7 cases that went unclaimed the owners of those must have gone with out them for the whole trip.

What of ours you may ask well it seems it was sent to Puerto Rico by mistake! but was promised it would be with the next day in Aruba. In the mean time Princess gave us $100 on board credit to get us by so we could purchase some things from the shop. Much needed. They also helped by loaning us a Tux and shoes so we could enjoy our formal night. So we tried to enjoy the rest of the day but found it hard to do. You hear so many stories of what happens to lost cases......

So now we are in Aruba day 2, again down to the desk to find out when the case would be put on board. We were now told it had got lost and it was not going to with us that day after all! disaster. We got several bits of info later on but it turned out the case went back to MIA where they sent it on to SJU after we had sailed! It then had to go back to MIA where customs refused to release it so it was stuck in MIA that day. I was so upset they gave us another $50 for that day with the advice that we went in to the port and bought as much of what we needed as we could. This spoilt our day as we had other things planned and had to abandon them. As the next 2 days were only half days in ports they could not guarantee when we would see the case with a possibility of it only getting on board when we went back to SJU. Thankfully for us we were on her for 2 weeks not one so at least we would have it for the 2nd half.

What the Ship also did for us was get us 2 snorkel and mask sets as we had told them that was one of the things we had wanted to do the next day but we only had half the equipment with us. They also arranged for some laundry to be done at no charge. Plus gave us another $50 for day 3.

Day 3 and some good news the case had been flown ahead of us to Grenada where we would be docking the following day. I have never been so relived to see a suit case of clothes and goods as we were when it was finally in our hands. Princess bent over backwards to help us but it still did not make up for the lost days planned.

On returning to the UK i contact AA and set in motion getting some of our money back! i was able to claim up $250 worth of items as long as i had the receipts. I sent them off and 3 months - yes over 3 months they deposited some money to my bank account. Can't say it was all i expected back as i thought it would be more. Would have been nice to have had a written explanation to back it up.

On top of that i wrote them a long complaint and for that they gave us $600 in air vouchers.

So the moral is yes lots of people cruise without luggage. Always label your cases well and if you can pack half and half. We always pack a change of underwear and tea shirts in our carry on but in this case that did not help much.

As i said it was a Cruise to celebrate us both being 40 and turned out to be unforgettable for all the wrong reasons!

Julia

[sparky-elpaso]

Take pictures before you pack each bag so you have a record of exactly what is in the bag. Never put anything in a checked bag you cannot replace. Take one copy of the pictures with you and leave the other at home. If you have to prove to the airlines what was in the bag you have your pictures (hopefully with digital date).

 

Great idea - one I wouldn't have thought of. I have a list of what's in each bag but "light blue Half Moon Cay tee" doesn't mean anything to anyone but me. I'm definitely going to do that for our next trip.

[i_heart_cruzin]

We have never seen our luggage since we we checked it (non-stop) to LAX in January for a Mex Riviera cruise. :(

 

My husband and I each took a wheeled carry on and packed 1 checked bag between the 2 of us. We love to cruise, but it had been 10+ years since a cruise, and 9+ yrs since a vacation of more than 3 days. So this trip was a huge deal to us!!

 

Our luggage never appeared on the carousel and we immediately reported it to the United desk in baggage claim, hoping that it would follow us to the ship shortly. It never did.

 

I had packed 1 change of clothes, 1 pair of flip-flops, most toiletries, make-up and underwear in carry-on. DH had packed more than 1 change of clothes in his. The bathroom sink saw double duty that week!

 

Princess was fabulous, issuing an onboard credit for immediate needs and lending a tux and formal outfit for me. DH looked great in the tux... I am a plus size so their formal outfit was less-than-great on me... oh well. I tried to pick a few things in on board shops, but again, ran into size problems.

 

I can't say enough about the wonderful Sapphire Princess Asst Purser, Stephanie Andrews (or Edwards??? can't find her business card at the moment). She made considerable effort to communicate with United several times to recover our luggage, and was infuriated when she discovered they lied to her--saying they found it and when she tried to pin them down on port delivery they acknowledged they didn't really know where it was. She updated us daily and assisted us with paperwork for the United claim and generally treated us with compassion and respect. She was amazing!!! :)

 

I had to work to not let it ruin my cruise... which was otherwise completely lovely. It is only "stuff" I kept reminding myself... its just that I don't have much "stuff", so my only pair of tennis shoes, gone; only pair of pumps, gone; only tanks tops, gone; etc... not knowing if we would actually ever be reimbursed at all. United has now finally reimbursed us for approx 2/3 of our loss (took 9 weeks). Dealing with India and Pakistan help desks has been more than difficult!!! :mad:

 

Moral of the story... I will cruise again, but with only a carry on! I have now done it once... and while on board I gave a lot of thought as to how I could do it "on purpose" next time (not over-packing takes care of a lot of it, lol!!!). DH agrees. And if he chooses, will rent a tux on board. The experience of losing luggage is not one I plan to experience again!

 

If anyone else has ever cruised "carry-on only" when flying to a port -- would love to hear your thoughts... Maybe I am crazy and should just trust the airline again... ??? :confused:

[waterbug123]

If anyone else has ever cruised "carry-on only" when flying to a port -- would love to hear your thoughts... Maybe I am crazy and should just trust the airline again... ??? :confused:

 

 

Were you flying in the same day of the cruise? It seems that *most* similar stories tend to be when someone is flying in and leaving on a cruise the same day; when luggage is lost but the person is staying in the area of the arrival airport for a day or more, the luggage seems to have a better chance of getting to you, albeit late, than when it has to follow you around trying to play catch up. I think if you fly a day or more ahead of your cruise, you have a much better chance of cruising with ALL of your luggage.

 

As for cruising with carry-on only, I've done it once when flying in same day for a 3 night cruise. Yes, it was only 3 nights, but my carry-on was not a roll-aboard; it was just a tote bag that fit under the seat in front of me. It included a wrinkle-free cocktail dress and dressy shoes, a pair of pants with 2 tops for the other 2 nights and another pair of shoes, a bathing suit, a pair of shorts, 2 tanks, and minimal toiletries. I wore a knit sundress and flip flops, and the sundress later became my bathing suit cover up. I did have to do without my tennis shoes and workout stuff.

While I generally check a bag when flying in the day (or more) before, I think based on my 3 night carry-on trip, I could easily use that bag and a 22" carry-on roll-aboard suitcase and pack for a 7 or 8 night cruise.