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Antony Wood
Newbie
Joined: May 05, 2008
Posts: 2
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
May 29, 2008 - 09:11 PM |
 
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| Post subject: delayed luggage |
I just arrived in Shanghai on the 27th and have been waiting two days now for delayed luggage. The luggage claims office at the Pudong airport say it "might" arrive sometime in the next two days, but that they don't know exactly where it is. Because of the delayed luggage i have incurred extra expenses and lost time and opportunities.
my question is, is it worth it to seek legal action against the airlines involved? How would I go about doing it and how could I find legal representation here? Anyone have any advice?
Thanks! |
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shindam
Talker
Joined: Mar 26, 2007
Posts: 123
Location: Shanghai & SFO
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May 29, 2008 - 11:04 PM |
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Most of the airlines have a delayed luggage policy where in they compensate for expenses incurred because of the delay. You should call the airline and get approval to spend that money and save the receipts for submitting a claim later. If you've frequent flyer status with the airline, these things get done a little easier.
United Airlines recently lost my luggage and asked me to list the contents after trying to trace for a week. They are going to provide compensation based on that. I also got approval for buying a pair of shoes and clothes. They could've been nicer to me because of status with them but the policy seems to be pretty standard. |
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MoonOverMiami
Raver
Joined: Jan 07, 2008
Posts: 461
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May 29, 2008 - 11:55 PM |
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American Airlines lost a colleague's luggage on a flight from the US to Shanghai. After a few phone calls, she found out her luggage was on its way to Hanoi, Vietnam...even though her plane ticket said Shanghai. She eventually got her luggage back 3 days later in Shanghai...though they didn't offer any type of compensation at all. |
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"One who falls asleep with an itchy backside, will wake up with smelly fingers..." |
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canuckian
Ranter
Joined: Aug 12, 2007
Posts: 499
Status: Offline
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May 30, 2008 - 12:14 AM |
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| Post subject: Re: delayed luggage |
| Antony Wood wrote: |
my question is, is it worth it to seek legal action against the airlines involved? |
which airline btw? and give it an extra day or two from the time they gave you to find your luggage, 3-4 days is still within the norm. |
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happyhere
Seeker
Joined: Jan 27, 2007
Posts: 47
Status: Offline
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May 30, 2008 - 12:42 AM |
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I know it is after the fact. -- but I now only use distinctive looking bags (none of those basic black suitcases and rolling bags that all look the same) and I now take photos of my checked luggage right before I checked in with my camera phone. I’ve found that one of the biggest factors in getting a misplaced bag back in a reasonable time is having a really accurate description of the piece and the piece being easily identifiable.
The times I’ve had my bags go missing have been because they just didn’t get put on board. It wasn’t that they were sent to the wrong place although I know it does happen. JFK is known for failing to put bags on board flights. And once that happens, the bags get piled up in a bag/suitcase limbo, waiting to be resorted. And sometimes that restoring takes up to 2 weeks or more. So technically they are not lost just “misplaced.”
I found this out because a friend at CA in New York actually went searching for my bags with my digital photo of them in hand and of course my baggage tag numbers. She went through piles of misplaced bags to find them. But she said that if she hadn’t had the picture and if they hadn’t been distinctive looking, finding them in the piles of bags would have been impossible. Yeah the baggage sorters at JFK would have probably found them eventually but only in their own good time.
Compensation and legal recourse is limited to the specific airline’s policy (should be on their website, use to be on the back of paper tickets). When you buy the ticket you basically are agreeing to that policy. But if the airlines does not keep to its stated policy, then you may have a chance to additional legal recourse. |
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Renovator
Raver
Joined: Apr 18, 2007
Posts: 485
Location: Century Park & MA,USA
Status: Offline
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May 30, 2008 - 05:35 AM |
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I travel with 3 checked -70 lb bags full of engineering samples every month between China and US. My bags are delayed about 30% of the time mostly because of their content. Whenever my connections become tight, I know that my bags will be delayed and I am very happy about that. Delayed bags mean airline deliver my 3 heavy bags directly to my company at either end and I do not have to fight with them in taxis, etc.
I don't believe that the airline causes my bags to be delayed as everytime I make the connections and my bage don't, I find those little TSA tags in the bag, sometimes more than 1 tag per bag meaning they were searched at several points along the route.
Airlines will generally give you compensation for personal items to get you by until your bags are found. No compensation for electronics, cameras, computers and items of high value.
My sister had her bag lost by Air France to Paris a few months ago and it arrived two months later after she had given up all hopes of ever getting it back.
Normally delayed bags in Shanghai take about 2-3 days to arrive unless they went to a remote destination. In the US it can often take 2-3 weeks longer because they may be held in a pile to go through customs and the airlines can't get to them even when they know where they are until customs release the bag.
Forget the lawyers on this one as your legal fees and frustrations will greatly outweigh anything you will get from the airlines and I can assure you that the airlines will have far better representation in a court than you would ever want to afford.
I use tude tags http://www.tagsforbags.com/prod_details.html
so that although all my bags are standard black bags from S & T market, they are easily recognized and the tags have my address in US and China as well as trip information.
In over 40 years of business travel, the airlines have always eventually found my bags. Just remember that the airlines don't intentionally want to delay or lose your bags because even if they made a little money on your ticket, all profits are quickly lost when they have to provide extra bag service to a customer. Also remember that TSA and Customs are out of the airline control so although you may be mad at the airline, there are other entities over which the airline have no control that could be delaying your bags. |
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dr3x320
Rocker
Joined: Nov 21, 2006
Posts: 638
Location: Boston + Pudong
Status: Offline
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May 30, 2008 - 07:54 AM |
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Tude tags are a bit expensive on my side, but ofc using distinct luggage cases and colors does help. One thing I've been using for the past few years traveling every few months internationally is a can of White spray paint. Typically costs under $5, and its not hard to miss when your looking for your suitcase that looks like everyone elses, heres an example of what my 2 suitcases look like.
So far I haven't seen anyone use this method yet.... and never lost luggage yet, but in April, someone did pickup my suitcase just to look at it (maybe for amusement or curiosity of what type of white paint, egg white or glossy white? wtf), b4 I rolled up on the guy and said to myself out loud "yep thats mine, hard to miss with my last name on it". |
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Boston ™ Shanghai ™ Goteborg ™ |
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Antony Wood
Newbie
Joined: May 05, 2008
Posts: 2
Status: Offline
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May 30, 2008 - 11:15 AM |
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Wow, Thanks, guys, for all the great information. Definitely some very good tips for the future. Taking pics and somehow making the bags look unique and easily identifiable is great advice which I will follow in the future.
Good point that when you buy the ticket your basically agreeing to the airline policy. I will, of course, try to get some sort of compensation, and have saved receipts of things I have needed to buy because of the delayed bag. The frustrating thing is that because of the lost bag I've lost time and opportunities when every day is critical for me- there can never be compensation for that.
Again, thanks for all the excellent advice!
Best Wishes, A. |
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chinamonty
Reacher
Joined: May 12, 2006
Posts: 293
Location: Shenzhen
Status: Offline
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May 30, 2008 - 02:52 PM |
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In this supposed age of terrorism having an article of luggage go to the wrong place is inexcusable. I dont have as much of a problem with it not getting loaded but an aircraft should have its luggage on it and they should know exactly what is on each aircraft as luggage.
This sort of thing should now be covered by national and international laws that over-rule airline conditions. That way the airlines have an insentive to get it right. I have been lucky and not had any problems but on my second last trip my suitcase had three different small labels on it and only one of them had my name. At least it got there despite of this. |
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yu888
Board Deity
Joined: Jan 25, 2003
Posts: 18042
Location: ZhongShanParkArea SH
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May 30, 2008 - 03:08 PM |
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^ In this day of hi-tech medicine, accidental deaths should be inexcusable too, but it happens. No system is infallable and it sucks to lose luggage. Knock on wood, 40 years of experience traveling here too and i have always gotten my bags back if they didnt come off with me on the plane...eventually. In fact its true for our whole family throughout various expat expereinces and travel expereinces over the years. be patient, bags do in fact look the same and mistakes may suck, but they happen. |
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Thoughts & updates about Shanghai On my Blog for more details:Random Thoughts about Living in Shanghai...and more |
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