Help.... They lost my luggage

[ironz]

I did go right to the baggage office and fill out a missing luggage form. I will say airtran and guest services were very helpful in trying to track down my bags. It turns out that the airline check in at the Polynesian put the wrong tickets on my bags and sent them on a southwest flight to Nashvillle under a completely different last name. I always have my name tags on my bags as well as an index card with even more information inside my bag. Southwest called me last night stating they had my bags and sent them on a flight into Philly. Airtran received them and they should be arriving at my house today. I am just waiting to hear from the airtran office in Philly that they will be arriving today. I did use the Disney Airline check in the gave me the bag numbers on my boarding pass the issue was that they put the wrong tags completely on my luggage

Thank you everyone for your help. I hope no one ever has to experience this. But I can assure you I will never use airline check in again at the resort.

Or, how about, as suggested by a few PPs...
"I will never use any airline check in, whether at the resort or at the airport, without checking to make sure the correct tag/destination is placed on my bag."
The same mistake can and does happen at the airport, so taking RAC out of the picture doesn't completely solve your issue. As well as the other reasons some people have mentioned that bags don't make it on to your flight (misconnected, bumped for space/weight issues, sometimes lazy baggage handlers--I'm convinced that is the case at SEA, where I can have a 3 hour layover and bags not make it on my flight about 2-3 times a year).

Glad you got your luggage back.

 

[Alesia]

Thank you everyone for your help. I hope no one ever has to experience this. But I can assure you I will never use airline check in again at the resort.

I wouldn't let this stop me from using RAC. My husband has flown 3 times and twicw his luggage has been misdirected. In fact, the only time his luggage wasn't misdirected was the only time he did use RAC.

About 10% of luggage is misdirected; it's just part of flying. That's why everyone on the transportation board is so insistent that people should put all valuables and everything you'll need for the first 24 hours in the carry on bag.

 

[Lewisc]

Oops!

Guess I have a bad habit to break. I had always thought I would save space on the screen by not including entire paragraphs or entire replies I am quoting. Thinking that the reader would go back up to the reply in question to see all of it.

Or, in some cases quoting a very short phrase as a "search key word" as opposed to a "thought".

The bad habit is intentionally posting bad (wrong) information. Intentionally misquoting a poster.

Your posts maybe but I normally wouldn't think to go back to the question at hand to see if a poster intentionally misquoted. Not including two words "I'm not" is the equivalent to making up a quote.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

I did go right to the baggage office and fill out a missing luggage form. I will say airtran and guest services were very helpful in trying to track down my bags. It turns out that the airline check in at the Polynesian put the wrong tickets on my bags and sent them on a southwest flight to Nashvillle under a completely different last name.

At least your bags were misdirected on the way home, rather than at the start of your trip.

 

[Alesia]

Oops!

Guess I have a bad habit to break. I had always thought I would save space on the screen by not including entire paragraphs or entire replies I am quoting. Thinking that the reader would go back up to the reply in question to see all of it.

Or, in some cases quoting a very short phrase as a "search key word" as opposed to a "thought".

There's a difference between leaving out information that isn't pertinent to your response and leaving out key phrases.

You changed "I'm not calling the SW employee a liar" to "... calling the SWA employee a liar ..." That isn't a bad habit, it's intentionally misquoting someone to make it look like she said something that she absolutely didn't say.

 

[DebbieB]

I always watch when they tag the bags because I have heard of this happening. A friend's sister had her luggage sent to Brazil instead of Orlando one time. The person who checked in before her was going to Brazil and they got mixed up. This was at her home airport.

I don't think 10% is misdirected. I fly all the time for work and have only had it happen a couple times. I'd say it's under 1%, the rates are published by airline somewhere.

Found this article, it states average 4 per 1,000 bags lost, so less than 1/2 of 1%.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news...report-more-on-times-less-lost-luggage/print/

 

[seashoreCM]

By the way, my own response would have been worded the same had I not selected just a portion of someone else's reply to quote.

 

[LisaS]

I always watch when they tag the bags because I have heard of this happening. A friend's sister had her luggage sent to Brazil instead of Orlando one time. The person who checked in before her was going to Brazil and they got mixed up. This was at her home airport.

We had this happen on a flight home from Orlando. We flew to Boston but our luggage went to Seattle. The Delta employee was handling several check-in kiosks and mixed up the tags. I wasn't paying close attention and didn't notice until we got to Boston, had no luggage, and then saw the wrong names and destination info on the luggage claim tags.

DH was leaving on a business trip the following morning and would have liked to have a few things from his bag. The funny thing was, he was flying to Seattle and for a brief moment we considered asking them to send my bag and hold his in Seattle but decided not to complicate things and risk having the wrong bag end up in the wrong city. After arriving in Seattle, DH stopped by Delta's lost luggage desk to check if our luggage had been located. The poor woman there was momentarily confused as to why someone in Seattle was asking about luggage she had just put on a flight to Boston until DH reassured her that she had done the right thing!

Since then I double check those luggage claim tags!!

 

[Alesia]

I don't think 10% is misdirected. I fly all the time for work and have only had it happen a couple times. I'd say it's under 1%, the rates are published by airline somewhere.

You're right. I got in a hurry and misstated. Sorry for the confusion. What I meant to say is that 10% percent of all fliers have luggage misdirected at some point - although to be honest, I can't remember where I read that.

 

[goofy4tink]

I have to say that only one time have I had luggage 'misdirected'..flight from Boston to Seattle. And it was just one bag out of 4 total for our group.
They did find it and deliver it the next day.
On the other hand, I have had luggage beat me to my final destination. Flying home from Seattle (seems to be the common denominator here)...flew into Newark to make a connection to Providence. We had delay after delay...we finally made it out on a true puddle jumper about 6 hrs after we should have departed. Almost rented a car to drive home instead. When we got to Providence, I told my dh (who had driven there to meet us and drive us home) not to forget baggage claim..he just started walking out of the airport. Nope, he said, your bags have been here for three hours!!! Evidently they put them on an earlier flight...not me, just the bags. Too funny.

I always watch as my tags on put on my bags...just to make sure. Haven't found an error yet, but it could still happen.

I have to say that if I checked my bags in Orlando...either at the airport or at my resort, and my bags don't come off my plane, those bags will have to be delivered by the airline, to my home. I assume my bags will go on my flight. There is no way I am hanging around the airport, waiting for another flight to arrive to get my bags. I should be able to expect my bags to be on the carousel when I get off my plane....I don't much care if BAGS doesn't think the truck is full enough. I'm pretty sure many people would be very upset to hear that this is happening.
As I said, I'll be seeing what the RAC people say about that when I'm there in a few weeks.

 

[Lewisc]

By the way, my own response would have been worded the same had I not selected just a portion of someone else's reply to quote.

You didn't select a portion a post to quote. You made up a quote. Removing a phrase like "I'm not" form a "quote" is the same as making up the quote.

The lack of an apology suggests your action wasn't an oversight.

 

[Lewisc]

There were a lot of rumors regarding the reasons for the delay in adding Southwest as a participating airline. Some people said neither Southwest nor MCO wanted an additional, large number of bags, sent to MCO hours before a passengers flight. Posters say RAC is just like curbside checkin. You can't check a bag more then 3 or 4 hours before your flight. BAGS accepts luggage 12 hours (or more) before your flight. Some bags are intentionally held in the resort until closer to flight time. It's possible BAGS makes a mistake and waits too long to send some bags over to MCO.

It is entirely possible some bags get sent to MCO early enough to make an earlier flight. It's also possible some BAGS get held too long and don't make the passengers flight.

 

[seashoreCM]

1. You didn't select a portion a post to quote. 2. You made up a quote. 3. Removing a phrase like "I'm not" form a "quote" is the same as making up the quote.

The lack of an apology suggests your action wasn't an oversight.

1. I agree. I started by hitting Quote. Then I selected a block of text before what is showing and hit "delete". Then I selected a block of text after what was showing and hit "delete". Leaving what you see now.
2. I beg to differ. However at times (not this one) I admit being guilty of freehanding instead of hitting "quote". I.e. open bracket queue you oh tea eee(k) equals *** eee(k) eh *** age oh are eee(k) see 'em close bracket dada dada ... and making typos in the process.
3. I beg to differ. By the way, to render all of the above moot, I thought about it over the course of a day and still the difference between this instance of "I'm not dada dada" and just "dada dada" does not jump out at me.
4. (regarding lost luggage or anything else) Readers are invited to try differing and conflicting advice (including any by me prior to applying any corrections by Lewisc(added later) or by crashbb or by others) in any order that they feel will benefit them best.

 

[crashbb]

The lack of an apology suggests your action wasn't an oversight.

I agree.

Glad to see you admit it was not an oversight.

See how annoying taking things out of context can be?

OP - I'm happy to hear that you got your luggage back. It does seem odd that it would be a POLICY to often have luggage fly on a later flight (as opposed to something that occasionally happens due to timing). I cannot use RAC/BAGS (I don't live in the US), so it doesn't really affect me, but I'd be interested in learning if this is a true policy.

I know that some airlines (Hawaiian Air, for example), will put your things on an earlier flight if you check in earlier (hence I was greated by a friend with my luggage when I got off a Hilo-Honolulu flight). Sending things on later flights is much more annoying than sending things on earlier flight (though, that can be annoying as well, when they don't show up where you expect them to show up).

 

[seashoreCM]

(An example of paraphrasing instead of quoting, leaving open the possibility of misinterpreting)

Sending things on an earlier flight can be annoying when they don't show up where you expect them to (at the carousel). However it can be even more annoying when the things don't show up at all for example given the greater chance of being pilfered by a stranger while going 'round and 'round on the carousel.

Back to the SWA baggage person up in Providence saying "Disney" (and perhaps "late" in the same sentence). She might just have been muttering to herself, still knowing that the (her) airline has the responsibility for delivering the baggage. Should late baggage from RAC be a big enough problem there are always solutions such as:
1. Stop being a participating airline in RAC, (cutting off your nose to spite your face if participating in RAC had greatly simplified baggage handling and check in by personnel at the airport)
2. Impose an earlier RAC check in cutoff time down at the resorts.
3. Maybe hold BAGS Inc. accountable.

(subquote)
(subquote)
Glad to see you admit it was not an oversight.
See how annoying taking things out of context can be?

Not yet. For this specific example I would need to find and stare at the quoted passages, perhaps using a keyword search (Edit menu, Find On This Page), if not have a discussion with English majors in a Victorian styled high ceilinged library over tea and cookies, to figure that out.

 

[Alesia]

No. For this specific example I would need to find and stare at the quoted passages, perhaps using a keyword search (Edit menu, Find On This Page) to figure that out.

No one else does that. They shouldn't have to.

 

[Disney Ron]

If you want to talk about being misquoted, how about looking how goofy4tink misquoted my original post. I stated that the SWA agent in Providence blamed the company that handles the bags for Disney, but she quoted me as the agent used the opportunity to blame Disney themselves. She NEVER blamed Disney just the bag handling company Disney hired to do the job. And please don't anyone try to convince me they are one in the same.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you want to talk about being misquoted, how about looking how goofy4tink misquoted my original post.

She quoted every single bit of your post.

In one of her sentences she says "blaming Disney", but that wasn't anything quoted from you. So...maybe a little bit of misunderstanding, but there was no problem in her quoting you, not at all.

But then she goes on to say that she's going to ask RAC (and Bell Services) about their practices, so it seems she did actually understand what you were saying about what the SW employee was saying.

 

[Lewisc]

Disney contracts with BAGS, Inc. Disney is paying something for the service, at a minimum Disney is giving BAGS space rent free. Disney tells us it's offering RAC. Disney doesn't say it's made arrangements with BAGS to offer remote checkin at the resorts.

It is fair to give Disney some of the blame when there are problems. Disney is offering the service. Disney is promoting the service. The fact that Disney has "outsourced" RAC doesn't mean guests need hold them blameless.

Did I miss something? Did the OP get the missing bags?

 

[Inkmahm]

I just wanted to say that whenever you check your luggage in, ALWAYS check the luggage tag that they place on it and make sure that the destination airport code is correct.

I've only "lost" my luggage once, and it was due to the curbside guy putting the luggage tag on with the incorrect city on it (I was going to Birmingham (BHM), they put going to Chicago (MDW) ). Had I noticed the mistake I could have prevented the delay in my luggage. Now I always check!

Same here! The one time my luggage was "lost" the real issue was that a tag with the wrong destination city had been placed on my bag. I think they mixed up the tag for the lady that was checking in next to me with mine so her luggage likely ended up in MKE with me. It took several days for them to track down my luggage but they did eventually get it back to me.