US Air lost baggage twice

[Blondiex46]

On the way down (and we flew into Jax) they lost the biggest piece of luggage. We got to Orlando at 2:00 in the afternoon on Friday, it arrived at Carribean Beach at 2:00am, with a broken handle. This was a straight through flight. Left Jax yesterday afternoon, changed planes in Charlotte got into Philly @ 3:30 and low and behold the same piece of luggage was missing. Now it is over 24 hours since we arrived and no luggage. Thank goodness it is only dirty clothes, but also has a new pair of sneaks that I bought @ the Nike outlet. Anyway, I called US Air this morning and they said it was still in Jax (according to their records) apparently it never left there yesterday when we did. This maybe the last time I fly US Air, no wonder they filed for Bankrupcy, lol - Just be careful what you pack in the luggage that goes on the plane.

 

[CoolDisneyCat]

I think they must handle the big pieces differently. In many years of flying USAir, the only piece that has been misplaced was a giant hard sided bag I used to carry. It always turned up, though.

When ever I had to run to make a flight, you could count on that piece missing the plane. The rest of my luggage made it. Weird.....

One time, it made it home about a day after me and I woke up to find it in my garage. They delivered it right to my house.

 

[safetymom]

Sorry to hear about your luggage. That isn't what caused them troubles. They usually are vey good about getting the luggage to you quickly.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

We just had the same happened to us 1 month ago from US AIR. On our return trip from MCO in Feb(direct MCO-Pittsburgh).

We always do carry on only 98% of the time. This time we decided to just check our 2 pieces. When we got to Pittsburgh.......our luggage wasn't there.

We filed a claim and drove home with out our luggage. It took US AIR about 8 hrs to deliver them to our house. So in my travels with US AIR, I have checked luggage 2x (out of 40-50 last 5 years) and both of the times we checked luggage it was LOST.

This is the main reason we will do carry on 100% of the time from now on. How US AIR loses luggage on non-stop flights amazes me.

US AIR is still a decent airline for being on time and great prices......they just have a problem with luggage.

 

[safetymom]

The few times my luggage didn't arrive was because it never left where I departed from. They seem to be more weight concerned these days. If they would tell you that it would help.

I travel with equipment and that is the reason I am flying. If I don't have the equipment I don't need to be in that city. They have always managed to get it to me before my event.

It seems the more crowded the plane the more likely your luggage won't make it on the plane.

 

[PhillyPooh]

I say a prayer every time we fly US Air that our luggage arrives with us and that it is in one piece. Unfortunately they are the only non-stop flights out of Philly with good time schedules. Last year my husband and I flew them non-stop to Miami and they managed to totally destroy a brand new soft side Samsonite piece of luggage, which of course they will do nothing about. The year before that my kids and I flew to Orlando, once again they destroyed a hard-side large Samsonite suitcase and lost my daughter's suitcase on the flight home. How can they lose luggage that is going non-stop? Oh that's right, they never put it on the plane. They delivered it to our house the next day. I hate having to worry about my luggage.

 

[bridgettesmom]

I don't work for Usair , but, I am a baggage analyst for another major airline. Believe it or not a lot of different things could happen in order for an airline to misplace a bag.Here's a few situations that I see on an everyday basis...

1. Held by TSA for further inspection
2. System Jam - This could be due to a lot of traffic, broken belt, broken sensor, broken pusher, etc..
3. Bag stuck on system - Sometimes the locks, handles, straps or even the wheels get stuck in a tight corner or in between the belts.
4. Misload- Your bag can "accidentally" be placed on the wrong aircraft and end up in the wrong destination.

5.Bag switch - This is the one that I see a few times during the day. Someone else might pick up your bag by mistake and not realize until they unpack which could take hours, days or even weeks

I want to let you know that even though I do this for a living, I still check my bags and keep whatever is important to me in my carry on (Keys, medicine,passport, change of clothes and toiletries). Less than 2% of bags actually get "misplaced" , so, you can say I have faith in the system

 

[DebbieB]

I've flown USAir probably 30 or 40 times and have never lost luggage (knock on wood, I'm flying next week ;-). I always check luggage on Orlando trips. Sometimes I don't on short 1 or 2 night business trips. One time I did catch someone walking off with mine by mistake in baggage claim. I had a red ribbon on it and so did she. Now I use blue & yellow ribbons on the handle.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by DebbieB
I had a red ribbon on it and so did she. Now I use blue & yellow ribbons on the handle.

Both of our pieces of luggae that were lost, had very distinctive colored ribbons on them..........one had red+yellow and the other had green+blue.
I think it is VERY rare that a person walks off with the wrong luggage without checking the nametag.

 

[Tinkerbutt]

Just for my own curiousity did you use curb side check in??? I have a theory.... We always tip them VERY well and we have NEVER...(knocking on wood really really hard!) had our luggage lost. Now I know there are circumstances beyond our/their control but I had a client once that work curb side and told me that if you don't want to lose your luggage..tip well. We have never been charged for oversized bags, when they were way over weight, always get a priority tag on our luggage and a "handle with care" tag. So far so good. But we usually give $10.00 for 2-3 bags on the flight down and $15.00 if they are overweight for the return trip. It has worked so far!

 

[dznyntnh]

Actually, I've always had good luck with USAir. The only time my luggage got home after I did was a few summers ago, when air traffic was a mess because of storms and delays and we landed in Philly so late there was not way the bags would get on the plane.

They had it too me first thing the next day.

Several times I flew from LAX to BOS on United and had my luggage get to BOS before I did because we checked in so early.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

On our return during our last flight with Delta the first leg was delayed causing us to sprint to make the connection. The plane was already boarding when we got the the gate so we were sure our luggage was never going to make the plane! By goshes they made it so two thumbs up to Delta for getting our luggage on that plane!

 

[tiggerzpalz]

Will never use US Air again due to luggage issues. On two different trips our luggage has not made it down there with us. First time it was left on the runway in Philly in the rain, along with about 20 other people's stuff, and arrived late evening the following day. On second trip, we had 13 people in our group, and a full 757, last summer, just about everyone's luggage on the plane was left in Philly. They had "belt" issues. so when we arrived in Orlando, saw the claim rack never moving, made us wait in line for about 90 minutes to fill out name, resort, bag shape, color etc. Pieces began arriving over the next 3 days. Apparently they were at least three flights behind. Kept sending people but no bags. Offered us about $40/day per person for clothing until bags claim. What a joke since Disney barely sells anything for less than that. Plus undergarments was a major issue as they don't sell that on the grounds. Sorry, I don't care what their reasoning was two strikes is all they get with us.

 

[mad4themouse]

We flew PHL->MCO, direct, the night before our cruise. Thank goodness that I booked the Airport Hyatt for that night b/c USAir lost every single piece of our luggage!!! They also lost/misplaced the luggage from about 30 other families on our flight.

Fortunately, it did finally show up around 1 am. DD & I went back down to baggage claim b/c we couldn't sleep and there were all the bags just sitting there unattended! We gradded our stuff and wheeled it back to the Hyatt.

FWIW, the baggage claim attendant at MCO told my DH that lost luggage out of PHL is a very common occurrance for USAir. Thank goodness for SouthWest coming into PHL!

 

[LtlTee]

We just flew US Air to Jamaica. When we grabbed our stuff on arrival in Jamaica we noticed that my husband's brand new hard-sided golf case (this was the first time he had used it) had a huge slice in it, and 2 of the 3 clasps that keep the case closed were completely broken off. The case wasn't locked or anything -- we're still trying to figure out how that happened!

 

[Blondiex46]

well finally received the baggage at 9:30 at night on sunday about 30 hours after we landed, and this time they broke the straps inside the luggage, and when I went to unpack another (the one with my clothes in it) the whole thing was broken (one of the sides), had to throw that one in the trash. The funny part is that one of the twins was so afraid that his "briefs" were going to be lost that he took all of them out of the suitcase and packed it in his carryon. I must say on the way down there were about 25 people that they left their luggage in Philly and on the way back one may lost all 5 pieces (was stand-by though) and there were about 5 others who luggage was lost.