I rarely check baggage, but I checked three bags on my trip from Frankfurt to Los Angeles this week. With my time winding down in Germany, I elected to bring most of my stuff home so my final trip home in a few weeks will only require one checked bag.
My originally scheduled flight from Washington to Los Angeles was oversold, so I stayed overnight in Washington and flew to Burbank the following morning via San Francisco. I had a feeling my bags would not be accompanying me and in San Francisco I learned that my bags had arrived on my originally scheduled flight at LAX and after sitting on the baggage belt for three hours had been scanned into a backroom for safekeeping.
When I got to Burbank, the Skywest folks were quite cooperative about sending my bags to my home with a courier from Los Angeles. My bags did not show up that day, however, and I did get a little bit worried.
The following morning, though, I received a call from the United 1K desk stating that my bags were on their way and would be arriving within the hour. Sure enough, they did. In fact, the 1K desk called back an hour later to verify that I received my bags and apologized profusely for the mix up.
There was time to pull my bags off the United flight I was bumped off, but all is well that ends well. I appreciated the unexpected calls from the 1K desk and acknowledge that during the busiest travel week of the year, getting my bags a half day late was not a problem.
I would like to think United Airlines handles all lost bags cases like they handled mine, but reading some of the horror stories on untied.com makes me think otherwise.
Half a week is about right. One time, I flew on a Monday, and my bags weren’t delivered until late Thursday night. And the sad part was it being a direct flight on a CR7.
Compensation due?
@Darren: No, I won’t ask for any in this case. UA could have handled it better, but I am happy with the resolution. And my compensation, if you will, was the $400 in travel credits and business class upgrade from IAD-SFO the following day in a retrofitted 777.