Celebrity Reflection Lost Luggage

[Mel&Ken]

Melissa, as soon as I read this, I actually thought of your experience. All I can say is celebrity has to start looking into this. We always drag our bags off since we had an experience where another passenger took our suitcase but thankfully came back with it before we had to leave for the airport. People, please check your bags. Yes, many look alike but many have name tags so take the time to check.

 

MaggieQ - I remember you being very supportive and sympathetic when we were going through that drama!

 

I agree with being careful about luggage. EVen if its a standout colour or style - it doen't mean someone else on your flight or ship didn't buy the same bag. Our new luggage is a brown and beige houndstooth pattern and when we went to New Orleans last fall I saw a woman with exact luggage. I always check the luggage tag even when I know for SURE its mine.

[miched]

I know of a sure way to make sure that no one takes you luggage by mistake.

 

Put some contraband in it. When they try to get thru customs they will be stopped. :D

 

When you pick up your luggage you remove and toss it before going thru the check point. D

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

[Mel&Ken]

My heart goes out to you - this exact thing happened to us on the exact cruise and on the exact ship in Sept.2013 - only difference is all of our bags went missing. You will find a very long and emotional post on here about it.

 

So sorry to hear about your incident (much worse than mine!) and upset that it still seems to be occurring on a regular basis nearly 2 years later. Clearly Celebrity hasn't gotten the message yet or received the message and they just don't care enough to do anything about it. You would expect more from one of the higher-end cruise lines.

 

Ken has always believed it was stolen from a crew member onboard and never came off the ship. For starters our bags were not black or a colour that was common. We had bright red Canada Flag luggage tags on both the top handle and side handle to ensure how ever you picked up this bag you knew it was there. Our ship tags were lime green and again - each bag had two on them. Also only ours and ALL of ours was lost - not part of it or anyone else's which seemed odd.

 

We waited until the entire ship disembarked and there wasn't any luggage left behind which would be the case if someone took ours by mistake.

 

I just don't see how a bag can be lost coming down 9 decks to the pier. Celebrity's theory was it may have fallen in the water. Apparently any number less than 5 bags in the water does not have to be reported? Again maybe if it were one bag but the odds of only ours falling in?

 

My suggestions to Celebrity re: lost luggage was to train the port staff a bit better at handlig the situation. In my OP you will read that no one knew what to do or how to handle us and we just got passed from one employee to another who would help look for awhile and then just wander off. The next step was "just fill out this form" - which when you're in a foreign country and just lost all your belongings is not comforting or helpful at all.

 

Then trying to call Celebrity and report it - all the website numbers are toll free 800 numbers which don't work in Europe. I was told its on the back of the cruise ticket but that was in our luggage - I didn't need the ticket once the cruise was over. I suggested putting that number as well as local port numbers on the back of the lost luggage form and was told that was a great idea!

 

I know it would be a little labour intensive but i would suggest a bar code on luggage tags that are scanned when they come on board, are picked up from your cabin and finally are taken off the ship - a chain of custody of sorts.

 

I hope your bag turns up. I did get replies from people saying lost bags turned up even a year later. I used to check my front porch everytime I pulled in the driveway hoping it would show up. :rolleyes: Just remember for Celebrity they need to deem it lost first (6-8 weeks) and then they will process your claim. So the initial few months is just waiting. I'd start listing all your items and values now to be ready. And don't go too crazy - no matter what the value you will get $300.

[Mel&Ken]

I know of a sure way to make sure that no one takes you luggage by mistake.

 

Put some contraband in it. When they try to get thru customs they will be stopped. :D

 

When you pick up your luggage you remove and toss it before going thru the check point. D

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

 

Love it! :D

[judyfssw]

Many years ago, I bought a bright ribbon that I tied around the handles on our luggage. I also bought luggage straps in a similar color or bright green. I switched to the straps with TSA locks (but all luggage thieves have to do is make it wider to get into the bags) and TSA locks for the luggage in bright colors. Easy to identify the luggage and hopefully there are too many locks to deter thieves.

[mermamasailsagain]

We intend to walk off the Reflection at the end of our June 8th cruise... I noted you said people were starting to get off at 7:40am, I hope by their own choice as we have booked a car for 7am to get to the airport. Do you know what time you were allowed off? Thanks.

[keesar]

We intend to walk off the Reflection at the end of our June 8th cruise... I noted you said people were starting to get off at 7:40am, I hope by their own choice as we have booked a car for 7am to get to the airport. Do you know what time you were allowed off? Thanks.

 

I saw the first people getting off at 7:15 am. However, there was a medical emergency when we docked and emergency vehicles arrived. I am not sure if that affected the time people were allowed to leave the ship.

[mermamasailsagain]

Thanks for your response. So sad to hear about someone else's misfortune.

[purduemom1]

If the maximum reimbursement from Celebrity is $300 per lost bag, it's no wonder that they make no effort to ensure that ALL luggage is reunited with its owner....there is no monetary incentive. It is probably less costly for them to just pay the $300 for a lost bag than to put more expensive methods in place that would ensure safe delivery of all luggage. Since most luggage is not lost, a few $300 payments per cruise may be worth it.....to Celebrity......certainly not the luggage owner!

[AtleeH]

Correct. As long as the lost luggage remains "a few" Celebrity is quite content to just pay a few $300 claims. They do have to be careful they don't get the rep in the "Cruising World" of losing luggage all the time, especially if other cruise lines do not develop that same rep.

 

If the maximum reimbursement from Celebrity is $300 per lost bag, it's no wonder that they make no effort to ensure that ALL luggage is reunited with its owner....there is no monetary incentive. It is probably less costly for them to just pay the $300 for a lost bag than to put more expensive methods in place that would ensure safe delivery of all luggage. Since most luggage is not lost, a few $300 payments per cruise may be worth it.....to Celebrity......certainly not the luggage owner!

[sginva]

If the maximum reimbursement from Celebrity is $300 per lost bag, it's no wonder that they make no effort to ensure that ALL luggage is reunited with its owner....there is no monetary incentive. It is probably less costly for them to just pay the $300 for a lost bag than to put more expensive methods in place that would ensure safe delivery of all luggage. Since most luggage is not lost, a few $300 payments per cruise may be worth it.....to Celebrity......certainly not the luggage owner!

 

Last fall a piece of our luggage was taken by another Celebrity passenger from the terminal, checked as theirs through the airport in Ft Lauderdale,and flown to Dallas. Only then did they realize it was not their luggage. They left it with lost luggage at the Dallas airport? We were contacted by Southwest since our tags were all over it. We had filed a report with Celebrity at the port when we could not locate the luggage after a long wait and looking through an amazing amount of luggage.

We called Celebrity after we received the call from Southwest and we cannot say enough good about the way they handled the situation. After a period of time we received our luggage. The Celebrity employees at the port and in lost luggage were professional and helpful. Given security and safety regulations this was not an easy fix for anyone involved including us.

The passenger taking our luggage was of course then looking for the piece of luggage they left at the port. They said the mix up was a "porter fault!"

Interestingly the pieces of luggage were very different:a large black case vs our smaller grey case and ours had tags and belts and colorful ties, etc.

This was a stressful experience and we sympathize with anyone facing it.

We were fortunate in the end that our luggage was found and returned.

Thank you.

[Jane2357]

$300.00 is a JOKE for an entire piece of luggage. The luggage itself can cost way more than that per bag alone, not to mention the contents! I take one rolling garment bag for just our formal wear, tux and gowns and the cost would number in the multiple thousands. :cool:

 

So after reading this - I am now going to take that bag and keep it with me to roll off myself - setting the rest out the night before. Any expensive items will be in that bag.

 

One thing that I always do it to make brightly colored ribbon pom poms and tie them to each bag. I then take duct tape and put our names and contact info on the outside of each suitcase. I think this protects us from someone accidentally taking our luggage but it won't help incase of theft, which sadly many of these sound like.

[cruisestitch]

It's hard to keep perspective when it is happening to you, but keep in mind that the cruise line moves thousands of pieces of luggage at each disembarkation day, and a very small number actually go astray. We hear about the ones that do, but no one ever mentions the ones that come through the process fine, so it's easy to jump to the conclusion that the problem is occurring "on a regular basis".

 

It would happen even less frequently if passengers paid closer attention to the bags they claim! :)

[Iamthesea]

If the maximum reimbursement from Celebrity is $300 per lost bag, it's no wonder that they make no effort to ensure that ALL luggage is reunited with its owner....there is no monetary incentive. It is probably less costly for them to just pay the $300 for a lost bag than to put more expensive methods in place that would ensure safe delivery of all luggage. Since most luggage is not lost, a few $300 payments per cruise may be worth it.....to Celebrity......certainly not the luggage owner!

 

And that $300 is probably the amount that Celebrity gets paid for the suitcase when it is turned over to unclaimedbaggage.com. LOL :D

 

https://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/about/

[HokiePoq]

Was this in Barcelona?

When we disembarked there one time, two in our group had no luggage waiting in the terminal. As our bus left for the airport, we drove by an old beaten up truck....loaded with suitcases. Someone apparently was going in the terminal and helping themselves.

 

Nice to hear that Southwest was so helpful returning luggage. Not so nice a fellow cruiser would make a mistake like that and take no personal responsibility to correct it.

[Honeybearhollow]

$300.00 is a JOKE for an entire piece of luggage. The luggage itself can cost way more than that per bag alone, not to mention the contents! I take one rolling garment bag for just our formal wear, tux and gowns and the cost would number in the multiple thousands. :cool:

 

So after reading this - I am now going to take that bag and keep it with me to roll off myself - setting the rest out the night before. Any expensive items will be in that bag.

 

 

 

 

I agree with you and I am going to do that from now on, as well.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Honeybearhollow

[kenevenpar]

Isn't there real insurance available to protect us for lost luggage?

[kenevenpar]

It looks like many of the commercial cruise insurance policies cover lost luggage in varying amounts. Travel Guard looks like the standard is $2,500. Surely better than the $300 a bag

[Deenkid]

We have very distinctive luggage and in all the years we have used it, never once had I ever seen others like it. Until last year. We had an aft cabin and as we turned the corner, saw the luggage sitting near the cabin next to us. Assuming it was ours, we went to place it in our cabin only to notice the tags were different.

 

What were the chances of someone having our exact luggage and being in the cabin next door?!?!?!??!

 

So no matter how distinctive you think your luggage is, the probability is that there are others out there just like it.

[kenevenpar]

We had our luggage taken (1 piece) despite a pink puff on it. We saw a similar piece in the luggage area, so we were pretty sure it was taken accidentally. When we looked closer at the tag and discovered it was a Priest who had taken it, we were fairly sure we would get ours back.:cool:

Edited June 1, 2015 by kenevenpar

[AlohaORCruiser]

So the conclusion to the story is that Celebrity did not locate my luggage. As it was a carry-on bag, the total cost of the bag and contents was only about $400. Celebrity tried to tell me that they depreciated anything that wasn't new 40% and that I should be happy to get $300 out of it. I asked to talk to a supervisor and was put on hold for about 10 minutes. When the customer service person came back on the line, they agreed to pay me my $400 and it has since been credited to my Visa card.

 

I completely agree that there is no incentive for Celebrity to fix or improve the process. $300 would barely cover the cost of most larger bags, let alone the contents.

 

I would still much rather have my souvenirs from the trip though.

 

Thanks for all of the comments and support! :)

 

Kristi

[BecciBoo]

I bought these on Amazon for every bag...no problem getting these mixed up:

Edited June 19, 2015 by BecciBoo

[Been There, Planning That]

BecciBoo, I assume your clip art was posted in jest, but I've repeatedly read that tying strings/ribbons and such is a hazard as they can get stuck in conveyor belts.

 

In decades of travel we've used duck tape to decorate our bags - tops and sides. It needs replacing every couple of trips but it has served the purpose. The finished products are ugly to say the least; though more recently I've discovered patterned tape and just may try this, at least on our carry on bags.

 

It would be difficult to take our bags by mistake but even duck tape is no deterrent against out and out theft or accidental dunkings overboard.

 

Ruth

[CruisingChick]

Another problem I found with the tags given out at the end of the cruise for use in disembarkation. The tags are simple paper tags. They are easy to tear off, which happened to one of our bags when we returned from the Western Caribbean on the Silhouette.

 

When we go in January of 2016 to the eastern Caribbean, I plan to take along in my luggage a roll of heavy clear packing tape. I'm going to over lay the cheap thin paper tags given us at the end of the trip, and cover them with the packing tape.

 

I have complained for the past couple of years about this exact same problem Three cruises in a row the tags were ripped off at least one of our bags.

 

On one cruise not only was the disembarkation tag ripped off but my own personal luggage tag had been ripped off. Good thing it was my bright yellow, monogrammed LL Bean large rolling duffle bag.

 

I finally learned after those 3 cruises that I needed to bring clear packing tape with me to laminate these tags and I put two on each suitcase.

 

I've relayed this to Celebrity on numerous occasions but they obviously don't care enough to change the disembarkation tags. RCCL uses the exact same ones.

 

I know they have plastic tag holders that I have seen people mention for embarkation luggage tags, I wonder if they also work with disembarkation tags?

Edited June 19, 2015 by CruisingChick

[BecciBoo]

Nope, no joke. These have snaps on them they snap around the top grip, never had a problem with them getting stuck. They're great.

Edited June 24, 2015 by BecciBoo