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Missing Suitcase - How Long Before It's Declared Dead?

Roz

By Roz,
in River Cruising

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Roz Great Review Rare

Roz

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Posted (edited)

This is an airline/luggage question, but thought I'd post it here because there are a lot of posters familiar with international flights and I was traveling after a river cruise.

 

I flew home from Budapest yesterday after debarking the River Duchess. My route was Budapest to Brussels, Brussels to Dulles, and Dulles to Nashville. In Brussels we were told the luggage sorter was broken and bags were being sorted by hand. We waited 30 minutes past our schedule departure time, but finally the captain said we had to go. We were told some passengers may not see their bags when they got to their interim or final destinations. Unfortunately I was one of them.

 

At Dulles we had to claim and then re-check our bags. That's when I discovered it was missing. I filed a claim there and when I got to Nashville. The United luggage lady in Nashville told me her system showed it still in Budapest, with the caveat that Brussels Airlines isn't good about keeping up with info in the system. It could very well be in Brussels given what we were told about the situation with the luggage sort.

 

I get text updates every 6 hrs. and am due for another one soon. So far nada. Can't locate the bag. How long do the airlines, specifically United, wait until they declare the bag lost for good?

 

Roz

 

P.S. Another update at 12:17 pm - still can't locate. Where did it go??

Edited by Roz
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scluvsrain

scluvsrain

Posted
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I lost my bag on a flight from Edinburgh to Budapest. KLM Airlines. It took only about 7 hours for mine to show up. I'd bet with the long international flights the airlines should be able to locate it and get it back to you within a week at the most.

 

 

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Roz Great Review Rare

Roz

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It was tagged all the way to Nashville. I have the baggage claim tag which shows all 3 flights with final destination of BNA. Name is on outside of luggage (Uniworld luggage tag) and complete itinerary inside bag.

 

Roz

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Roz Great Review Rare

Roz

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Thanks for the vote of confidence. The biggest things I need right now are my cosmetics bag and my tweezers. I wonder if they might route the bag from Brussels to another East Coast airport (Atlanta, Newark, etc.) and then on to Nashville? Guess I'll find out eventually.

 

Roz

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Roz Great Review Rare

Roz

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I thought tweezers had to be in checked bags. No? Believe me, I know all about those little pop-ups. ;) I have to make a trip to Walgreens for something else, may buy tweezers while I'm there.

 

Roz

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scluvsrain

scluvsrain

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Oh no. You can totally carry tweezers in your carryon. Thank goodness too, because people just won't treat you right if you've got a little white whisker sticking out of your chin area. Bahahahaha!!!!

 

 

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FuelScience

FuelScience

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Roz,

 

As a fellow Nashvillian, I wish you luck. If it is lost, you can make regular pilgrimages to my home town of Scottsboro, Alabama and check in Unclaimed Baggage. The buy lost luggage from all the airlines. They'll clean out your bag, and you can walk around the store and find all your stuff and buy it back!! :eek:

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ljandgb

ljandgb

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Hmm, I've heard this story before...

 

Brussels Airlines lost ds's bag this summer. It took 5 weeks to find us. We had filed a claim, with a most unhelpful claims department at Air Canada (who the reservation was booked thru.) One day we look outside and the bag is sitting there. We never received any notification one way or the other regarding the claim or the bag.

 

We had a hard luggage tag with our last name and address on it, which I'm going to believe helped it find it's way home. This was after we'd already bought new school clothes for him. Lucky boy now has twice as many Nike shirts as he needs!

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Mark_T

Mark_T

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Check your travel insurance as there is often a time limit on notification of lost bags so you may need to let them know that it is potentially lost.

 

Odds are though it will turn up, but may take a week or two.

 

Probably the next useful notification you will get is when it arrives in the USA.

 

Looks like you have made the report to the correct carrier though as that is always the last airline on your ticketed journey even if you know where it went missing and it wasn't that airlines fault.

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Roz Great Review Rare

Roz

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Thanks to all who've posted...lots of good info and encouragement. OK, here's the latest. Thankfully no trips to Scottsboro. :cool:

 

During the night I thought I heard my doorbell ring, but dismissed it as something I just dreamt about, or another noise in the house or outside. I got up early (still jet lagged) and noticed I didn't get my text update from United at midnight. Then I thought about the phantom doorbell ring. I opened the front door, and lo and behold, there's my suitcase! :') Weird, huh?

 

Roz

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Mark_T

Mark_T

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Then I thought about the phantom doorbell ring. I opened the front door, and lo and behold, there's my suitcase! :') Weird, huh?

 

Sadly all very normal, they are really not good at communicating during the process and invariably seem to deliver at weird hours in the middle of the night.

 

Still, the good news is it didn't take long in the end, and nobody stole the case during the night :)

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