How I found the bag (Day 3 and 4)

Day 3 (Aug 12)




I took the earliest flight out of London in the morning (7am). I got to Brussels airport (BRU) at 9am. This was the nicest flight so far this trip, since it was only an hour long. On the plane, I copied on paper from an electronic file the contents of the bag that L helped me translate into French. Just in case I had to leave a note with the baggage people in Brussels and if they don't speak much English (we are trying to cover all possibilities). In the baggage claim area, I located the Aviaparnter counter who was in charge of 10+ airlines' baggage services in BRU.



The Aviaparnter (I will call it AV from now on) staff told me that they found the bag on July 17 and shipped it out. But they no longer had any information on the bag (or the tag number) since it's been almost a month ago. I told them thatthe BA staff in London said that they never received it (since it was never scanned in London). The AV staff told me that BA at London Heathrow had been a mess between June and July, and therefore was not reliable. Then I asked to check the tagless bags in BRU since I was there already. They told me to wait until 1pm since one of them went home with the key to the tagless bag room by mistake and he would start work at 1pm.

So after I looked around the baggage claim area and didn’t see my bag (AV had bags lying around to process, so in a very organized fashion), I went to downtown Brussels for some shopping. Finding the bag seemed unlikely to me since Day 2 in London, after knowing that I couldn’t see all possible bags and I figured my bag was more likely to go tagless in London since BRU had seen the tag on July 17 and tried to ship it out. I was trying to shop for some of our missing items that we got from Belgium. The problem was that it was a Sunday and most shops close on Sundays. So I didn’t get to buy from the shops we had been to. I did manage to buy some food items such as chocolate (duh, Belgian chocolate) and some biscuits (from Dandoy, very famous in Brussels). I also struggled to decide if I should buy a very nice looking strawberry cream pie for L. L loved it when we saw it but we were too full to order it. I finally decided not to since there were 3 more flights until I got home and the pie wouldn’t really survive the trip. I then hit the market and bought some waffles (again duh, Belgian waffles or more esp. Liege waffles) that could be reheated using a toaster. After a little bit of shopping spree and feeling a little better (shopping does make you feel better), I took the train back to the airport.

After passing the security to the baggage claim area (it was very easy, just ring up the AV from the phone and the security official let me go), the AV staff took me to the room with all their tagless bags (I think it could also be all the tagless bags in BRU). Once I walked in the room, I noticed this black suitcase that looked very familiar to me. I didn’t jump on it since the staff was explaining how they lay out the bags according to the days they were found (nicely organized). Afterward, I started checking the bags and approached the black suitcase that looked familiar. I opened the zipper and found items that looked like our belongings. I started shaking, opened the bag completely and found exactly what we had been missing for the past month. BAG FOUND. The whole trip to London and Brussels was complete (and with success). I wanted to call L right away but I should ask the AV staff about any paperwork to follow. There wasn’t any paperwork needed, and the AV staff was very nice to photocopy my flight info and address and stick it to the bag. I spent the next 30 min calling L and rearranging the bag such that the most important contents would be in the carry-on.

I found the bag around 2:30pm and my flight was 9pm. I asked if I would catch an earlier flight, but had to pay 50 euro more for fee. I'd rather wait and I did. I bought bright color straps to wrap around the bag to make it more identifiable. Everything went smoothly and my bag was there for me when I landed in London.

Day 4 (Aug 13).

Flight: LHR->ORD->LAX
Everything went how it was supposed to be. Flight from London to Los Angeles was long, but finding all my bags in the baggage claim area in LAX and L waiting was the biggest reward. Now L and I can move on with our lives.

How I found the bag (Day 1 and 2)

Day 1 (Aug 10):

Flight: LAX->JFK->LHR
Flight from LAX to JFK was delayed due to bad weather in New York and I only had 10 min to run 30 gates at JFK to make my flight. I don't recommend running ever before a flight (but then who would want to run unless he/she has to...). I was panting for like 10, 15 mins on the plane. I felt dehydrated throughout the flight (even though I requested and was given water several times), couldn't sleep, and couldn't breathe comfortably because of the low humidity in the cabin.

Day 1 is short due to time difference between the West Coast and London.

Day 2 (Aug 11):

After washing up in the hotel, I took the tube to Heathrow Terminal 4. After I got there, the information desk people told me to ring up British Airways baggage service. I called with their phone, explained that I came all the way from LA and would like to look at the tagless bags since my missing bag is most likely to be tagless. He said I couldn't look at the tagless bags and shouldn't be here, but then he still let me in through the security check.

Once inside the baggage claim area, I was told to head to the baggage report area (I think many of us here know this area very well). I talked to the BA staff ("A") and he told me that most of the tagless bags are in a hangar, which is a restricted area that I couldn't go to. He said that in the evening (around 10pm), the night staff would have more time to bring the tagless bags from the hangar to process them and I would be better off coming back at night. According to "A", about 200-300 tagless bags were processed daily. There were tagless bags inside the baggage claim area, about 100 of them, by a wall and inside the room behind the BA baggage report area. I then walked around the baggage claim area and couldn't see my bag. I asked to go to the room behind baggage report area (cos the door was open and i saw many bags in there) and was allowed to do so.

Pic 1- the room behind the baggage report area:



Inside the room, I saw about 70 tagless bags, none of them mine. I talked to another BA staff ("B") in the room and he helped me look for my bag on their computer system. He saw that my bag's tag number was scanned and found in Brussels airport on July 17 but no further info was available beyond that point. And looking at another system, it stated that my bag was scheduled to be on a flight from BRU to LHR on July 17. But LHR never scanned the arrival of my bag on the 17th. "B" thought it would be still in Brussels and helped me to send another telex to BRU. According to "B", there were thousands of tagless bags in the hangar.

I was also asked to describe the contents of my bag for BA to match with the tagless bags. I said that I had been sending telexes describing contents of my bag for 2 weeks now and they should have that description on system. But the system didn't and I gave them the description again. This was very frustrating as LHR didn't have my description of the contents despite all the calls we made. 2 weeks of telexes and bag-contents matching possibility seemed to be totally wasted.

I came back to the baggage claim area at 9pm. Talked a very helpful staff ("C") and he explained in details how tagless bags were processed and matched with bag descriptions from owners (but I had to fly to London to properly enter my bag description into their system, very exclusive). "C" estimated that 500-600 tagless bags were in hangar. I will explain how BA processes tagless bag in a different post. I went into the room behind the baggage report area and saw about 10 tagless bags I didn't see earlier that day, again none of them mine.

Staff there told me that they were only going to process the bags I saw in the baggage claim area (there were 50+ left behind baggages from the day, all needed to be entered into the system). So obviously they couldn't process 200-300 tagless bags a day. I felt that it's more like 60 per bags on non-busy days. And they could always be busy since BA keeps losing bags. This was not going anywhere, I even offered to help them so they could process more tagless bags for the night, and possibly get to my bag.

Then I got kicked out at 11pm. No more flight coming in and customs would start clearing the area. Fine, it was customs kicking me out, not BA. But BA staff ("A") in the afternoon told me to come back at 10pm. He thought 1 hour was long enough? Or was he trying to make me go away and have me come back with little time to bug them?

Day 2 was very frustrating. I couldn't get a chance to see all the tagless bags. I felt like BA was hiding them from the world. Information from staff could be very conflicting. Plus my nose was bleeding the whole day from the dry air on the planes in Day 1.

More to come: Days 3-4, pics of some tagless bags I saw, more pics.

T

schedule of bag recovery (quick version)

(all time local)
Aug 10 12pm: Los Angeles -> New York
Aug 10 9 pm: New York -> London (with 10 min running 30 gates)
Aug 11 11am: landed in London
Aug 11 12pm: washed up in hotel;
.................went to Terminal 4;
.................got into the baggage claim area;
.................checked all the bags laying around the area (100 of them), some tagless;
.................was told to come back at 10pm when they would bring more tagless bags in from hangar to process;
.................slept for 2 hours;
.................back to baggage claim area;
.................saw only 20 more tagless bag, felt cheated;
.................but one BA staff was very helpful and explained how tagless bags would be processed (more of that in a later post);
.................saw staff gathering 50+ bags being displaced for the day or for the night only;
.................got kicked out at 11pm, "customs will come and kick you out";
.................back to hotel
Aug 12 7 am: London -> Brussels
Aug 12 9 am: Aviapartner (in charge of British Airways baggage service at Brussels Airport) told me to come back at 1pm when the person
.................who had the key to the taggless bag room would start working;
Aug 12 2 pm: Got the key, showed me the room and I found my bag within 5 mins
Aug 12 3 pm: Put some irreplaceable contents into my carry-on
Aug 12 3-9pm: wait for my flight (long wait, but so worthwhile)
Aug 12 9 pm: Brussels -> London
Aug 12 11pm: GOOD NIGHT SLEEP
Aug 13 5 pm: London -> Chicago
Aug 13 9 pm: Chicago -> Los Angeles
Aug 13 11pm: landed Los Angeles with ALL MY LUGGAGE

T.

British Airways Lost Luggage -- BAG RECOVERED!!

I am *so* delighted and almost giddy to say that our lost suitcase has come home in one piece, unharmed!!!!

No, British Airways didn't do anything for us. T spent a few sleep-deprived days at airport terminals, baggage claim areas, bugging staff and baggage handlers. Not to mention the trans-America and trans-Atlantic and trans-British-Channel flights that he took in less than 100 hours.

More to come (by the end of this week): T's journey, what he found out about how bags are handled in LHR, and pics of some lost (or even tagless) luggage that might be yours. For now, we're re-orienting ourselves for work, filling up with American burgers, and finally sleeping sound at night.

I even woke up giggling from my dreams last night. No, I'm really not kidding.

L.

British Airways Lost Luggage -- Our Search Begins

Aug 10, 2007: We've been calling British Airways religiously, 2-3 times a day, to check on the status on our lost bag. No updates. I still feel devastated... Every morning I called, and every time they told me there was no news on my bag. And then I grew agitated, anxious, and I would begin to think of all the things in the bag that I have treasured so much over the years... The necklace that T gave me in the staircase of his dorm that one morning, that we lost for months and found inside my skirt's pocket... the caramels I bought from L'Etoile d'Or... and my notebook with the SAS notes that I took for over 18 months!! I sat at my desk and tried to work, but I couldn't even get my mind together... I felt like I could not write SAS codes without my notebook. I froze, I fidgeted, and then I cried.

Today, T began his trip to London Heathrow Airport and Brussels Airport with the hope of recovering our bag. We hope that it is perhaps tagless and lying somewhere inside one of the two airports; instead of being grabbed from the unattended conveyor belt (thanks to British Airways' negligence), or damaged and trashed, or being stolen by some heartless workers, or having fallen off the truck to Milan. Please stop me from ruminating...

When we called this morning, an agent informed us that "the management" has gotten involved to send a message (not a Telex we were told) to all 3 airports about our bag on Aug 8... It's been 2 days and there's been no answers. Another agent (Brendan) told me that the chances of the bag being a total loss is high. I'm speechless. Please wish us (esp. T) luck.

Please wish T many safe flights in the mean time. We will be posting updates on his journey.

P.S. And even if the bag doesn't come back to me, I will be content with the fact that there is a wonderful, respectable man who is willing to cross the Atlantic and find my bag. I love T.

L.

British Airways Lost Luggage: BA's Foiled Attempt At Covering Its Luggage Mess

From the London Times: BA tried to cover up being worst for losing passengers’ luggage
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article2195581.ece

Shame, shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

L.

British Airways Lost Luggage -- Another Failed BA Call Attempt

I'm starting a .txt file to log all my conversations with British Airways.

Aug 6, 2007. 8:55am
Agent: Paul
After I gave him my reference number and he verified my last name, there was a long pause while he looked at the system. That's fine. Take your time as long as you are being serious about it.
Then he said the bag showed up at London Heathrow today. Having had our hopes raised so high and only to be let down later, I asked (1) what is the tag number for the bag in London, and (2) the last name associated with the bag in London.

He said 422322 -- ok, that's one of the possible tag numbers for our lost bag.
Then he said "I'm gonna send a message to the supervisor in London to have this all figured out." Why can't he give me an answer to my question? I said, "So is it our last name associated with this bag?" He said "No it's someone else's name and it's going to Stockholm."

Fabulous. I knew it. What if I didn't ask about the last name? Are you gonna lie again? Somehow I think if you sit me at the BA call center now I may even do a better job then some of these people. So certain to make big promises (Are you really going to message the SUPERVISOR? And stop the lie about MY BAG in London) -- and you call that customer service? CRAP! Deceitful!!

I begin to feel nauseous every time I call BA -- I know I have to be super cautious with them and whatever they say have to be examined carefully. It almost feels like they always try to deliver potentially positive, but not necessarily accurate news. LIES. BA is all about LIES. I only wish that more people know about this when they consider flying with BA, or when they're dealing with these insincere BA "agents" who have so little true intention to help the customers.

L

British Airways Lost Luggage -- How it all started....

I don't even know where, or how, to begin.

At daybreak on July 16, T.(my bf) and I were ready to bid our apartment of 3 months in Belgium as we triple-checked that we didn't leave any items nor mess behind. We had not slept for nearly 24 hours, and spent at least the last 10 hours packing, re-packing (so we could bring the extra-long baguette toaster home), and cleaning up. By the time we were on the freeway, the crisp sunlight did nothing to our fatigue -- I mercilessly slapped T.'s thighs to keep him awake as he was going 130km/h on a manual shift. His head kept bobbing, and I was barely awake to murmur "hey don't sleep."

We made it to the airport; we even had time to mail the toaster along with other cheapo junk (e.g. sirop de Liege, a Mexican (i know, Mexico is closer to LA than Belgium...), a cookie press) back to LA. Little did we know that it would take more than an hour to check in our baggage at the British Airways counter. One after another, the ticketing staff would say "I have to go" and promptly walk away from her counter despite the line of anxious souls who remained to be checked in and had anywhere from 2 minutes to an hour away from their flight departure time. After the agent gave me my boarding pass and tagged my suitcases, she realized that the conveyor belt wasn't moving. She made a call, and swiftly walked away from the counter. I stood speechless -- I've waited 75 minutes and now my luggage is stuck on the conveyor belt so that anyone can pick up my bags and disappear? The poor American blonde in flip flops behind me started tearing up, "My flight is leaving in 2 minutes. Where is she going?" Poor thing. I asked the only agent remaining, "what will happen to my bags?" She reassured me she would take care of it. I didn't have the time to stand there to wait for the maintenance people to come -- all that standing in line left me with 20 minutes to get through security and make it to the departure gate. I just prayed that no one would steal my bags since nearly all the staff were gone and god knows how long the one remaining agent would be there, or be able to keep an eye on all the bags left still on the conveyor belt. There was no blank tags either, for me to write my LA address on and attach to my luggage. The tags on my bags still had my Belgian address and cell number.

The flight was delayed for at least 30 minutes. The pilot said that some bags were stuck on the conveyor belt but they just got 5 loaded onto the plane and had 5 more coming. "That must be my bag," I thought. Another 10 minutes passed and he said the plane was good to go. We arrived at Heathrow 15 minutes earlier than scheduled -- how that happened with the initial delay, I still don't know. The 10 people whose final destination was London all stood by the baggage carousel. Nothing. Another 15 minutes. Nothing. Staff came by -- all the baggage didn't make it onto the flight. My heart went pounding like crazy. What? No luggage? Nothing like that had ever happened to me. I hadn't slept for like 30 hours -- stress and fatigue don't go down together well. We filed missing reports for the bags and were reassured that they'd be delivered by courier to us by later that night or the next morning. So, no clothes for me. Worse yet, no bras and panties, no contact lenses nor glasses, no toiletries. Just me, my laptop, and a handcarry duffel bag packed with Belgian chocolates, pain d'epices, and a bunch of articles that I brought to read on board. With the 1 pc carry-on policy, I could hardly bring much else with me on board.

After an exhausting 75-minute tube ride, we got from Heathrow to Russels Square. I had been struggling to hold on tight to my duffle bag while I dozed off into a semi-coma-like state on the tube, only to be waken by the station annoucements and door-closing warnings on the train every few minutes. By the time we arrived at Russels Square, my eyes and mouth were dry, my cheeks hot like light bulbs from sleeping in a stuffy train, and probably looking disheveled. So T. and I, feeling like refugees (esp. from wearing slouchy sweats and totally unfashionable but comfy sneakers), dragged our bags across the square to our hotel. I was carrying T.'s backpack, its straps were so long that with every step, the back of my thighs would get slapped. So flap, flap, flap, dodging stares from the fashionable and the chic who were picnicking on the grass, we arrived at our hotel. I was so disheveled I felt completely unfit to step into the fancy hotel...

After a night of frantically shopping for clothes, crying about my lost bags, and scrambling for cheap toiletries at the poorly stocked Tesco Metro, throughout the next morning, the WorldTracer website (BA's luggage tracking system) was updated to show the arranged delivery times for 3 of our 4 bags. They all got in by 2pm on July 17... We consoled ourselves, "the next one may just take a little longer, it'll come"... There, the nightmare began.

L

British Airways Lost Luggage -- Lies of British Airways call center

So today I called and this guy called Gerald in the USA baggage claim center told me they found my last bag and is being shipped to Los Angeles from London directly on today's flight.

But this is a complete lie.

We called more throughout and the day for more info and every time we called there are different information. One guy (called Chris, who sounded like a drunken frat boy with a perennial nasal congestion) even told us that all 4 bags are delivered to us in LA on July 30. Problem is that 3 of the 4 bags were delivered to us in London on July 17, not LA, not July 30 and not all 4 bags.

This is not the first time BA call center representatives lied to us. And more people on the web has been reporting many more lies by BA.

Lies and lies and lies. What exactly do they get out of it by lying? And to get our hopes up and crash it like a dying ant. Calling BA is like worse than talking to lawyers, lies are created for no reason at all.

T

British Airways Lost Luggage -- Evil BA business model

And what really pisses me off is that British Airways loses bags way more than chance levels. They are the worst in any European airlines. LHR (Heathrow) is owned by BA and working at like 30% over capacity. And BA staff has little regards on handling luggages. How could the pilot decided to leave knowing 89 bags are left behind????? Personally I accept flight delays more than missing bags. And knowing LHR having a missing luggage crisis, and the pilot still chose to add 89 more bags to that instead of delaying the flight. This really shows how much regard BA has on your bags.

Not one single person got his bag(s) that day flying on that flight. We all waited at the luggage claim for over an hour before heading to report missing luggage. Reporting took another hour or so (there was a long line of people, surprise). We all wasted additionally 2+ hours at the airport for the missing bags. With 2+ hours, they could have fixed the belt problem at Brussels airport and rightfully loaded our 89 bags on the flight.

And apparently, British Airways loaded cargo spaces they sold before loading our luggage. Meaning BA made the full amount of $$ with my flight: cargo space and passengers on broad (missing luggage of the passengers is relatively common for BA's business role anyway).

The more I came think about it: THIS IS EVIL BUSINESS MODEL.

British Airways Lost Luggage -- How to call British Airways on cheap

OK I promised to write about calling BA cheap (free in fact if you have a decent internet connection). YES you guessed it: VOIP. My choice is Skype.

How (I hope no one will end up large hotel phone bill anymore):
1. since you can't call BA baggage number at London, you can call the ones oversea.
2. I choose to call the USA one since there's where I live.
3. It's free if you are within USA (1-800 numbers)
4. While oversea (not in USA), calling 1-800 numbers is actually free using Skype. At least my Skype account didn't deduct any $$ from calling 1-800 number oversea.
5. If in a hotel, buy the 24 hour internet package. It will be cheaper calling VOIP then calling directly using the hotel phone.

Now I spill the beans, I hope there is not a significant longer wait for me calling BA. Otherwise I will be mad and delete this post (kidding). Actually people can try calling their native 1-800 numbers (free toll numbers) using Skype, it can be free too.

T

British Airways Lost Luggage -- Quick Tips:

1. Don't fly BA
2. If you have to fly BA, avoid fly into London, Heathrow (LHR) is owned by BA and it's 40% over capacity where recently they have 20,000 lost luggage backlog.
3. Don't check in any luggage, but like this is possible for non-business travelers. And London has one carry-on policy, meaning laptop bag and lady's purses need to fit into the carry-on.
4. Take photo of your check-in luggage. This will help later.
5. expect that you may lose your luggage, so don't put things that are irreplaceable (we are learning this the hard way).

After you lost your check-in bags (and this happens very often with BA. BA's rated one of the worst European airline when it comes to handling luggages, esp. at London).

1. make sure BA staff enters your info 100% correctly. This is the time to be very very annoyingly careful. Tag numbers, bag description (provide the photo you took earlier), your address (temporary and permanent), phone numbers (but they don't really call you ever), etc.

2. call everyday, in fact, call multiple times (more of this in a different post about calling)

3. keep all the receipts related to the delayed/lost luggages: clothes, toiletries, etc. You can claim them (or some of them) back.

4. be patient (this really tests your patience).

British Airways Lost Luggageg -- what happens when British Airways loses your bags / luggages / baggages?

This is our experience dealing with BA on lost/delayed luggage and we will try to provide some tips in dealing with BA along this horrible BA luggage HELL. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE and don't fly BA ever. I rather walk + swim:

"T" is me, and "L" is my gf (and we will both post here).

We lost 4 bags flying from Brussels (BRU) to London Heathrow (LHR) on July 16, 2007.

BA recovered 3 of them on the next days and we are still waiting for the last one to be found (13 days counting as of today).

BA staff mistyped one of our tag numbers into the computer system when we filed the missing luggage report at Heathrow. We only realized the mistake after 12 hours (like it's our fault to start with?!). This maybe why there is still one bag missing.

But we don't know for certain becasue that we don't know which bag is still missing under BA's tag number system.

The 3 bags came back with one of them tagless (another indication of BA's carelessness), meaning the outstanding bag can be any of the two following numbers:

BAxxxxx2
BAxxxxx3 (<--- this is the one mistyped before).

We tried to ask BA which tag number is still missing and they have a different answer every time we called. At this point (13 days counting), we just want BA to try find both of them to be safe, but BA said that since only one bag is missing, they can only have one tag number per reference file. With every day that passes by, we helplessly realize that the chance of retrieving the bag is smaller, not to mention that the odds got halved because there is only 50% chance that the tag number on the reference file is correct.

We have been spending hours on the phone with BA's customer service representative everyday since we lost our bags. We will be blogging about our experience and tips (questions to ask, how to call BA without ending up with a hefty phone bill, etc.).

Time to call BA....

T