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lags2020
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If you’re a frequent air traveler, you must at one time have lost your luggage or witnessed some other traveler suffer the same fate. It can be quite disorientating, to state the least, but you can’t just let go by walking away from the airport empty-handed and crying foul about the gross incompetence of the airlines. Here are 6 things you should do when you luggage go missing at the next airport:
1. Make a report immediately: Do not get home first and then call the airport or airline to report a missing luggage; report the loss immediately at the reservation desk or the baggage claim office/area, and be sure they document your complaint – noting your name, date and time of flight, flight number, list of items in your luggage, and photo of the luggage if you took one.
2. Be sure your bag is lost or missing: There is a difference between the two. Lost luggage is lost for good and never to be seen again, but missing luggage is recovered within a day or two or week. This knowledge will help the airline accept responsibility and might even help you file claims with your travel insurance company if you were covered for the trip.
3. Take your case to the Department of Transport: According to DoT's Aviation Consumer Protection and Enforcement Bureau:
All complaints are entered in DOT's computerized aviation industry monitoring system and are charged to the company in question in the monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. This report is distributed to the industry and made available to the news media and the general public so that consumers and air travel companies can compare the complaint records of individual airlines and tour operators. These complaints are reviewed to determine the extent to which carriers are in compliance with federal aviation consumer protection regulations. This system also serves as a basis for rulemaking, legislation, and research. Where appropriate, letters and web form submissions will be forwarded to an official at the airline for further consideration.
4. Go social if nothing is helping: Social media like Twitter and Facebook scare airlines and they do not want anything that can tarnish their image on these media because of the millions of potential customers on these sites. In fact, they respond to tweets within minutes if you make your complaints here because most of them are very active on social media.
5. Do a little investment in techs: If no one knows anything about locating your luggage, it is possible your luggage finds you and screams out its own location if you’ve invested in some smart techs. The Trakdot is one tech that uses local cell networks to determine what city your bag is in and relays that information back to your smartphone as a text message. Same with the iTrak, though this system can also call, email, or telex your bag's location. The Trace Me luggage tracker is more affordable and less high-tech with a simple tag and a unique barcode on it. When this unique barcode is scanned by an airline, law enforcement, or baggage handling representative, you'll receive a text letting you know where it is.
6. Be civil: Yes be civil to the airline representative, at least the person you’re speaking to didn’t lose your bag and didn’t make the flight with you, so be respective and exercise some maturity while the person helps you out.
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