03/09/10, 05:40:01 EDT

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Baggage bedlam awaits airlines

kansascity.com

Lost or delayed bags: They’re the Russian roulette of air travel.

Flying home for Thanksgiving? Just in case, you might pack your Turkey Day outfit in your carry-on bag.

It generally happens to six or seven passengers out of a thousand, and airlines do what they can to minimize the problem. So more than likely you won’t be the last one standing at the baggage carousel waiting to see whether the conveyor spits out your luggage.

But if you’ve ever been that unlucky person, you know it can be a huge inconvenience — even though 98 percent of the time your bag catches up with you.

Consider the experience of Roger Nichols, who traveled in late August to Australia for nearly a month. One of his three bags never made it to its destination — although Nichols flew to Los Angeles on Southwest Airlines and hand-delivered his luggage to Qantas Airways.

Three weeks after returning to Kansas City, he got a call from a Southwest employee. His suitcase had been found at Dallas Love Field. Someone finally checked the inside of his bag and found his name and phone number. Eventually the bag was delivered to his Raytown home.

Sherry Loftus, his travel agent for All About Travel, surmised that someone at the Qantas operation at Los Angeles International Airport tore off his Qantas luggage tag instead of the Southwest tag.

“You can check in early, and you can make sure to put all the proper identifications on your bag,” said Terry Trippler, travel expert at www.terrytrippler.com. “But if someone fails to put that bag in the belly of your plane, there’s not a darn thing you can do about it.”

Mishandled luggage — whether lost, delayed or damaged — normally becomes a bigger problem during the busiest flying periods. With Thanksgiving travel starting this week and the end-of-the-year holidays approaching, more travelers undoubtedly will report problems with their luggage and demand satisfaction. Toward that end, a congressional subcommittee last week held hearings to determine the airline industry’s readiness to deal with the holiday rush.

The airlines are hoping for a smoother ride this holiday season. They have hired more seasonal employees at check-in kiosks and gate areas and have beefed up baggage-handling operations. Recent results have been encouraging.

According to the Transportation Department’s latest air-travel consumer report, for September the agency received 265,350 complaints regarding mishandled baggage. That was 5.45 reports for every 1,000 passengers, an improvement from the 2006 holiday season, when complaints ramped up to 314,573 in November and 444,588 in December.

Nevertheless, through the first nine months of 2007, mishandled baggage complaints are running ahead of last year’s pace.

Baggage relief

What happens if you’re caught in baggage roulette?

The airlines generally provide some relief, but it may be a lot less than what you would expect.

Southwest, which flies the most passengers at Kansas City International Airport, provides a toiletry kit and reimbursement of up to $50 with proper receipts for the first day of the lost bag. Northwest Airlines has a similar policy.

Southwest has been providing its toiletry kit for nearly a year, said Christi Day, a Southwest spokeswoman. The carrier is consistently below the industry average in baggage complaints, according to government data.

Some carriers, including Northwest and Continental Airlines, will provide more money if bags are lost for more than a day. Others, like United Airlines, say they will consider paying half the cost for emergency replacement items while away from home.

Sometimes, however, consumers need a little extra push to get results.

William Barnett persuaded British Airways to reimburse more than $1,200 in costs created by lost bags, but only after copying his complaint letters to several media outlets.

A University of Kansas economics professor, Barnett and his wife attended successive conferences last July in Lisbon, Portugal, and Birmingham, England. He was a keynote speaker at both conferences.

British Airways lost both suitcases at London’s Heathrow Airport. According to Barnett, after virtually no cooperation from the airline, one suitcase was recovered just before the couple left Lisbon. The other bag was eventually delivered to the couple’s Birmingham hotel.

Still, with appointments and speeches on their calendar, the Barnetts had to spend money on toiletries and necessary clothing while waiting for the suitcases to resurface. Barnett said it was the second time the British carrier had lost his luggage.

“The moral of the story is to never let British Air transfer your luggage from one plane to another, especially at Heathrow Airport,” Barnett said in an e-mail.

British Airways sent Barnett a letter when he was seeking a reimbursement: “We go to great lengths to take care of our customers’ belongings at British Airways, but of course the entire checked-in luggage has to pass through various hands on its way to and from the aircraft. So on the rare occasions when belongings go missing, it is virtually impossible to pinpoint what happened.”

Most Thanksgiving travel is domestic, and many passengers will fly Midwest Airlines, the second-busiest KCI operator.

Because of its size, the Milwaukee-based carrier is not required to file its figures with the Transportation Department. However, the airline’s baggage complaint rate is lower than the national average, said Michael Brophy, Midwest’s vice president of communications.

Midwest, known in the industry for its service standards, is not planning any changes for the busy holiday season.

“If the weather’s fine, we should be OK,” Brophy said. “Otherwise we’ll have contingency plans in place if bad weather creates delays and baggage problems.”

Baggage prep

Take steps to minimize the risks of lost baggage. That’s the message from Trippler and other area travel agents, who offered suggestions that could help once your bag is lost. Some tips can also can prevent the worst from happening. Their advice:

Start with the basics, which means making sure your name, address and phone number (preferably a cell number) are inside the bag as well as on an attached tag on the outside.

Also, Trippler recommends packing a change of clothing in a carry-on bag as well as in your personal-items case or bag that fits below the seat in front of you.

“If the compartment bins are full, you’ll have to check your carry-on,” Trippler said. “That space below the seat in front of you is your real estate, so that’s where you want to keep your necessary items.”

In addition, mark the bag in some unique way to make it more identifiable, said Kathy Sudeikis, vice president of All About Travel in Mission.

“That’s really important during the busy holiday period,” she said. “It’s so easy for people to pick up the wrong bag that’s yours and not know it till they get home.”

Sudeikis recommends that in addition to getting the airline’s standard toll-free number and Web site to check on your lost bag, ask for the local number at the airport where the lost-baggage claims are filed.

Another good idea: Allow extended time for your next flight if you are connecting at another airport on your way to your final destination, said Mike McGarry, public relations adviser for Short’s Travel Management in Overland Park.

Many bags are delayed because a passenger’s first flight is running late, he said.

McGarry said he and his wife had taken to shipping their luggage through a parcel carrier such as UPS or FedEx, eliminating the need to check bags. Shipping your clothing and other amenities when taking an extended vacation to a condo or resort is particularly convenient, McGarry said.

“It’s fail-safe,” he said. “I’ve never had a problem. It never gets lost, and you avoid the hassle of standing in lines at the airport to check your bag or wait for it to come off the carousel.”

But is the price reasonable? McGarry said he had boxed his belongings and shipped them for about $50.

Shipping your luggage through a parcel carrier eliminates airline weight restrictions, but those companies have their own regulations for moving packages. As another option, companies are surfacing around the country that partner with carriers to handle your baggage.

The Luggage Club Inc., through partnerships with various parcel carriers, will pick up your baggage at your home and have it waiting for you at your destination, said Todd Kempinger, president of the Internet company, based in Oshkosh, Wis.

Kempinger said the company started in 2005 in response to all the federal regulations that have been established since 9/11 on what air travelers can bring onto commercial flights.

Pricing is posted on the company’s Web site, www.theluggageclub.com. For example, a medium-size bag up to 40 pounds going from Los Angeles to Kansas City could cost from nearly $79 to about $208.

Happy holidays

Nola Scrimes relied on the airline to get her bag from Calgary, Alberta, to KCI for her holiday stay with her son and daughter-in-law in Maryville, Mo. Scrimes arrived on time Wednesday afternoon, but her bag was late and didn’t make the connecting flight in Denver.

By Wednesday evening, the baggage delivery service had dropped off the suitcase.

“It was a just a minor inconvenience,” said Crickett Nickle, Scrimes’ daughter-in-law. “But she had her insulin inside the suitcase, so we really needed it.”

Which leads to the final travel tip:

“Never check anything you cannot do without,” said Loftus of All About Travel.

Loss prevention
Once you check your bag, it’s in the airline’s hands. Most bags end up at their final destination: Fewer than 1 percent of air travelers experience a mishandled bag. But here are tips from travel experts to decrease the chances that yours will be delayed or lost:

•Put your name, address and number on the outside and inside of the bag.

•Put some kind of unique marking on the bag so it’s recognizable coming off the carousel.

•Always keep necessary items, such as medication, with you or in your personal-items bag.

•Since bags usually are delayed or lost on the connecting flight, consider longer time cushions between flights.

•Ship your travel items yourself by parcel carriers like UPS or FedEx, or find an online shipping service.

•Airlines have very limited liability when it comes to lost or delayed luggage. You might consider additional travel insurance through an association membership or a credit card.

 Printable Version  | published Nov 18, 2007