[n.devdath]

Need some urgent help from the team here.

A friend of mine flew from Atlanta, US via a Delta Airlines flight on the 9th of Dec from Atlanta to Dubai. He had 2 cabin baggages with him. Since there was no space in the over head rack, the air hostess offered to keep his baggage in her locker and assured him that she would transfer it to the King Fisher flight from Dubai to Bangalore and he could collect it from Bangalore upon disembarking. She also gave him a bar code for the same.

When he reached Bangalore, the KF authorities told him that his baggage had not come. He filed a complaint for lost baggage and was given a receipt for the same.

Yesterday when he called KF to check the status of the baggage, he was told that Delta Airlines did not transfer the baggage to KF and moreover, the complaint he filed with KF was not valid as it was not under KF's policy to accept complaints from passengers coming through connecting flights.

He then called Delta Airlines.

They told him that they would gladly reimburse his insurance claim if any for the baggage but they needed a "File Reference Number" from the complaint he had filed.
The form that was given to him did not have any such number. Seeing this, Delta flatly said that the complaint was not properly filed with KF. He called KF to enquire and was told that KF Bangalore could not take that complaint as the "BarCode" given to him by the Delta hostess was a "Manual Bar Code" which meant "Gate Check In" meaning he had to take the baggage with him while disembarking the Delta flight.

Now, we are wondering what should be our next step. The bag contained goods worth at least 700USD including a camera, an IPod, a Zune etc.

Eagerly looking forward to all help/contacts/references available from the team here. Please help us move in the right direction.

[ajmat]

Oh dear

It looks like he would need to contact Delta airways who issued the ticket. He should have filed a landing report for the lost baggage with customs.

Delta need to trace the baggage based o nthe tag number. Suggest you go to a delta office and let them access directly on the system

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Oh dear

It looks like he would need to contact Delta airways who issued the ticket. He should have filed a landing report for the lost baggage with customs.

Delta need to trace the baggage based on the tag number. Suggest you go to a delta office and let them access directly on the system

Unfortunately, Delta does not have an office at Bangalore, he has sent a mail to their customer care dept, but do you feel there is any other way of tracing it?

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Unfortunately, Delta does not have an office at Bangalore, he has sent a mail to their customer care dept, but do you feel there is any other way of tracing it?

Sorry to hear this. But what is the tag given to your friend from the Hostess? Is it the baggage claim tag? or some hand written ones? If its baggage tag it would be easier for the Airlines to trace.

KFs data sheet will only show the checked in baggages. if it was a baggage claim tag given to you inside the cabin, I doubt if they will have any reference for the same.

Please try to call up Delta Airlines and try to sort it out early. Mailing will defintely take time.

Good luck.

There is also some max time to consider the baggage to be considered lost and claim from insurance. But since the goods are not declared, getting full value is also a problem.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Unfortunately, Delta does not have an office at Bangalore, he has sent a mail to their customer care dept, but do you feel there is any other way of tracing it?

Ring the office in Mumbai and explain issue.

Before calling it lost, say it is delayed. YOu need to file a property irregualry report. They will give you a 10 digit code which one can track on the web. Else if lost you need to fill in the form below

https://images.delta.com/delta/pdfs/bag_loss_claim.pdf

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Sorry to hear this. But what is the tag given to your friend from the Hostess? Is it the baggage claim tag? or some hand written ones? If its baggage tag it would be easier for the Airlines to trace.

Yes, the tag is an automated Bar Code given to him by the hostess.

Originally Posted by mjothi

KFs data sheet will only show the checked in baggages. if it was a baggage claim tag given to you inside the cabin, I doubt if they will have any reference for the same.

KF now says that the tag given by the air hostess is a "Manual" tag which is recycled every 24 hours and is hence hard to trace.

Originally Posted by mjothi

But since the goods are not declared, getting full value is also a problem.

This was really a bad stroke of luck. I just told my friend and he told me that the copy of the Lost Baggage Report given to him doesnt have the details but the KF person at Bangalore had taken down the details of his belongings on the original form.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Ring the office in Mumbai and explain issue.

Delta told him that he needs to file the irregularity report at the destination at the office of the destination airline and not the connecting airlines hence he could not file the complaint with Delta. I will tell him to still call Delta Mumbai and check.

[n.devdath]

I had posted my situation on 2 other online forums (Scorpio Groups at Yahoo and Gearheads) yesterday apart from TBHP and am proud to say that one of the users on the other forum(Someone called KB from Gearheads), who did not know me personally, or on the forum escalated the issue to KF, took personal interest through the people he knew at KF and I got a call at 1745HRS yesterday from KF saying that the bag had been traced at Delta Dubai and will reach Bangalore in 2 days.

I dont know if "KB" is here as well, but if he is, I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank him from my heart and express my gratitude for assisting me.

[jango]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

I had posted my situation on 2 other online forums (Scorpio Groups at Yahoo and Gearheads) yesterday apart from TBHP and am proud to say that one of the users on the other forum(Someone called KB from Gearheads), who did not know me personally, or on the forum escalated the issue to KF, took personal interest through the people he knew at KF and I got a call at 1745HRS yesterday from KF saying that the bag had been traced at Delta Dubai and will reach Bangalore in 2 days.

I dont know if "KB" is here as well, but if he is, I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank him from my heart and express my gratitude for assisting me.

Dev great to know that KF finally managed to track down you baggage but how did you baggage land in DXB ??

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by jango

how did you baggage land in DXB ??

The flight was from Atlanta to Bangalore via Dubai. Atlanta-Dubai was Delta Airlines and Dubai Bangalore was KF.

[mjothi]

Good to hear that news. Hope everything is intact.

Originally Posted by n.devdath

KF now says that the tag given by the air hostess is a "Manual" tag which is recycled every 24 hours and is hence hard to trace.

yes, I also heard that the boarding details is "recycled" within a couple of days. Which is why when you want to claim for mileages, you are suppose to produce the original boarding pass.

[asit.kulkarni93]

Hello everyone,

My dad had arrived at the Mumbai International Airport yesterday in the morning from Bahrain by the Gulf Air flight GF56. While collecting his baggage, he couldn't find one of his bags on the baggage carousel. He waited till the end and found one last bag moving on the belt for a long time. Upon requesting the airport officials to help, no one was ready to help from GVK. The lady at the enquiry counter said they do not have a public announcement system & also she could not call Gulf Air staff. Finally my dad found the Gulf Air officials who were again clueless in dealing with such situations as the public announce system wasn't there. Finally they took down a complaint and after running here and there for more than 3 hours, my dad took a cab to Pune. As this was to be a surprise visit for us, we had no clue of all this. Upon reaching Pune, we couldn't contact anyone at the Gulf Air office due to elections.

Since today morning we have been dealing with people at the CSIA and Gulf Air over the phone. Gulf Air experience has been okaish. There were 3 numbers given to us on the complaint lodging slip which we were trying since morning. No one was picking up the phone on those numbers. Finally my dad called the customer care toll free number and they gave us the fourth number. Upon calling the fourth number, a gentleman from the lost baggage department assured us that he will try all possible ways to help us track the other person and get out baggage back.

Upon calling the CSIA customer care number, their customer care executive completely blamed my dad for the missing baggage. Upon raising my voice over the phone did he accept that they do not have any method to deal with such a situation. The problem with the new baggage carousel is that it has been placed very high so when collecting the baggage you can not see your baggage until it comes infront of you. The people standing opposite to the baggage discharge point can not see their baggage coming in unlike before. Upon trying to register a complaint with them today regarding this issue, all their customer care executive kept telling was this isn't the airports mistake as CSIA is supposed to be a silent airport. Upon questioning him about their method to deal with such an emergency situation, he went on saying that this isn't an emergency situation.Maybe it isn't for the airport officials but for the passenger's it is. There was no public relations officer we could talk to and take this complaint ahead.

At the end of the day it is uncertain if we are going to get our baggage back. The person who mistook it as his was coming from Riyadh and was travelling to Delhi via Riyadh-Bahrain-Mumbai-Delhi. The number mentioned on his baggage was a 9-digit number . An airport being silent isn't a bad thing, but this making them incapable to deal with such a situation is pathetic. If they had the public announcement system in place, we could have had tracked the person down easily and got our baggage back There is no alternative method they have to deal with such a situation. Now if things fall in right place the Gulf Air officials should be able to track down the person which are our only hopes. Overall the Gulf Air experience has been average until now, but with Mumbai international Airport officials & Customer care executives, it has been pathetic. I don't understand why do they have an option on the phone to give suggestions or lodge a complaint if they ask us to mail in such cases. We all know where these mails go. My dad can speak in English, Hindi and Marathi so was able to deal with the guys at airport and run around. If a foreign national approaches these guys, i am sure he wont get anything apart from frustration as the enquiry dept/ airport officials are all clueless. An airport which can deal with any emergency situation efficiently is perfect, just a better looking airport doesn't make it perfect. I find the CSIA customer care number a joke, as they have an option for suggestions or lodging a complaint but give all possible reasons on not registering a complaint. I have no hopes from CSIA. For one to improve, they have to accept their mistake/ incapibilities. But in this case people at the airport think they were not wrong/ incapable in any way, so that leaves us with no point of discussion.

Atleast the Gulf Air officials/ customer executives have been trying all possible ways to assure and help us in this case. I hope something works out soon.

Asit

[comfortablynumb]

Sorry to hear about your experience. Lodge a complaint here against the Ministry of Civil Aviation and see if it's of any use:

http://pgportal.gov.in/Grievance.aspx

Cheers,
Vikram

[raghu.t.k]

Really unfortunate. Once when I had a problem of not finding my strolley, I reported the same to the airlines, and they quickly checked and came back stating that the bag was not loaded from DXB, and they would deliver it at home.

Before the renovation at chennai, there used to be a guy who checks for all baggages not picked up and removed of the conveyor. Not sure if this simple solution has been removed post modernisation!!

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Some new learning for the next time.

Our saga with British Airways doesn't seem to end.

After the initial hiccups with online check in, we are now faced with the unsavoury situation of having to spend 2-3 days without our checked-in baggage. None of our four bags - including the one with esential medicines for senior citizens - turned up on the carousel in LHR.

Have filed a complaint for now.

A no nonsense, non stop flight manages to mess up our luggage! Can't understand the logic of such shoddy logistics

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

Have filed a complaint for now.

A no nonsense, non stop flight manages to mess up our luggage! Can't understand the logic of such shoddy logistics

I nowadays keep an AirTag in the box. Useful in tracking especially during transit and also useful when tracking when it is on the belt!