SecondAttempt
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
So here is the situation:
We left Kona Hawaii (home) late at night last Saturday. We arrived SFO and our flight from there was delayed over an hour because the airline was short staffed and could not clean the airplane on time. They documented the reason in a text message. It is not an acceptable reason for delaying a flight without compensation under FAA rules.
We arrived Newark late but could have made our connecting flight but sat on the taxiway for over an hour because of a ground traffic jam there. That caused us to miss our transatlantic flight. We went to United customer service immediately and a great agent was able to get us and our bags rerouted on a different (partner) airline. (That flight was delayed several hours as well)
I tracked our bags on the United app and there wwas no info after Newark. When we arrived in Scotland I spoke with baggage service for Star Alliance and they said nothing can be done until we got to our final destination. They would not even try to track the bags!
So then we fly to Stockholm with a harrowing connection in Frankfurt, but again, I digress... We arrive in Stockholm. No bags. Baggage service is closed but they had forms to fill out. I filled one out. Again, this was about 1:30 AM Tuesday.
I got an email midmorning local (Sweden) time on Tuesday acknowledging my "property irregulaity report." It had a file reference number that I needed to track the bags. I tracked it. It said they were still looking for it and showed delivery to our Stockholm hotel.
Today I got an email saying a "delivery agent" has been appointed and showing the bags will be delivered to our home address! The email was a template that had placeholders for the name of their delivery agent, their website, and tracking number. All were blank.
The first email gave a contact phone number for the Star Alliance baggage agent. I called that number, and international call, and got a message that says they do not answer the phone but that I could email them. I emailed and got an autoresponder that said they might get back to me and linked a website to make contact and find further information. The link was dead and went to their corporate website with no relevant info.
So we are facing an 18 day European vacation without anything we packed. The baggage loss was all preventable. We are entitled to reasonable accomodation based on receipts. For the expected day or two before our luggage would arrive we shopped on Monday and bought about $100 worth of clothes. Friday night we are going to a Midsommar party and would want to dress up a bit. We also had hospitality gifts we brought that are lost.
I have not thoroughly researched the rules but I think we are entitled to quite a bit if the delay is over 5 days.
I'm headed for a fight with United/Lufthansa and I think I have a strong position by complaing to DOT. So what do folks here think I should ask for? I've had baggage delays before and shrugged them off but this time I am especially annoyed because it could have been prevented if they simply made it possible for me to communicate with them.
We left Kona Hawaii (home) late at night last Saturday. We arrived SFO and our flight from there was delayed over an hour because the airline was short staffed and could not clean the airplane on time. They documented the reason in a text message. It is not an acceptable reason for delaying a flight without compensation under FAA rules.
We arrived Newark late but could have made our connecting flight but sat on the taxiway for over an hour because of a ground traffic jam there. That caused us to miss our transatlantic flight. We went to United customer service immediately and a great agent was able to get us and our bags rerouted on a different (partner) airline. (That flight was delayed several hours as well)
I tracked our bags on the United app and there wwas no info after Newark. When we arrived in Scotland I spoke with baggage service for Star Alliance and they said nothing can be done until we got to our final destination. They would not even try to track the bags!
So then we fly to Stockholm with a harrowing connection in Frankfurt, but again, I digress... We arrive in Stockholm. No bags. Baggage service is closed but they had forms to fill out. I filled one out. Again, this was about 1:30 AM Tuesday.
I got an email midmorning local (Sweden) time on Tuesday acknowledging my "property irregulaity report." It had a file reference number that I needed to track the bags. I tracked it. It said they were still looking for it and showed delivery to our Stockholm hotel.
Today I got an email saying a "delivery agent" has been appointed and showing the bags will be delivered to our home address! The email was a template that had placeholders for the name of their delivery agent, their website, and tracking number. All were blank.
The first email gave a contact phone number for the Star Alliance baggage agent. I called that number, and international call, and got a message that says they do not answer the phone but that I could email them. I emailed and got an autoresponder that said they might get back to me and linked a website to make contact and find further information. The link was dead and went to their corporate website with no relevant info.
So we are facing an 18 day European vacation without anything we packed. The baggage loss was all preventable. We are entitled to reasonable accomodation based on receipts. For the expected day or two before our luggage would arrive we shopped on Monday and bought about $100 worth of clothes. Friday night we are going to a Midsommar party and would want to dress up a bit. We also had hospitality gifts we brought that are lost.
I have not thoroughly researched the rules but I think we are entitled to quite a bit if the delay is over 5 days.
I'm headed for a fight with United/Lufthansa and I think I have a strong position by complaing to DOT. So what do folks here think I should ask for? I've had baggage delays before and shrugged them off but this time I am especially annoyed because it could have been prevented if they simply made it possible for me to communicate with them.