Thousands lose luggage on US Airways

Service Tech wrote:
It's really sad, but there are too many people with the "I'm for myself &
screw the rest" attitude.

Technically what exactly happened ?

Would the check in agent just put the luggage onto the belts where the luggage
just accumulated without being sorted in the luggage hall ? Or did check-in
agent get told very soon in the day to stop putting luggage on the belts ?

Could they not have told passengers to bring all their tagged luggage to the
gate and have it gate checked there ? Wouldn't that have reduced the number of
US Air luggage employees needed to do the job ?

wrote in message
ps.com...

btw, if anyone sees a green zippered suitcase bound for t.o. please
give me a shout here - my fam would like their gifts. :-/

My friend always sends his gifts via FedEx Ground or UPS, even when
flying to see this family at Christmas. That way he knows that they
will get there on time. Also has a way to track these packages via the
respective delivery company's website.

Michael

Not automatic this time. The weather in the midwest U.S. caused many
disruptions with both UPS and FedEx. Many packages scheduled for delivery on
12/24 won't be delivered til 12/27.

Jeff

"nobody" wrote in message
...
http://www.usairways.com/about/press/nw_04_1225.htm


Interesting in light of the fact that last week, US Air did manage to
secure
some agreements with one or two unions, including flight attendants. Since
there was some positive progress, you'd think that the remaining unions
without deals wouldn't have done this.

You'd think that those unions who did reach tentative deals would put
pressure
on the other unions not to sabotage the company.

The particular unions make the difference. In this case, it is the IAM
which pulled the same stunt with Eastern and Braniff. The flight attendants
were just upset about givebacks, and haven't figured out that they're
signing their own death warrant, but the IAM has traditionally taken the
position that concessions to one airline will hurt their membership at other
airlines.

mom came from Italy and had to connect to a domestic flight in Philly.
Of course, no bag. There was a line of 300 in my local airport to
collect baggage claims, and only two employees to collect them, type
them in, and give oral instructions to each person. At that rate, if
you were to queue as the 301st person, it would be four hours later
that you will get your baggage claim. So we decided to make the claim
the following day, Christmas Day. We show up at 10 AM, queue up on a
line that had three people, and still had to wait 20 minutes. The lady
at the counter was very helpfull, addressed my mom by first name
(something that reassured her), and personally invited her into the
cordoned-off area with piles of luggage to see wether she could spot
her luggage. After 10 minutes search, they concluded her bag was not
there. The USAirways lady suggested to come back in 3-4 hours, as more
planes from Philly are arriving with more luggage. We went back home,
but decided not to spend Xmas Day frantically returning to the airport
every 4 hours to look for a bag, and same for the following day, Sunday
Dec 26. We have called the 800 number and answered the questions to
the Voice Recognition system (very very slow and frustrating) only to
get the answer "your baggage has not been identified". It is now
Monday Dec 27, evening, and now that 800 number doesn't even respond,
being overwhelmed with calls, now just replying "call again later".
The taped message on the 800 number also advices to try
www.usairways.com/baggage, but it is not like a Fedex-like package
tracking website where one can see the status and location of a bag:
all it is, is a message email service that collects your information
and forwards it to someone at USAirways, promising to respond by email
sometime in the future. Did that this morning, and of course, no reply
by email.

I think there is something here that airlines can learn from companies
like Fedex. People seem reassured to be able to "track" the location
and status of a package. Same thing for a temporarily lost baggage.
Fedex scans their packages everytime they move it from one location to
another. If an airliner had such a system, passengers would be assured
that it is not "lost" since they would see as its location as being
"Charlotte, NC" [USAirways has flown five planes with just baggage to
its hub in Charlotte where it has baggage handlers that DID show up for
work- from there the baggage would be re-routed to their final
destinations]. It's a psycological thing: they "see it" and say,
"hey, it's there", and they feel ok, "it's not that bad". But having a
800 number with a really slow voice recognition system, a website that
gives you no immediate feedback, and now the 800 number being
overwelmed that it basically doesn't function, well, the distressed
passenger has absolutely no FEEDBACK, and thus is resigned to a sense
of LOSS. All this could be easily prevented if the bags are scanned
all the time, and passengers able to track them on a website.

I am taking bets now for the eventuality of my mom returning to Italy
this Friday without her bag. It would be pretty amazing if they would
have to deliver it back to Europe. Sans passenger.

As far as its contents: personal clothing, pictures, a few books as
gifts, large chunk of parmesan cheese.

According to USAirways, the max liability for lost luggage is $2800 if
not found within 21 days. There is a mall in Alabama that sells
unclaimed and unidentified baggage and its contents.

As for the expenses of clean shirts, underwear, toileteries, it's max
$50 on day one, and $25 subsequent days, for a max total of $150. And
that is only after presenting receipts.

- Alexis

ahhh....finally some news about this. I'm one of the thousands that
don't have their luggage... or gifts.I only wish i knew thatthere was
some time of strike/work to rule thing going on that day. USAir @
philly was crazy. They were obviously seriously understaffed at the
tix
and baggage counters. One to two ppl servicing lines of 200-300. it
was so ridiculous i felt sorry for anyone in the US air uniform.
baggage was strewn about the baggage claim floor, and they also had
luggage piles on the ticketing floor! I was tempted to look for my
own
stuff, but hell, i'd still be there doing it. and to top it off, the
employees had bad weather and the xmas rush to make their point. when
i
mentioned all of this to the airline that took me home, they just
described these actions by the usair employees as disgusting.

that union is simply out of control. only an idiot would use or even
recommend usairways after this fiasco. hell i'd go out of my way to
tell anyone not to try usairways now.

btw, if anyone sees a green zippered suitcase bound for t.o. please
give me a shout here - my fam would like their gifts. :-/

mom came from Italy and had to connect to a domestic flight in Philly.
Of course, no bag. There was a line of 300 in my local airport to
collect baggage claims, and only two employees to collect them, type
them in, and give oral instructions to each person. At that rate, if
you were to queue as the 301st person, it would be four hours later
that you will get your baggage claim. So we decided to make the claim
the following day, Christmas Day. We show up at 10 AM, queue up on a
line that had three people, and still had to wait 20 minutes. The lady
at the counter was very helpfull, addressed my mom by first name
(something that reassured her), and personally invited her into the
cordoned-off area with piles of luggage to see wether she could spot
her luggage. After 10 minutes search, they concluded her bag was not
there. The USAirways lady suggested to come back in 3-4 hours, as more
planes from Philly are arriving with more luggage. We went back home,
but decided not to spend Xmas Day frantically returning to the airport
every 4 hours to look for a bag, and same for the following day, Sunday
Dec 26. We have called the 800 number and answered the questions to
the Voice Recognition system (very very slow and frustrating) only to
get the answer "your baggage has not been identified". It is now
Monday Dec 27, evening, and now that 800 number doesn't even respond,
being overwhelmed with calls, now just replying "call again later".
The taped message on the 800 number also advices to try
www.usairways.com/baggage, but it is not like a Fedex-like package
tracking website where one can see the status and location of a bag:
all it is, is a message email service that collects your information
and forwards it to someone at USAirways, promising to respond by email
sometime in the future. Did that this morning, and of course, no reply
by email.

I think there is something here that airlines can learn from companies
like Fedex. People seem reassured to be able to "track" the location
and status of a package. Same thing for a temporarily lost baggage.
Fedex scans their packages everytime they move it from one location to
another. If an airliner had such a system, passengers would be assured
that it is not "lost" since they would see as its location as being
"Charlotte, NC" [USAirways has flown five planes with just baggage to
its hub in Charlotte where it has baggage handlers that DID show up for
work- from there the baggage would be re-routed to their final
destinations]. It's a psycological thing: they "see it" and say,
"hey, it's there", and they feel ok, "it's not that bad". But having a
800 number with a really slow voice recognition system, a website that
gives you no immediate feedback, and now the 800 number being
overwelmed that it basically doesn't function, well, the distressed
passenger has absolutely no FEEDBACK, and thus is resigned to a sense
of LOSS. All this could be easily prevented if the bags are scanned
all the time, and passengers able to track them on a website.

I am taking bets now for the eventuality of my mom returning to Italy
this Friday without her bag. It would be pretty amazing if they would
have to deliver it back to Europe. Sans passenger.

As far as its contents: personal clothing, pictures, a few books as
gifts, large chunk of parmesan cheese.

According to USAirways, the max liability for lost luggage is $2800 if
not found within 21 days. There is a mall in Alabama that sells
unclaimed and unidentified baggage and its contents.

As for the expenses of clean shirts, underwear, toileteries, it's max
$50 on day one, and $25 subsequent days, for a max total of $150. And
that is only after presenting receipts.

- Alexis

ahhh....finally some news about this. I'm one of the thousands that
don't have their luggage... or gifts.I only wish i knew thatthere was
some time of strike/work to rule thing going on that day. USAir @
philly was crazy. They were obviously seriously understaffed at the
tix
and baggage counters. One to two ppl servicing lines of 200-300. it
was so ridiculous i felt sorry for anyone in the US air uniform.
baggage was strewn about the baggage claim floor, and they also had
luggage piles on the ticketing floor! I was tempted to look for my
own
stuff, but hell, i'd still be there doing it. and to top it off, the
employees had bad weather and the xmas rush to make their point. when
i
mentioned all of this to the airline that took me home, they just
described these actions by the usair employees as disgusting.

that union is simply out of control. only an idiot would use or even
recommend usairways after this fiasco. hell i'd go out of my way to
tell anyone not to try usairways now.

btw, if anyone sees a green zippered suitcase bound for t.o. please
give me a shout here - my fam would like their gifts. :-/

wrote:
I think there is something here that airlines can learn from companies
like Fedex. People seem reassured to be able to "track" the location
and status of a package.

IATA decided this year to standardize on RFID luggage tags. This would in fact
enable tracking of luggage as it goes through the luggage sorting process.

Right now, the only tracking that exists is when a piece of luggage isn't
picked up on a luggage belt, the airline that last carried it sends a message
to the airline that should have last carried it indicating it has found the
luggage and provides details on what flighst it will put in it to get to destination.

update: airline called Monday evening at 10, said they will drop it
off in front of the door during the night if we leave a written
authorization outside the door. This morning we found the suitcase.
Not that bad after all. I recognize the good effort.

wrote:
update: airline called Monday evening at 10, said they will drop it
off in front of the door during the night if we leave a written
authorization outside the door. This morning we found the suitcase.
Not that bad after all. I recognize the good effort.

Once airlines find your luggage, they are generally good at getting it
delivered. And giving you the option to have the "no signature required" to
get it overnight was pretty good.

However, this event will have costed US Air a lot of money with so many pieces
having to be courried to passengers, and so many complaints to be handled by
staff (reduces productivity), as well as the bad image it generated.

At a time where US Air is on the brink of liquidation, having to announce
worse performance than antitipated due to worker actions won't augur well when
they beg creditors to extend some deadline by a month.

In the end though, they may be able to move ahead just enough to avoid
liquidation. However, if they really fall short on the financial side, they
may find themselves like ATA, selling off assets to pay the bills.

In fact, I think it is perhaps more likely that US Air might slowly divest of
its assets while continuing to operate as opposed to liquidating airline
overnight and having all operations stop.

wrote in message
oups.com...
update: airline called Monday evening at 10, said they will drop it
off in front of the door during the night if we leave a written
authorization outside the door. This morning we found the suitcase.
Not that bad after all. I recognize the good effort.

Glad to hear it. But now - The big question.
Will you fly US Air again during a Holiday Rush Season?

"Service Tech" wrote in message
m...

wrote in message
oups.com...
update: airline called Monday evening at 10, said they will drop it
off in front of the door during the night if we leave a written
authorization outside the door. This morning we found the suitcase.
Not that bad after all. I recognize the good effort.

Glad to hear it. But now - The big question.
Will you fly US Air again during a Holiday Rush Season?

Bearing in mind the parlous state of US Air, will anyone?

JohnT