Lost luggage re: Thai Airways

[bathai]

I just got to Seattle after flying Star Alliance:

Thai Airways CNX -> BKK

EVA Airways BKK -> TPE

EVA Airways TPE -> SEA

Somewhere along the line my checked bags were lost. Each flight was delayed with a very tight layover. The baggage was checked through from CNX to SEA. I watched it get on the belt during checkin at CNX.

When I got on the plane from BKK to TPE, an EVA flight attendant said my bags hadn't made it to their plane from Thai Airways and told me to file a report in Taipei or Seattle.

When I got to Taipei, EVA staff mistakenly told me that my bags HAD made it and that there was nothing to worry about.

When I got to Seattle tonight, no bags. I filed a report with EVA and started tracing steps at the beginning.

Specifically, I called Thai Airways customer center and got transferred several times until I reached what I believe was the BKK lost and found. They tried looking up the bag tag numbers and said they had no record of them whatsoever.

If that's true, it's rather frightening, but I wonder how there could be no record of the bags when:

a) I have bag tags with Thai Airways bag codes

b ) EVA knew to look for them without my prompting when I rushed onto my flight at BKK (unless EVA just knew there were bags with undetermined tag numbers attached to my name, or if somehow the bags registered with EVA's system when I checked in, but not Thai Airways).

Thai Airways' website is not very forthcoming with lost baggage info. I found a couple of general e-mail addresses that I wrote to, but nothing beyond that, and whoever I spoke to on the phone wasn't very helpful.

Any good contacts I should try to resolve this situation, or other advice?

[Chicog]

If you've filed a report with EVA you might as well just wait, because it's their job to find it.

If you get Thai Airways involved you run the risk of them sticking the bags in a different system so that Eva can't trace them back.

[mogandave]

Lost bags take a lot longer to foward now with the tighter security. Give it a few days.

[yankee99]

Not sure how long its been but these airlines are good at getting you your bags. They are not good nor do they care to give you hour to hour updates. Their mo is to just show up at your door with the bags.

[Swiss1960]

In general, it is better to file NOT with the airline directly, but with the Lost&Stolen Office at the point of arrival. Remember that airlines have outourced baggage handling to whatever company that offers services at airports and you might even find different companies at different airports. I have so far had all my lost luggage returned to me within few days after reporting it to lost&stolen after arrival.

You could only then be really unlucky if the tag of the luggage is lost and if there is no further address and contact info for you on or in your bag.

[Estrada]

I had the same problem flying Thai Airways from Singapore to BKK. The baggage handing system in Singapore had broken down and our flight had to take off without the bags. My bags were delivered to my home around 6 hours later. I found that Qatar Airways are amazing, even with sometimes only 20 minutes between connecting flights, they never lost a bag in over 100 flights. British Airways quite often lost several of my colleagues bags between Heathrow and Tripoli. Sometimes the luggage arrived a week later with quite ripe smelling, smuggled pork and bacon. These days the luggage are in a container with a bar code or tracker for the destination, so if the container is not loaded, it will be placed on the next available flight with room to spare. Sometimes at peak times, there is no space on the next available aircraft and so there can be a delay. It is the Airlines responsibility to trace your bags and forward them too you. If the bags do get lost altogether then you will have to claim compensation in accordance with the small print in the terms and conditions that were issued with your tickets.

[krisb]

Don't stress, almost a guarantee they will show up.My brother's got lost once going to Peru and then when he went home. Anyhow, travel insurance if they don't find it.

[NanLaew]

Regardless of what airline the ticket is issued on or where along the route the bags went astray, the responsibility for tracking, recovery and delivery always lies with the carrier on the last sector of the itinerary. If the lost baggage claim has been filed with EVA, then EVA will be the ones to find it and deliver. Calling airlines, even on the numbers they may have given you for this issue and even checking any online reference they may have given you is pointless in my experience as they tend to update these only when the bag has been traced, recovered and delivered. I reckon the OP's bags will show up in around 4 days time.

[wileycoyote]

Hope they have arrived safely

[rotary]

Good luck, had this issue with United Airlines but found in the end. The lost luggage desk at the airport in the middle east dealing with bags told me United Airlines was #1...............in lost luggage. ha ha.

[RBOP]

I once took a flight with Air Canada from Vancouver to Hong Kong and then Thai Air from Hong Kong to Bangkok. Air Canada was late (as usual) and gave us only 25 minutes to run across the airport to connect to the Thai flight. As I was getting off the plane Air Canada staff told me my bags wouldn't make it and to contact Thai Airways when I land in Bangkok. So when I landed in Bangkok and went straight to the Thai counter at the arrivals after immigration and told them my storey. They took all the information and said they would call me when and if my bags showed up. As I was leaving just hoping for some luck I decided to walk by the carrousel and low and behold there were our bags all alone going around the carrousel. I grabbed our bags and left. Thai called me a about a week later and said they couldn't find my bags. I let them know I had them already.

[superdome]

As an ex British Airways Baggage supervisor bags NEVER get LOST..only MISSPLACED..with the bar code system [world wide] it is IMPOSSIBLE to loose a bag...it[they] will turn up.

[iamariva1957]

If there were "tight" connections between flights that was where the problems started. Airlines state that there really should be at least 30 minutes between connecting flight so to assure your bags make it. But we all know that that does not always happen. My suggestion is to wait. They will show up. Just make sure that the airline has your address so that they can forward your bags onto you where you are. Be ready for a knock on your door at around 11pm as well. It takes time to track the bags and get them to you. If you do NOT get them within a couple of days... then contact the airline and file a claim for lost luggage.But till then .... wait.

[homeownership]

Ok I am going to be the unpopular realist here. YOU WILL NEVER SEE YOUR BAGS AGAIN.

Why? You state that they could look up the tag (barcode) numbers. Every piece of luggage that enters the system is tracked via this barcode. If they have no record of it, then the bag is still at the point of origin and never entered the system. Usually these items vanish without trace.

[richard_smith237]

My bags have been 'lost' three times... The worst part is the wait at the baggage carousel, you see everyone else leaving with their bags, the same one or two bags re-circling the baggage carousel....

The simple thing to do is just file a report at the lost baggage counter that every airport has.

On the 3 occasions my baggage didn't arrive (1 in the UK, 2 in Bkk) the bags were delivered to my home within 24 hrs.

[homeownership]

My bags have been 'lost' three times... The worst part is the wait at the baggage carousel, you see everyone else leaving with their bags, the same one or two bags re-circling the baggage carousel....

The simple thing to do is just file a report at the lost baggage counter that every airport has.

On the 3 occasions my baggage didn't arrive (1 in the UK, 2 in Bkk) the bags were delivered to my home within 24 hrs.

Good advice.

We went

:

MANCHESTER TO DUBAI (Guess which airline).

DUBAI TO BKK

(BANGKOK AIR ) BKK to Chiang Mai.

No trace on baggage tags like the OP, never saw bags again. Claimed on insurance £200 excess, got a check for £140 pounds.

Your are right about the waiting at the carousel.

[JLCrab]

Keeping this short as possible: Because of lightning gate hold in Orlando, missed TG non-stop LAX to BKK night #1.

Spent the night #1 at LAX several hours on the phone with UAL to get on the same TG flight Night #2 after being told (while at the gate in MCO) that the flight was fully booked.

Got on the TG flight night #2. They confirmed they had my bags. Boarded. Before push back hydraulic failure. Flight canceled. Spent the night #2 at the LAX Hilton courtesy TG.

Night #3 got to the gate. The part shipped from BKK to repair hydraulic was the wrong part. Flight canceled. Spent the night courtesy TG in another LAX hotel very nice but not the Hilton.

Next day waiting again for the TG flight they called the hotel and told me I am booked on EVA air to BKK through TPE. Very nice flight. Arrived BKK and went through IMM/Customs then went to BKK TG baggage. After going through security to go back to baggage, my bags had arrived on the #4 night TG flight.

So hope springs eternal.