Out of the way

I have lost my bag a couple of times recently in travelling. It happens, but the difference in circummstances was just incredible. In one case I was totally appalled, and in the other I was very impressed.

The first time was flying US Airways. I had been marked on their random selection of passengers to watch (you can see this on your boarding cards), so every time I went through security on that ticket I got the full extra treatment. Taken off to one side and checked super-"thoroughly" (unfortunately despite taking a lot more of my time they didn't actually do a very good job :-( ). The final part of the flight was meant to be Puerto Rico to Madrid via Philadelphia. Unfortunately the flight out of Puerto Rico was a couple of hours late. (Surprisingly, given the appallingly disorganised check-in system, they had the plane ready to depart almost on time. But then something held us on the tarmac for a couple of hours). The result was that I missed my Madrid flight, and had to spend a night in Philadelphia.

They offered a $10 voucher for food at a hotel, and accommodation in the hotel itself. Only problem was, there was nowhere to spend the $10 voucher at the hotel. So I simply didn't eat until the next day. $10 for a 20-hour layoer isn't really that great anyway, in a hotel where a coffee costs $4.

I looked up their site and discovered that while it is horribly unhelpful, the one thing they say is that they will reroute delayed passengers, if flights are available (read "cheaper than your original"). So the next morning I went to the airport. I was not able to do what I was returning to Europe for, and my next stop would have been Boston, so I asked to be re-routed directly. The first helpful person I dealt with in the entire journey did indeed manage to change my flight. At the last minute he even asked me if I had any baggage checked, which I did. He looked at my ticket and baggage check, but I had already been told that getting my bag out of the container was a process of manually looking for it that the airline would prefer not to do.

When I arrived in Boston, my luggage had indeed not made it. The people at the luggage desk said that it was possible it hadn't been taken off the flight.

The security implications of that are quite a worry. A passenger who is marked down for extra surveillance changes route, to avoid catching a trans-atlantic flight. But their luggage is simply left on the plane. This is, as far as I know, illegal. It is certainly a fundamental failure of security process, at the most basic level. Disrespect for passengers, safety, the airline itself, and the security regulations that have supposedly been strengthened since US Airways was chosen as a target airline on 11 september 2001 (presumably because at that time they were not very good at security) on this scale was, to me, incomprehensible.

My bag was last heard of in Madrid. It definitely did arrive there. The next thing that US Airways told me was that the bag was lost. They asked me for an address to send a claim form, and offered me a toothbrush and some soap. They did not actually have a form at the lost luggage office that I could fill in, or so they claimed. Given the apparent aversion to providing any other kind of helpful service, I actually believed them.

That was apparently the entirety of their efforts to retrieve the bag. I have received no further compensation, they do not know where my bag is, they have not contacted me, and they apparently do not even have a system that I can use to contact them from outside the US. They took an amazingly bad decision through pure laziness (they had 8 hours from when I changed flights to when the plane that would fly ot Madrid arrived - the first time they could start loading it), swept it under the carpet along with the things I needed, and have seemingly decided to pretend it never happened. Meanwhile I was left in Boston in February, in a blizzard, with nothing but the clothes I had on the plane, and a toothbrush. 0 points out of 10 for efficiency, service, security.

A total failure on every level is hard to achieve - it requires a culture where virtually nobody cares about what they are doing. Which makes me wonder if it extends to things like aircraft maintenenance and safety training - other airlines have been known to simply not do maintenance in tight economic circumstances. Either way, I do not want to be relying on US Airways for anything again.

Recently I flew to North Carolina, from Oslo. It was one of those trips with two dfferent tickets. I flew SAS Oslo-Copenhagen-New York, and then I had a short time to clear customs, change terminals and check in to a different airline for another flight.

My flight out of Oslo was delayed about 15 minutes, which meant I had to go directly to the second flight, arriving as one of the last passengers after they had announced the flight was closed. On arrival at New York I was called over the Public Address, and informed that my luggage hadn't arrived. They asked me to go to the Luggage desk when I celared customs, which I did. (I have never seen this before - my previous experiences have always been that when it didn't turn up I had to wait half an hour to check, then go to the desk myself).

I was shocked by their courtesy and professionalism. After the US airways experience I am less than normally easygoing about my luggage, and I have lower expectations. But with no prompting they gave me enough cash to cover my immediate needs, asked me where I owuld be staying and where I lived normally, for a temporary and a permanent phone number (US Airways were not even capable of reccording a non-US number), and checked when and where I would be going next in the unlikely event they couldn't deliver my luggage in the next 3 days.

The efficiency was amazing. I had plenty of time to make the connection, I had cash in my pocket, I had an overnight kit (T-shirt, proper toiletries), they had been incredibly polite, helpful and proactive, and I had a website address where I could track my baggage.

Since I was flying to a different city, I expected it would take a while to get my bag. I was called at 9pm, and happened not to be where I was staying, so the delivery driver offered to come back later. He had trouble finding the place, had trouble getting hold of me, but he made the effort and my bag was delivered sometime after 1 am, with all the courtesy and efficiency that one expects at 10am on a quiet day.

SAS, thank you. Missing a tight connection can occur. Knowing that I would be waiting for my bag, ensuring that I could promptly get on with what I was doing, and that I got it as soon as possible, is a credit to the organisation and to the actual people involved. I have forgotten the names of the people at US Airways who were so useless. I don't know the names of the people who were so helpful and courteous at SAS, but to each annd every one of you, many thanks. It is a little extra effort that minimised the incovenience to a pleasant experience.