Malcolm Weir wrote in message . ..
On 11 Nov 2003 05:34:24 -0800, (me) wrote:
[snip]
Self Labeling becomes important when, and only when,
their label falls off. Then, your label will help them figure out
whose bag it is. Putting "London" on it ain't gonna help much.

Exactly...

Putting your destination phone number/address can. Your frequent
flier number won't hurt either.

My "bag tags" are my FF number and AA's "If found, contact any AA
office" request and their 1-800 number.

I've been known to write my
flight numbers on it too.

I tend to work on the basis that (since I normally fly AA) they can
find out where I am...


After a particularly circuitous routing of my bag, I had it
explained to me this way (USAir, but I presume many work quite
similarly).

If your bag isn't on your plane then this is probably what's gonna
happen. If it just missed your plane, they will wait until the
next flight that goes there. If that flight isn't until tomorrow,
they will check to see if there is a connecting set of flights
that will get it there today. If so, fine, if not, it will probably
wait until the next direct flight tomorrow, exceptions being if
the only direct flight isn't until late afternoon or early evening.
Once there, they will determine how to get it to where you are.

If you bag went to the wrong city, it gets worse. They will
send it BACK to the city OF ORIGIN. Not the city where it got
misdirected, but where you started. From there, it will be determined
where the bag should be sent next. Almost without fail, where it
will be sent is to the original destination city. This will be true
whether that is where you now are or not. About the only way to
stop this is to instruct them to hold it in your city of origin.
All this may accomplish though is that it will go to your original
destination, and then be returned to your city of origin.

Now, once your bag gets to the original destination city, that
is often the first time anyone particularly cares about any instructions
you have given. At that city, you can choose to have them hold it,
or instruct them to have it delivered to someplace such as a home, office
or hotel. However, as shocking as this may seem, it's not exactly a
high priority for them. It will come off the plane, and go around
in circles on the belt for about 20-40 minutes first. Then, they
will collect them all and start figuring out what they have. Then,
they will begin to make arrangements to have it picked up and delivered.
The closer your deliver point is to the airport, the sooner it will
get delivered. If you are in a city down the road an hour, you'll
be put on a van which is making alot of out of town deliveries,
and the bag that is furtherest out get's delivered last.

Based upon several experiences with this issue, this is how I've
figured out to handle it. Go to baggage claim and be prepared
with the following info. 1) The baggage tags. 2)The name and
address on that tag you have on your luggage 3) Your hotel/office/
where ever that you want to have it delievered, include phone number
where you can be reached too.

Now, start asking questions. They will fight you on this, especially
if there is a line, but try to establish whether they already know
that your bag didn't make your flight. If yes, try to establish the
best case scenario for the arrival of your bag. This may be the
next flight in (which may be just in a couple of hours). If so,
I strongly suggest that you hang around (or come back) and retrieve
it yourself. If you are staying at a hotel VERY close to the
airport, or can otherwise have it delivered in the general
vicinity, you can arrange to have it delivered. However, if it
doesn't arrive on the next flight, it is preferable to be there
to conduct further negotiations.

Now, if they will actually figure out where your bag is, you can
try some other negotiations. If you just flew into LAX,
and it was a direct flight, there are a boat load of other airports
in the larger area. Consider having it flown into John Wayne
or Burbank, or one of the other many airports in the area. This
works best if the bag is still at your airport of origin. Otherwise,
if you give such instructions, they may send it back to it's origin
first, then on to John Wayne which isn't really what you wanted.
I'd only suggest this though if you are intending to actually
go there to retrieve it. Also, if it doesn't show up on
that next flight, they have things like shaving kits and the like
which they can give you. They can also tell you what you can and
can't buy/rent whilst you wait on your bag.

Now, nightmare scenario. My plane to DCA got canceled. So I
VERY QUICKLY rebooked onto a flight into BWI. I was headed to
Pax River so it wasn't all that much different to me. However,
my bag didn't follow me. It got sent, with all the other
canceled flight bags, to it's original destination of DCA.
When it got there, it's back to MCO and then sent to BWI where
they arrange to have it driven to Pax River (it reached me
about 24 hours later). The sad part was, if I had known
then, what I know now, I would have just driven over to
DCA and picked it up myself. I could have even potentially
told them at DCA what had happened and they would have
just "claimed" it and had it sent to me from there.