mjs

United has lost my luggage and I may have to buy some cheap luggage in London. Any suggestions where? Staying in Holborn.

Traveler_Nick

Until somebody who knows better wakes up. Primark if there is one near you.

mjs

Actually realized my daughter was carrying an old army duffel bag that we often fill with worn clothes for the trip home. Will use it for my suitcase. Just spent $600 on clothes as I flew through Newark to LHR on Thursday and United has no idea where my bag is other than to say it made it to London either Friday or today but the forwarding company United uses does not respond to United or me by telephone or email.
Although the company has a web page to track baggage it reports not to have received my bag.

KTtravel

I am sorry your bag is missing and hope you are quickly reunited with it.

janisj

If you flew through LHR you will likely get your luggage eventually but it may take days and days. There have been regular melt downs with baggage handling there for the last coupe of months. The worst seems to be a T-5/BA but all terminals and airlines have been affected. There was one instance maybe a month or so ago where BA told everyone in T-5 arrivals to go home or their hotel or wherever because they didn't have enough staff to unload the planes.

Them not responding is also not unusual. They seem to be truly overwhelmed. Be sure to keep all your receipts because UA will reimburse you for necessary purchases even if the bag eventually turns up. Good luck.

(Just another reason I never check a bag)

mjs

We flew into LHR via EWR at approx 2250 Thursday night. One of three pieces of baggage was missing and we were told it was still at EWR and would be on the next flight out and it would be sent us at our Airbnb after the plane landed at LHR the next morning. We received no phone calls on Friday to schedule the drop off so we called and was told the flight was canceled and it would on another flight later that day. (there are 7 non stop flights from EWR to LHR a day) We called again Saturday morning and told that the had been there since friday and would be delivered today. We again received no phone call to schedule delivery and again trying to use the carriers bag tracking website gave us zilch. So at 10 pm Saturday we called United again and my daughter who is an attorney and calmer than me spoke to them for nearly 2 hours as now they wanted to have us go back to Heathrow to pick up the bag. Unfortunately we have a 0400 wake up and a 0700 flight out on BA and I have no intention of trying to go to Heathrow earlier to find my bag somewhere in terminal two and take it to terminal 5 for BA flight. I’m getting less than four hours of sleep tonight as it is.
it took my daughter another hour to get them to send it ahead to our Sheraton hotel in Stockton where we will pick it up when we arrive on the 14-16. We do not trust that they will get my bag to our next destination which is Copenhagen but hope with 4-5 days to work with that they can get it to me in Stockholm. We shall see

Sassafrass

I hope it all gets sorted soon. Not life or death, but a real pain. Airlines seem very short staffed right now.

mjs

Just an update. We have probably wasted 6+ hours in the evening during this trip dealing with United baggage. My daughter wishes she could bill them her hourly rate. I’ve also spent hours shopping for replacements. Fortunately I did buy decent travel insurance and my credit card also has some coverage. It turns out that it’s not so simple to buy replacement travel belongings in a foreign city. (And I actually know London quite well) I looked at clothes at Selfridges and was appalled at the prices. Ended up replacing my hiking shoes at Artyxc (sp?) and socks, shirts and slacks at Tyrwhitt for about $600. Spent another $100 at Magasin du Nord Copenhagen.
Probably wasted another half day doing this unnecessary shooing. If my bag does not make it to me in Stockholm I’m going to tell United to send it home. Hopefully it will find its way back to me someday but now I’m thinking RIP.

mjs

just received my bag here at home. Was hoping that it would follow me to Stockholm the 14-16 but it apparently never left LHR until going back to the US. Now trying to get reimbursed for my expenses.

chepar

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear that your luggage never caught up to you before your trip ended. That has always been kind of a low key apprehension at the start of any trip, waiting at the baggage claim for my suitcase to spit out on the carousel - I've had luggage delayed by a day or so, but it eventually caught up to me.

Even so, making do without my suitcase for just those couple days was a hassle and an incredible waste of my vacation time (on the phone with the airlines, waiting for the luggage to arrive within a "window" of time).

I can't imagine having to spend your entire trip making do with only replacing just the necessary things you need, much less forgoing the things you pack that make you comfortable.

MikeS

Maybe a little off topic but I do have a good luggage story. I often take the tube Northern Line to Heathrow. On one trip if figured out I was on the wrong line going to Uxbridge instead of Heathrow. I grabbed my suitcase and jumped off at the next stop. Just after I did I remembered my $1000 camera tripod was still on the train and watched the doors close.

Arriving at the LHR terminal I asked one of the workers there what to do and he said go online and post a lost luggage request. Not thinking it would really work I did and about a week letter got an email saying it had been found. After paying shipment I had it back.

suze

#9 - Thanks for the update, even though unfortunately the bag never found you.

Good reminder about traveling with essentials in your carry-on. Hopefully the rest of your trip was OK.

dfourh

I left my laptop at Luton security a while back. Contacted them, and they forwarded it for a perfectly reasonable commercial shipping charge. But don't let me distract from the OP's United story. That was a horror show!!!

mjs

To be fair to the airlines, I have flown probably somewhere around 1.5 million miles in my life to well over 100 different airports in every continent except Antartica and they have misplaced my bag three times. First on a flight Lufthansa SFO-MUC-ATH, and separate ticket to CQH on Aegean airlines. Bags arrived at hotel next morning. Second on a direct flight to SAN on Southwest on the first flight in the morning where not only was the flight 4 hours delayed but they put my bags on a later flight and told me that I had to return to the airport to pick up the bag. This time was with United and I have over 700K miles on United so their track record has not been that bad. I suspect part of the problem was LHR. The worst part of the experience was wasting an hour or so every day of the trip trying to get through to United to try to find my bag. Also it is a PITA to try to get reimbursed from United for the clothes and shoes I had to purchase, not to mention the time wasted trying to find places to buy what I needed without paying expensive prices. I was sent to a PDF Filler website that required me to pay for a subscription to use, than to cancel the subscription within 30 days if I wanted to do it for free. I also have coverage for baggage delay with my credit card and my travel insurance that I have to file.
Lastly most of my N95 masks were packed in my bag and so by the end of the trip we were down to surgical masks and we came down with Covid on our way home, probably with our Uber diver. My youngest daughter who separated from us in Newark to go to Boston was spared.

mjs

I should add Apple tags from now on and I do check bags for international flights as we often purchase items for return home and need the space. We don't have huge luggage but they are bigger than carry on

suze

we came down with Covid on our way home, probably with our Uber diver.

Huh?? Curious why you think you knoq that? When you've been traveling internationally, going out and about in London (I assume), thru airports, on flights, etc. etc.

mjs

Our iPhones informed us that we were exposed the night we returned home. Four days after exposure we starting getting symptoms. My youngest daughter who was with us until Newark on the way home got no notice and no COVID. Thus we were either exposed on the flight or in the Uber.

mjs

Our iPhones informed us that we were exposed the night we returned home. Four days after exposure we starting getting symptoms. My youngest daughter who was with us until Newark on the way home got no notice and no COVID. Thus we were either exposed on the flight or in the Uber.

mjs

Just received a check from United for the entire $831 I paid for clothes/shoes during the trip