Flight Delays And Luggage In Limbo

April 23, 2010

in Luggage Stories

I recently took a trip from Long Island, NY to Cincinnati, OH on US Airways Express (Air Wisconsin). I haven’t flown US Airways in a long, long time, but they were the cheapest available. I arrived at the airport, checked in fine only to discover that they are now charging $25.00 to check bags… that’s $25.00 PER bag. I would have carried it on, but with the liquid restrictions for carry-ons I couldn’t do this. All well, that sucks and I sucked it up.

I arrived at my gate to find my 6:15PM flight delayed until 6:45PM due to weather at my connecting city, Philadelphia. No problem, weather happens. 6:45PM rolls around, no plane. 7:00PM it finally arrives. Since Islip (KISP) is a small airport, the plane was serviced and turned around quickly. Then the pilots get off the plane and close the airstairs behind them at 7:15PM. Great. They come back around 7:30PM and climb up. We’re delayed till 7:45. At 7:45 we’re delayed till 8:15. At 8:15 we’re delayed till 8:45. By now the waiting area went from a full flight for our CRJ to only about 8 of us who still had a chance of making connections, mine being at exactly 10:00PM. By 8:30 the ramp agent came running inside to tell us we could board, which the 8 of us did very quickly. We pushed off the stand about 8:45 and were on our way to Philadelphia, which by now the T-storms were gone for hours but traffic was just backed way, way up.

The flight was fine, service was very pleasant though the aircraft was definitely not the nicest I’ve ever flown on. We land in Philly at about 9:45, and then of course we sit on the taxiway for what seems like ETERNITY while they let planes take off on the runway that we need to cross to get to our terminal. Keep in mind, my connection is due to depart at 10:00. We pull into our gate at 9:58, I can’t make this stuff up. Luckily, I was sitting on the correct side of our plane so that I could read the gate numbers on top of the jetbridges, and saw my gate for my connection was empty. I still ran to it, which was just around the corner from the gate we pulled into, not sure if the gate was changed etc. It wasn’t, and my connection was delayed until 11:00PM. That’s fine, gives me time to get some dinner, which I did in the form of an authentic Philly cheese steak… arguably the only good thing to come out of that city in a long, long time.

I arrive back at my gate after my delicious dinner to find my flight delayed till 11:30… then it arrives at 11:45… delayed till 12:00. So now we’re delayed until 12:30 because the crew had too many hours for the day and we needed a relief crew. Luckily, they arrived pretty quickly. By now the terminal was pretty dead, it was just our flight and another flight across from our waiting area headed to North Carolina. We (our waiting area and theirs) had a good time taunting each other to see whose relief crew would show first, being that they were in the same boat as us. Ha ha, we won.

I watched the apathetic ground crew load the bags… but wait, I didn’t see mine go up the conveyor… hopefully I missed it. We boarded and were rolling down the runway at about 1:00AM, with an uneventful (though relatively full) flight to Cincinnati. We landed and arrived to a dead airport at about 2:45AM. My friend meets me at the carousel, and the bags start coming off. Well, everyone else’s that is. We wait and wait, by now everyone is gone so we make our way over to the very helpful agent who fills out the forms with me and we head to my friend’s apartment. By now, I’m just exhausted having to have supposed to arrive over 2 and 1/2 hours ago.

The next day I wake up at 10AM, check the status of my bag online. It’s still in limbo. 12:00PM still in limbo. 1:00PM still in limbo, and now I’m mad because all I want is to take a shower and change out of the clothes I wore all day, travelled in, slept in, and am now wearing for what looks like the rest of the day. I call the US Airways lost bag center and go through the same process that I did online with an operator. He says it’s still lost, so I asked what they could do for me. He says they can’t do anything refund/voucher wise for 24 hours. My response:

“Are you kidding me?? So let me get this straight. You won’t give me some kind of voucher so I can go get some clothes. You’re telling me that the same clothes I wore all day yesterday, travelled in, SLEPT in, you expect me to wear again all day today, sleep in again, AND wear tomorrow because, 24 hours would be 2:45AM and obviously you won’t be on the phone to issue a voucher, and the mall sure as heck ain’t gonna be open then.” He had no response.

I know he was just doing his job, but SERIOUSLY US Airways?? If it happened at noon and you wanted me to wait till noon the next day then OK, sure I’ll buy it. But you’ve GOT to be kidding me. You won’t even REFUND my $25.00 checked bag fee?? You expect customers to wear the same clothes for OVER 36 hours?? Shame on you.

Luckily enough, my parents were kind and wired me $300 so I could get some clothes and toiletries so I could take a shower. And my bag was delivered that evening around 6PM by some nasty woman. We were out to dinner and she calls, we try to give her directions as best we could because my friend had just moved to this new apartment, and the woman hangs up on us. I was able to call her back and asked her to leave it in the garage out back, but instead she left it on the porch. In a thunderstorm. In Cincinnati which, by the way, is not the most crime-free city around. But whatever, luckily we were leaving the restaurant anyway and we weren’t far from home. 

US Airways, you need to revamp your lost baggage policies for those who lose bags after 5:00PM so they have time to go shopping the next day. I mean come on, you could have at least slipped another cheese steak in my bag for the trouble.

{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

david April 23, 2010 at 7:16 pm

you do realize that every US airline charges for your bags these days? and $25 seems like a bargain compared to other airlines

kinda childish to joke around with the other flights passengers, i just dont really see that happening unless it was just like one or two people

$300 for clothing and toiletries? i guess you like the fine stuff, just go to walmart or even gap and you can get some good clothing that doesnt cost an arm and a leg, toothbrush $2.99 toothpaste $3

Reply

iloveflying September 7, 2015 at 12:42 am

they probably changed the price higher since it had been a while

Reply

Ahole April 24, 2010 at 6:24 am

David, you are a complete jerk to the other people on this site. Why do you derive such pleasure at trying to tear apart everyone else's stories. You are a T O O L!

Reply

david April 24, 2010 at 8:04 am

well ahole i guess you have tons of fun calling people tools

well imma take that as a complement since tools are useful, and i guarentee that i am more useful than your sorry ass

so a**hole go be productive and stop calling people useful and go do something productive with your life, i wouldnt be suprised if i am more productive in a day then you are in a year

besides most people know that when you fly in the US there are going to be fees, and yes the fee he/she paid is less then what other airlines charge and people complain about the fees yet want to keep the ticket price down, if people accept that the fees be included in the price then the complaints would go down alot

and i have had my bag lost a few times and was easily able to keep my tab under $75 since i knew that the clothes and neccesities were only going to be used a few times and that the airlines are more likely to give me a full refund if i dont get my stuff back

Reply

NayNay April 25, 2010 at 5:27 am

Ugh, this story sucks. You packed all that shit and it didn't occur to you to pack a spare set of clothes in your fucking carry-on? Idiot. Good thing mommy and daddy wired you $300…wait, THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS? You, sir, are a fucking douche. Grow the fuck up, you fucking pussy. Oh, and I've been to the airport in Philly. You are full of shit, and you know what I'm talking about.

Reply

rerere April 25, 2010 at 7:22 am

Of course, always blaming U.S. Airways.

Reply

Jane April 25, 2010 at 1:42 pm

I have nothing good to say about the Philadelphia airport. In fact, if I know that I have to fly through there, I make sure that I don't check ANYTHING in, because they are the NUMBER ONE airport in LOST LUGGAGE.

Most of the time I drive anyways, because I've had it up to here with the lack of common sense and customer service that the airlines provide.

Reply

Plargo April 26, 2010 at 2:55 am

Sounds like the bags missed the connecti0n due to a change in equipment on the connection. Overall this sounds like a pretty ordinary story, weather delays and missing baggage which is sort of the run of the mill these days on any carrier.

Reply

nyuu April 26, 2010 at 9:26 am

Umm… if you got that cheesesteak from the airport, that's not authenthic.

Reply

Leave a Comment
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *




Previous post:

Next post: