US Airways Lost My Costume!
(Me, my friend and our daughters in the outfits that we thankfully decided not to bring)
On February 8, 2007, my husband and I traveled to Italy to spend Carnevale in
Venice with friends. It was the first time since our daughter was born in 2002
that we had a vacation by ourselves. We were looking forward to it with excitement.
Little did we know that US Airways would ruin a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
My husband and I flew separately, since I was dropping our daughter off with my
parents. He flew from Seattle to Philadelphia on US Airways, where he had a 1 1/2 hour
layover. Then he flew on US Airways-numbered flight operated by Lufthansa
to Frankfurt and after a 3 hour layover got on a Lufthansa flight to Florence.
He arrived in Florence, but his two suitcases didn't. One suitcase contained his
clothes. The other, larger (27-inch, 46-pound, red, Dockers)
suitcase contained our handmade costumes. Here's a photo of the lost
suitcase itself:
My husband and I participate in some historical re-creation groups (including the
Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA)) as a hobby. We decided to take the costumes we
use for that to Venice for Carnevale. The costume my husband brought was one he
made himself over the course of about 8 months. (For those of you who know anything
about the SCA, he wore it at his Laurel ceremony. For those of you who
don't know anything about the SCA, my husband wore it when he was recognized for his work translating
16th-century rapier treatises.)
Those of you who do costuming know how much
time goes into each piece. US Airways seems to have lost everything in a matter of hours.
After filing the lost luggage report in Florence, we were told that both bags
had gotten stuck in Philly, but US Airways was transferring them to Lufthansa for delivery.
The following day, the bag containing my husband's clothes arrived. The suitcase
with the costumes was nowhere to be seen. We immediately called the lost luggage counter
in Florence, Lufthansa offices in Frankfurt and Philadelphia, and US Airways in Philly,
trying to track down the missing suitcase.
When we contacted US Airways in Philadelphia, they said, "We're not your final carrier.
No, we're not going to look for your bag, even though we were the last people to have it.
Call Lufthansa." We contacted Lufthansa who told us that they had received one bag
from US Airways and they delivered the bag they received. In direct contrast to the US
Airways folks, Lufthansa staff were helpful. Their employees checked their luggage areas,
they explained to us what their lost luggage handling procedures were. They just couldn't
find the bag.
After my husband returned to Seattle, he stopped by the luggage counter for US Airways.
The US Airways staff member checked their records and told him they had no record
of our bag after it was checked in Seattle. It seems those barcode tags are just for
show; they're not actually used to track the bag or anything useful like that. The
customer service rep also told my husband, "Philadelphia is our problem hub."
A few days after we returned, I received an email response to the complaint I had
lodged via the US Airways website while we were still in Italy. Here's
what they said:
Thank you for contacting Customer Relations at US Airways. We appreciate
and welcome all inquiries, concerns, and compliments, as your feedback
is important to us.
I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with your
bags being misplaced on your recent travel. As Lufthansa was the final
carrier to your destination, they would be charged with the
responsibility of locating your missing bag.
I do hope it was located and delivered to you in time for the Carnevale.
For the record, there were
several things we
missed out on with our friends in Venice because of our lost costumes. Here's what our Carnevale experience
looked like, thanks to US Airways:
(I'm the one in the T-shirt. Our friends are in the gorgeous costumes.)
US Airways staff in Philadelphia recommended that we submit a form to
Central Baggage Resolution in order to have someone search their warehouse.
We followed their recommendation. It took 5 days, 4 phone calls, 3 emails, and 2 faxes to find anyone
willing to call the warehouse. Not surprisingly, they couldn't find our bag.
I'll also mention that one of the friends we went to Venice with flew through
Philadelphia with US Airways as well, one week after my husband
(same weekday, same time of day (same baggage handler shift?)).
The suitcase containing her costume got lost too!
You can read her story
here. Below is a photo of her
costume that was lost. Click on it to see a bigger photo. The fabric diamonds on the skirt were cut out and hand
stitched to the ground fabric, piece by piece. There were over 100
multi-colored diamonds.
A US Airways staff member suggested to me that our bags might have accidentally been placed on the
luggage carousel and someone might have accidentally taken them. I could buy this for one bag, but
I'm not so sure I can buy it for two different bags on two different weeks. Also, my friend and I
had our contact information inside and outside the suitcases. What are the chances that two different people
would accidentally pick up our bags on two different days and then not contact us when they had
our information?
Lets sum up: My husband and our friend both checked 2 bags, all with contact information
inside and outside the bags. The smaller ones arrived. The larger bags seem to have disappeared forever.
The days immediately following a bag's disappearance are most crucial for finding it.
US Airways staff in Philadelphia refused to look for our bags during this time,
even though they had no record that they ever gave our bags to the people they were supposed to.
Since I came back, I've heard from friends who do a lot of business travel out of Philadelphia
that they refuse to fly US Airways into or out of that airport due to the extreme problems
with the airline losing bags there. When I flew out of Philly, I was selected at random for
extra TSA screening where I was told my souvenir snow globe had more than 3 oz. of fluid
(a whole other level of idiocy) and I needed to check it or they would confiscate it. When
I told them about the problems I had just had with checked luggage, the TSA screeners told me,
"Well, yeah, that was US Air. You're flying Delta today so you shouldn't have that problem."
I've also discovered that US Airways has the
worst lost luggage stats of any airline in the US (9.2 "complaints" for every
1000 passengers) and their "Philadelphia
baggage operation's performance is by far the worst in the US Airways
system, with a lost-luggage rate about four times the airline's as a whole."
The US Department of Transportation reports that
42% of all baggage-related complaints it receives involve US Airways.
These figures mean that US Airways' loss rate in Philadelphia is approximately
4%. Knowing that they operate
two-thirds of the approximately 1,200 daily flights in Philadelphia,
suggests that US Airways loses around 3000-4000 bags a day
in Philadelphia-- that's a full third of the
daily industry-wide average!
There's also a website
here with other people's horror stories, including one musician whose
instrument was lost for good while he was on tour with his band. This gentleman was
in the news after offering a $1000 reward for the return of his luggage. It was located not too long after the news story
aired. This musician lost her cello
while flying US Airways on March 5, 2007. It was returned to her 5 days later with the bridge completely shattered.
Someone else sent me his
wife's US Airways horror
story, saying "I will circulate this story as many times as I can until we hear "USAirways" and the phrase, "which went out of business in [fill in the date]"
together in the same sentence." And the
FlyerTalk board is full of stories too.
The Consumerist
ran an article on our plight on March 13, 2007. Check out all the comments from folks who've had problems
with US Airways in Philly.
Here's an
open letter to US Airways CEO Doug Parker from another CEO who lost his luggage
in Philadelphia on his way to speak at MIT.
Daniel M. sent me an email saying:
So I had a 5,000 dollar costume lost on US Air when I was going through
Philadelphia. I was supposed to film a weeks worth of comedy with it, but
instead waited for 7 days until it was found. What I ended up doing was a
compromise, I filmed ABOUT losing my expensive costume on the airlines.
So, enjoy all my movies about how US Air can ruin a good time.
www.youtube.com/findtheyeti
More stories
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, here,
here, here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here
here,
here
Some of them are real doozies, and involve reports of things
like:
-
US Airways employees
loading "stacks of luggage"
into a car with the license plate JUZ2HOT, in the Philadelphia airport garage, at 10 o'clock at night.
(Philly police refused to investigate)
-
A US Airways employee calling the Chicago
Police Department on an
entire flight of people whose luggage went missing
-
A passenger who
says
a US Airways flight attendant removed her carry-on bag (with her wallet and
keys) against her will. After 4 years of refusing to process the
resulting loss claim, US Airways staff then cited a two-year statute of
limitations.
-
Employees who refused to give their names
to a customer and, when she took a photo of them with her cell phone,
chased her across the airport in an attempt to physically wrest the cell
phone from her
-
Losing the bags of Air Force and Navy personnel
who were shipping out to Iraq
-
A US Airways baggage handler
stealing laptops
from people's luggage at Piedmont Triad International Airport. (The guy was also a part-time
securty screener for TSA! Don't you feel safe now?)
-
"Soon, the police show up...and thankfully, they're seemingly on the side
of the unruly passengers. This is especially apparent after the large group of underaged exchange students
begin crying and whimpering, since US Air has just stranded them (again) without any help. These kids have no money,
no food, no place to stay, and just wanted to get home like US Air promised..." Read the rest
here
-
This
reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer was able to walk into US Airways' open baggage-claim area and walk out, unimpeded, with a bag that wasn't hers.
(She delivered it to the owner)
-
Losing Sasha Cohen's ice skates when she flew through Philadelphia
-
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin
finding his suitcase (lost for 3 days from a direct flight) sitting right next to the US Airways employee who was
telling him the bag wasn't there
-
How about stranding a Girl Scout troop
on their way to Hawaii for the length of their week-long trip?
Even The
Onion has an article on US Airways (It's satire folks!)
And I haven't even touched on the problems we had with US Airways six weeks
after they issued my husband's ticket. You can read that
here.
Let's sum up: While TSA is confiscating snow globes at the Philadelphia International Airport,
security is lax enough in the luggage bays of US Airways that suitcases are disappearing. And if
someone can take something from where it's supposed to be, they can also put something where
it doesn't belong.
If you'd like to contact US Airways to voice your concern, here are the people in charge:
Corporate headquarters:
US Airways Group, Inc.
111 W. Rio Salado Parkway
Tempe, AZ 85281
You can also find a list of their Board of Directors and Company Officers in their
annual report (p. 8-9)
Maybe someone else might be luckier than me. I've sent certified, return-receipt letters to Doug Parker
and Tony Grantham and gotten no reply. Someone else who ran across this web page emailed Henri Dawes
and Allan Crellin, asking them to find some staff member to help us. They haven't responded. A friend's
mother, who's a US Airways employee, emailed Doug Parker on our behalf and has received no response.
But since they even ignore their Million Mile Flyers,
and other executive
customers, I guess I'm in good company.
Basic rules of travel are to never check electronics, jewelry, or prescriptions, and to always have contact information
both outside and inside your suitcase. On international flights, it's also a good idea to have some toiletries and a
change of underwear in your carryon bag. Since my husband and I always follow those rules every time we fly, I'm not sure
what else we could have done other than not fly US Airways through Philadelphia.
What I've learned from the experience:
-
Buy trip and luggage insurance.
TravelGuard and
American Express
are companies I've heard good things about (This is not an endorsement!)
-
If possible, hound the luggage agents at the airport in person,
(just like Mike Tomlin)
-
You can
file a theft report
with airport police. For Philadelphia, call 253-686-1776 and ask for the DPR Unit
-
If you
pack a starter pistol in your suitcase,
it must be treated as a weapon and requires special security, handling and tracing (For the link, see
comments half way down the page; this won't work for international flights)
-
High end
GPS
tracking units that work inside buildings are now on the market. Maybe next time I fly, I'll drop one of these
in my suitcase
In the vain hope that the costumes may show up somewhere, we're offering a reward of up to $500
for information leading to the return of our costumes. If you run across costumes that you think
may be ours (photos and descriptions posted below), please contact us at:
c e l y n [a t] d r i z z l e [d o t] c o m or 253-383-2518
1 red Doupioni silk skirt with black velvet band at bottom (velvet band not in
photo) & 1 white cotton-duck Elizabethan-style corset
1 black 16th-century-style dress created by professional costumer
Tammi L. Dupuis (not pictured: sleeves of same fabric tied on with velvet ribbon
Front view
Back view
1 green and white 16th-century slash-and-puff style doublet & 1 pair green and
white 16th-century-style "pumpkin" pants
2 leather masks (1 red, 1 black)
The Full Ensemble
Cuff Detail
Cape Front
Bodice Front
Muff
Here's a website for announcements of lost and found SCA stuff.
Have you had problems with US Airways too? Send me a URL and I'll add it
to this page!
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