Lost/delayed Luggage

[Michael Glennon]

I have heard flights within Europe have many problems including lost or delayed baggage. I’m wondering if passengers flying into Europe are also having baggage issues. My flight is to Barcelona in October transiting via Doha.
My bicycle Camino plan is to link the Catalan, Ebro, Castellano and Sagunto to Calatayud to rejoin the Camino DelCid south to Valencia and Orihuela.
The thought of loosing my bicycle is enough to change plans and walk the Camino in reverse (towards warmer weather) via Torres, VDLP and Serrana to Gibraltar. Thanks any info is much appreciated. Michael

 

[Corned Beef]

Or leave the bike at home and hire one. They can deliver / collect anywhere on the Iberian peninsula.

Carry on luggage? But that depends on how you want to present yourself.

 

[evanlow]

My own experience. The only time my luggage was delayed (not lost) coming in via Dubai by a day. Just my backpack (not bicycle). Turn out that my connecting flight was close (2 hours)bin Dubai and all the check in luggages on the first leg going to the second leg (Madrid) didn't make it. The cost is an extra day in Madrid.

 

[roving_rufus]

There is a higher risk of luggage being delayed these days due to short staffing related to covid. Sometimes luggage doesn't make it onto the outgoing flight, or fails to make a connecting flight. But the big problem is if it does get delayed often even when it eventually reaches the final airport of the journey there is such a backlog of other lost luggage that it can take a long time to get processed. The reality is you could be lucky or unlucky, but it just takes one hiccup, and it could take a few days for the bike to reach you in Barcelona.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

I have heard flights within Europe have many problems including lost or delayed baggage. I’m wondering if passengers flying into Europe are also having baggage issues. My flight is to Barcelona in October transiting via Doha.
My bicycle Camino plan is to link the Catalan, Ebro, Castellano and Sagunto to Calatayud to rejoin the Camino DelCid south to Valencia and Orihuela.
The thought of loosing my bicycle is enough to change plans and walk the Camino in reverse (towards warmer weather) via Torres, VDLP and Serrana to Gibraltar. Thanks any info is much appreciated. Michael

Concern over checked items is a valid one in these days, and for the coming future, as long as we have some kind of pandemic going on..

I am with those who are suggesting to find some way to acquire a bike in Spain, and, maybe leave it behind, just an option. And if it is a bike that you wish to keep, it is likely more cost effective to send it home by mail. And that is the last option I offer, if you're able to find somewhere, like a hotel you will stay in upon arrival, to send your bike ahead of travelling, it does not go with you but it is certain to be there when needed.

 

[Former member 102963]

Concern over checked items is a valid one in these days, and for the coming future, as long as we have some kind of pandemic going on..

I am with those who are suggesting to find some way to acquire a bike in Spain, and, maybe leave it behind, just an option. And if it is a bike that you wish to keep, it is likely more cost effective to send it home by mail. And that is the last option I offer, if you're able to find somewhere, like a hotel you will stay in upon arrival, to send your bike ahead of travelling, it does not go with you but it is certain to be there when needed.

Have a google and you will see that airlines mishandle about 5 in 1000 checked in bags on average. It varies by airline for a whole host of reasons. The majority of bags are repatriated with the owner relatively quickly and many airlines have a compensation offering and a reasonably robust tracking system.

 

[Pilgrims3]

Three of us arrived in Biarritz the evening of July 28th traveling from SFO. Our traveling companion and 4 other passanger's luggage never came off the belt. She tried calling AIR France but they would not even talk to her. The recording said file a report online. All of here cloths for three weeks and hiking gear was in her checked luggage.The three of us returned to the SFO three weeks later a United flight from Barcelona on July 21st. This time none of our luggage was on the belt. United initiated a search and finally located it and delivered it to our home 5 days later. Even though United lost our luggage they were helpful in locating it. As of today a month later Air France still has not located our friends luggage. The customer service at Air france is the worst. We will never fly Air France again. Avoid checking luggage with any airline if you can.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Official EU air passenger rights includes provisions on lost or damaged luggage:

Air passenger rights - Your Europe

Travellers' rights - flight delays, cancellations and overbooking (passengers unable to fly on flight they booked)

europa.eu

 

[lt56ny]

Have a google and you will see that airlines mishandle about 5 in 1000 checked in bags on average. It varies by airline for a whole host of reasons. The majority of bags are repatriated with the owner relatively quickly and many airlines have a compensation offering and a reasonably robust tracking system.

Right now the idea of airlines following up promptly and efficiently is being severely put to the test.
I feel for Michael Glennon because of his worry about the airlines losing his bicycle. There is story after horror story of list luggage and people and airlines doing very little especially because of severe staffing shortages and over scheduling of flights.

15,000 Heathrow passengers have flights cancelled amid baggage handling chaos

Exclusive: Exhausted transatlantic passengers endure waits of many hours for baggage to be unloaded

www.independent.co.uk

Amid the Summer Flying ‘Meltdown,’ Add Lost Luggage

Surging air travel demand and airport staffing shortages have made this a bedeviling season when it comes to missing luggage. Here’s what to know if your bag doesn’t arrive when you do.

www.nytimes.com

‘It’s a mess and I’ve never seen anything like it’: global lost luggage crisis mounts

Some are calling it the summer of lost luggage as suitcases get caught in a conveyor belt-shaped vortex that only seems to grow

www.theguardian.com

It took me about 15 seconds to find these stories.
For every pilgrim going I would recommend taking ONLY direct flights if that is possible. I know for many it is not. Even more importantly for the vast, vast majority of pilgrims carry your backpack on the plane. If you do not want to risk having your poles confiscated buy some when you arrive or check only the poles and hope for the best. If you carry a pocketknife check it with the poles or do what I do. I go to a Decathlon or another outdoor store and buy some cheap walking sticks and a cheap pocket knife. If there is no knife go to a cuchilleria and buy one for 6 or 7 euros. I will find out how much inflation has struck but I have never paid 30 Euros for everything. Maybe in the future I will start to check my poles and hope for the best and not have to wait an hour for it to appear in the baggage area.

 

[Former member 102963]

Right now the idea of airlines following up promptly and efficiently is being severely put to the test.
I feel for Michael Glennon because of his worry about the airlines losing his bicycle. There is story after horror story of list luggage and people and airlines doing very little especially because of severe staffing shortages and over scheduling of flights.

15,000 Heathrow passengers have flights cancelled amid baggage handling chaos

Exclusive: Exhausted transatlantic passengers endure waits of many hours for baggage to be unloaded

www.independent.co.uk

Amid the Summer Flying ‘Meltdown,’ Add Lost Luggage

Surging air travel demand and airport staffing shortages have made this a bedeviling season when it comes to missing luggage. Here’s what to know if your bag doesn’t arrive when you do.

www.nytimes.com

‘It’s a mess and I’ve never seen anything like it’: global lost luggage crisis mounts

Some are calling it the summer of lost luggage as suitcases get caught in a conveyor belt-shaped vortex that only seems to grow

www.theguardian.com

It took me about 15 seconds to find these stories.
For every pilgrim going I would recommend taking ONLY direct flights if that is possible. I know for many it is not. Even more importantly for the vast, vast majority of pilgrims carry your backpack on the plane. If you do not want to risk having your poles confiscated buy some when you arrive or check only the poles and hope for the best. If you carry a pocketknife check it with the poles or do what I do. I go to a Decathlon or another outdoor store and buy some cheap walking sticks and a cheap pocket knife. If there is no knife go to a cuchilleria and buy one for 6 or 7 euros. I will find out how much inflation has struck but I have never paid 30 Euros for everything. Maybe in the future I will start to check my poles and hope for the best and not have to wait an hour for it to appear in the baggage area.

Not sure I would place too faith in stories from
the UK media especially with the positioning of the 2 papers shown against the current industrial relations backdrop in the UK but yes I think we all know the ‘Operation’ is under a lot of stress across the board! .

Interesting in the middle of one of the pieces it points out in a very low key way ‘ levels of luggage “mishandled” this year has broadly not yet exceeded pre-pandemic rates, according to the data, until April’. !!!

But yes the point is taken.

If any airport is going to be geared up let’s hope its Doha! The world cup starts in November!

 

[lt56ny]

Not sure I would place too faith in stories from
the UK media especially with the positioning of the 2 papers shown against the current industrial relations backdrop in the UK but yes I think we all know the ‘Operation’ is under a lot of stress across the board! .

Interesting in the middle of one of the pieces it points out in a very low key way ‘ levels of luggage “mishandled” this year has broadly not yet exceeded pre-pandemic rates, according to the data, until April’. !!!

But yes the point is taken.

If any airport is going to be geared up let’s hope its Doha! The world cup starts in November!

These are news stories not opinion pieces and when you position this story with the literally hundreds of others I would say it is right on. I am not going to get political here but there are ways to honestly check out news sources and their biases. If you would like to PM me I would be happy to direct you to them. The airline customer service and delivery of service is horrendous and getting worse. Just ask many, many of our fellow pilgrims on this forum.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

Have a google and you will see that airlines mishandle about 5 in 1000 checked in bags on average. It varies by airline for a whole host of reasons. The majority of bags are repatriated with the owner relatively quickly and many airlines have a compensation offering and a reasonably robust tracking system.

Most recent reports will not match those figures. Since Spring, lost luggage has become such a terrible problem, it has hit international news as recent as a few days ago. Please look at this as one example;

'Just a massive runaround': Some air travellers left waiting for weeks, even months for missing baggage to arrive

Frustrations are mounting as reports of lost and delayed baggage at Canada's airports pile up. On CTVNews.ca, passengers share their stories of spending weeks, even months, waiting to be reunited with their checked baggage.

www.ctvnews.ca

This is coming close to not keeping on topic and I ask that we keep this in mind going forward.

 

[Former member 102963]

I think it’s an interesting topic. What we need are numbers of course. We know the number of ‘mishandled’ bags to end 2021 as an average and we know up to April 2022, things are better than pre pandemic though I think we all sense that the last three months things seem to be creaking. I just think we need to en careful in how we approach these topics! Let’s say mishandled bags had jumped to say 10 in 1000. Unlikely I would think but that would give people a view on the ‘risk ’ they are taking! Is it 10% worse, 20% worse and so on!

 

[Former member 102963]

Thank These are news stories not opinion pieces and when you position this story with the literally hundreds of others I would say it is right on. I am not going to get political here but there are ways to honestly check out news sources and their biases. If you would like to PM me I would be happy to direct you to them. The airline customer service and delivery of service is horrendous and getting worse. Just ask many, many of our fellow pilgrims on this forum.

Thank you! I only have knowledge of UK print and digital media and know absolutely nothing about the media landscape in USA, Canada or Mexico. In the UK just because it is a news story rather than an opionion piece doesn’t make it ‘gospel’. Many of the articles are first person experience pieces rather than comparative data driven. The 10 or so major British daily newspapers can take any quotes/data and position them in such different ways!! These sort of stories don’t exist in a vacuum. They all ladder up to the outlets ‘worldview’ and are set against the prevailing backdrop of the other big news of the day. Leadership contests, cost of living crisis, industrial unrest and so on! Added to that we live in a World of hysteria aided by social media! Well certainly in the UK anyway!

But as stated we all sense things are creaking so we are in same page!!

At the end of the day the OP needs to make a
Decison based on what he is comfortable with in terms of risk level. Say chances of mishandled bags are 10 in 1000 and then factor in that he is transferring ( increasing the risk) through a very good airport (lowering the risk) and so on.

 

[YYC on the go]

A suggestion - I too have fears of lost luggage, despite a 4.5 hr connection window between flights. I decided to go ahead and buy an Apple Air Tag. the Air Tag links to my iPhone and I will know where my bag is at all times. If it gets stuck and an airport, I'll know. If it lands up in Doha (where I used to live), I'll know. I'll always know where my luggage is. The Tag is about 3cm across and is no bigger than a coin. It's no guarantee the luggage won't get lost in the depths of an airport, but at least I'll KNOW WHERE IT IS and can us that to assist with a luggage claim, and hopefully speed up the return of my luggage to me

 

[Pilgrims3]

A suggestion - I too have fears of lost luggage, despite a 4.5 hr connection window between flights. I decided to go ahead and buy an Apple Air Tag. the Air Tag links to my iPhone and I will know where my bag is at all times. If it gets stuck and an airport, I'll know. If it lands up in Doha (where I used to live), I'll know. I'll always know where my luggage is. The Tag is about 3cm across and is no bigger than a coin. It's no guarantee the luggage won't get lost in the depths of an airport, but at least I'll KNOW WHERE IT IS and can us that to assist with a luggage claim, and hopefully speed up the return of my luggage to me

I to just purchased Air Tags for the next trip but as I understand it the Air Tags only work if there is another Iphone near them.

 

[YYC on the go]

I to just purchased Air Tags for the next trip but as I understand it the Air Tags only work if there is another Iphone near them.

I've been told that there are so many iphones right now, that being 'near' an iPhone isn't too much of a problem. I'm working on that theory, and hoping for the best.... Here's a bit more about that:

Here’s How AirTags Actually Work

This might surprise you

medium.com

 

[RosemaryMcG]

I see more advertising lately for shipping luggage ahead of time. Anyone use these services? It might help to know your luggage has been transported and is at your destination before you arrive.

 

[Michael Glennon]

A suggestion - I too have fears of lost luggage, despite a 4.5 hr connection window between flights. I decided to go ahead and buy an Apple Air Tag. the Air Tag links to my iPhone and I will know where my bag is at all times. If it gets stuck and an airport, I'll know. If it lands up in Doha (where I used to live), I'll know. I'll always know where my luggage is. The Tag is about 3cm across and is no bigger than a coin. It's no guarantee the luggage won't get lost in the depths of an airport, but at least I'll KNOW WHERE IT IS and can us that to assist with a luggage claim, and hopefully speed up the return of my luggage to me

Yes I’ve decided to get Air Tags too as not bringing my bike does not appeal to me.

 

[Corned Beef]

Is your return through Doha? There is a football competition there from 21 November to 18 December 2022. They should have plenty of people to transfer bags as long as not too many people turn up.

 

[Michael Glennon]

Is your return through Doha? There is a football competition there from 21 November to 18 December 2022. They should have plenty of people to transfer bags as long as not too many people turn up.

Yes through Doha to Bangkok December 1, fingers crossed all will be well.