Urgent advice needed 'mis-connected' bags
January 7th, 2009 by admin
They were traveling on 3 separate PNRS
AA DFW-LAX
NZ LAX-AKL
NZ AKL-GIS
Their bags did not make their original AA flight and now it looks like their bags will arrive LAX after LAX-AKL leaves.
What should they do?
Will NZ customs process their bags and let them go AKL-GIS a day later?
They are business class award seats...hopfully Air NZ does that for them.
There seems to be seats available.
It would not have mattered anyway [further delays from AA], but NZ did not want to put my friends on a differernt flight...Why would they not do that? Seats were available.
Nevertheless, it would not have mattered.
Umm because they were no shows. Since AA flight was on a separate ticket NZ is under no obligation to protect them on later flight. That said they may allow them to be reticketed onto another flight (more likely if they have NZ or *G status and used airpoints for the award than if using other FFP miles).
If I have to/want to have separate tickets I make sure its either same airline or there is a long connection to allow for some delays. In these situations you are relying on the generosity of the airline.
They flew paid AA and US Airways to NZ miles business class.
I'll post the eventual result here.
They are business class award seats...hopfully Air NZ does that for them.
There seems to be seats available.
They need to talk to AA to find out what AA is or isnt willing to do.
Assuming AA is willing to send on to NZ then customs will likely stop the bags (now being sent as freight) at AKL for inspection before sending them on assuming there are no issues.
How long are they staying in NZ? I can see this taking several days to get bags to GIS, assuming AA are willing to send through.
So this is what happened.
Day 1: Bags are late. My friends check into Air NZ without their bags. They do tell NZ to expect the bags later.
Day 2: As soon as my friends land in AKL they received a phone call from AA. They decided to put it on the ‘direct’ flight LAX-CHC (which is a single flight number, but in reality involves clearing customs/changing aircraft in AKL).
I don’t know how AA is able to put bags in NZ flights and how NZ is able to accept them, but the system works better than I would have guessed. Being on sepearte PNRs / alliances made littel or no difference (and might have helped in this case since the bags might have gone to GIS a day late rather than being able to change along the way).
Day 3: The next day they received a call from AKL airport (mid day, so the bags missed their direct LAX-CHC flight). 2 of the 3 bags where found. It was decided to put them on a flight to Whakatane. Picked up the bags in Whakatane, the agent was a little confused why the bags where there, but not problem. This could have caused an inconvenience since the operating ours of Whakatane airport are limited.
My friend called CHC baggage claim. Their last bag was there.
Day 5: We picked it up the last bag when we landed in CHC.
Some numbers that maybe useful to future generations:
AKL baggage claim 09 255 8962
CHC baggage claim 03 374 7104
Observations:
1) I don’t think ANY airline looks at the notes within the record locators for lost bags—too many things can change from day to day. I think it is CRUCIAL to give the airline a CELL phone number that will work anywhere and be answered at anytime. This was the biggest thing that helped them. Talking to someone that is SEEING your bag and can do something about it at that instant is worth a lot.
2) My friends had locked their bags. This could have caused a problem in AKL customs. I would not lock my bags…especially in NZ.
I wonder if they would have made out somewhat better if they stayed within the same alliance (i.e. used UA to get to their NZ flights instead of AA). I've done quite a bit of AA travel to Europe, with a separate ticket on BA, and have been checked all the way through, and always assumed if something did go wrong, I might have a better chance on getting rerouted if I stayed within the same alliance. Of course, haven't had any misconnects where I've had to test this out.
AKL baggage claim 09 255 8962
CHC baggage claim 03 374 7104Are these numbers always answered ? I usually end up calling the Koru lounge about lost baggage (well for WLG) - much easier to deal with baggage through them then directly in my experience.
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