h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As I am writing this on a phone it will have to be short. We landed in San Francisco 4 days ago and still haven't got our luggage. Having said that, I must say a good word for Alaska Airlines who are a bunch of wonderful people. More later.

They're too busy looking for the boss's luggage to bother with anyone else's right now http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2015/10/05/alaska-airlines-ceo-admits-his-own-airline-lost-his-bag/73365630/

Maybe they gave your luggage to Mr. Tilden. One he realizes it's yours, he'll arrange to have it sent to your hotel -- the day after you leave .

Well, we finally got it back. The problem was, we hadn't lodged an official complaint. Apparently, just exchanging phone numbers with the girl at the Lufthansa check-in desk wasn't an official complaint. How was I to know that?

Having landed on Saturday afternoon, and expected a call back on the Sunday evening, Monday evening latest (luggage should have been on the flight arriving at 7 pm from Munich - don't ask) we went along to the airport on Tuesday morning ourselves and bothered Alaska Air and Lufthansa until we finally got the bags. .

*takes deep breath*

Why Alaska? Well, our original flight was overbooked and we volunteered to go on the alternative offered which was via Seattle and would only mean arriving in SF 3 hours later than originally planned, but still at a humane time (4 pm instead of 1 pm).

Our luggage wasn't there in Seattle, but because

(a) there was an urgent message for us that Lufthansa wanted to talk to us on landing in Seattle,

(b) after going through immigration, not much of our 3 hours stopover was left before we had to catch our connection

(c) we hoped that the message from Lufthansa was something to do with our missing baggage and

(d) after having bothered everyone who was in some kind of uniform or some kind of ID tag, there was no one left to ask in the baggage claim area what we should be doing about missing bags ,

we went through passport control/customs and checked in with Alaska for the connecting flight. The girl on the Alaska Air desk had never heard of Lufthansa until that morning, when several people checked in who, like us, had been re-routed.

Anyway - fast forward to Monday evening in San Francisco where still no bags had appeared. We phoned the Lufthansa number at SFO, who almost yelled at me for not having a complaint number and why hadn't I filed a complaint? After this not helpful, and fairly upsetting call (three days without luggage but with jetlag were making me quite sensitive), I rang the Lufthansa hotline in Frankfurt, even though it was 2 am there. She said there would be someone at the baggage claim at 8 am and they could help me find my luggage with just the check-in tag number and no complaint number.

So I set the alarm for the middle of the night and rang this person. I got exactly the same reply as I had in SF. I was fed up with everybody giving me contrary information. Why did the 2 am hotline girl lie to me?

Both these hotline harpies had told me that "according to the Montreal Convention" the airline that was responsible for finding our luggage was the last airline that had carried us, even if we had never given our luggage to them.

So our first stop on Tuesday morning was with Alaska Air. We had had a fantastic flight with them from Seattle to SFO - they were entertaining and friendly, and despite being cramped up in a 737, they made the flight fun and definitely not boring. We approached an AA girl and she took us to the baggage claims office to see a motherly and competent lady called Diana. She could see on her computer that our bags had landed in San Francisco, but couldn't tell exactly where they were or how to get at them.

She phoned Lufthansa, but the guy who hands out bags was stuck in a traffic jam and probably wouldn't be there for an hour or so (So much for German efficiency - they should sack him). After an hour, she still hadn't had a call back, but we tried the Lufthansa desk anyway. Long story short - we eventually got our bags there and the holiday could start. Three days late.

So now we're in Santa Barbara and my husband has found something else to worry about. But that's another story.

In all the thousands of miles I've done, this has never happened to me, but I will remember to make an official complaint if it does - I should think I'm about due.
Congratulations on your good humour in dealing with it and I hope you're otherwise having a wonderful holiday.

Well after a rocky start, I hope the rest of your holiday goes without a hitch!

I remember a European concert tour when our director's luggage didn't show up.

At least, you've had your disaster early, so the rest of the holiday should go smoothly now.

If only disasters were rationed...

I don't think many people would step up to take their share....

Yes, well, the next disaster has already hit us: just outside LA a car came at us from behind on the left and swerved, hitting us and jolting the car so hard that hubbie had a job holding it on track. The car disappearrd out of the next exit, which is what we should have done, but didn't, as we were 3 lanes in to the left and a bit perplexed for the moment.

However, as luck would have it, the next exit was 'car rental return' for Ontario airport, where we were given a new car in what seemed like seconds and carried on our way. Troubles, however, so they say, come in threes, so watch this space!