Holidays could bring glut of airline baggage woes

By CLINT SWETT
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Reports of mishandled baggage _ those classified as late, lost, damaged or pilfered _ soared in September among all U.S. carriers, rising 81 percent, compared with the same month a year ago. In the same period, Southwest baggage complaints jumped 87 percent.

And with the hectic holiday travel season beginning, it could get much worse.

What's driving the increase?

Most airlines say tightened airport security, in the wake of an alleged terrorist plot in London to blow up U.S.-bound airplanes, forced more passengers to check their baggage, rather than carry it onboard.

"It's because there was an unanticipated spike in the number of checked bags," said Richard Gritta, a University of Portland business professor specializing in airline issues. "And it's going to be bad over Christmas. I'm glad I'm not flying."

Although the security measures, which initially called for a ban on liquids in carry-on luggage, have been eased, the difficulty in getting bags from point A to point Z remains.

Between the time a passenger checks luggage at the airport and retrieves it at his or her destination, a single suitcase can pass through more than a dozen pairs of hands.

That leaves plenty of room for error.

Perhaps a distracted employee mistakenly attached a baggage tag coded SNA (Orange County) instead of SAN (San Diego).

"Just one mistake is enough" to ruin a trip, said Toni Oyao, a Southwest supervisor, "no matter where it was done."

That was certainly the case for Fair Oaks, Calif. resident Mona Clevenger, whose two-week trip to Paris in September was marred by a luggage snafu.

After a Lufthansa flight, Clevenger arrived in France without her suitcase.

When it showed up 36 hours later, it was missing nearly $1,000 worth of new clothes she'd purchased for the trip.

"Everything (new) I packed was gone," she said. "They left me with an umbrella, a jacket and some underwear. I was not a pretty sight."

Clevenger had to buy travel clothes in Paris and still hasn't settled with Lufthansa.

Baggage problems have been acute for Southwest, the busiest passenger carrier in the capital city. In September, it reported the fourth-highest increase among major U.S. carriers of mishandled bags.

Southwest has more potential exposure to baggage woes because it allows customers to check three bags instead of the two allowed by most airlines. Southwest passengers nationwide checked 6.3 million bags in September, up 50 percent from the 4.2 million a year earlier.

"It boils down to the fact that we carried a high amount of bags in September," said Southwest spokeswoman Marilee McGinnis. "It's a very intricate process. In (cities) where we didn't have a high success rate, we are working with the TSA to improve our screening measures."

Solid figures on how much mishandled bags cost domestic airlines are hard to come by, said Kenneth Button, who follows transportation issues at George Mason University.

But the damage is more than just the direct cost. "Lost bags generate a lot of ill will," Button said.

The cost in lost business is probably far higher than the expense of returning bags to unhappy customers, he said.

Southwest, like most carriers, devotes considerable resources to reuniting passengers with their lost luggage. Typically, if a bag doesn't arrive when its owner does, the airline will deliver it to the passenger's home or workplace. If a bag is permanently lost, passengers may file a claim, but receipts for individual items may be required as proof of ownership.

If a bag is damaged, Southwest keeps a rack of replacement suitcases that can be exchanged immediately for a damaged one.

If bags are unloaded from a flight with no ID attached and no one to claim them, baggage agents don latex gloves and rummage through the contents, looking for any ownership clues _ a prescription drug label, a crumpled dry-cleaning receipt, a business card.

If agents can't locate the owner within five days, the bags are flown to Southwest's baggage center in Dallas.

At the end of each month, everything that has been sitting for 90 days is shipped to an airline salvage company, which sells the airlines' inventory.

Travel experts recommend the following tips for airline passengers:

_ Know the airline's security rules so you're not caught by surprise. Checking bags at the last minute increases the chance of delays.

_ Get to the airport early. Some carriers require that bags be checked 45 minutes before a flight.

_ Many bags look alike, so attach something colorful, in addition to luggage tags. If your bag is easily identified, it reduces the chance that another passenger might mistakenly grab it from the baggage carousel.

_ Put ID information inside the luggage. If a baggage tag falls off during transit, the airline can identify the bag's owner if a name and phone number are inside.

_ Pack expensive electronics gear in a carry-on bag so it stays with you.