The United Airlines nonstop flight from San Francisco to New Orleans arrived basically on time, at about 11:10 p.m., and after a long walk to the baggage claim area we joked that our bags might have beaten us there.
Having taken that nonstop, plus having the orange “priority” tags that United gives to Premier Executive travelers and above, we felt pretty sure it wouldn’t be a long wait. We were wrong.
The fun started after about we’d been there a few minutes, when a United baggage agent made the announcement that “We’ve had three flights get in at the same time, so we appreciate your patience.”
And as it turned out, there was a flight from Denver scheduled in at 11:26 p.m. that had arrived early, ditto a flight from Dulles scheduled at 11:42 p.m. These multiple arrivals explained the large crowd descending on the baggage carousel.
None of the bags came quickly. The Denver folks got lucky, with the first bags just before 11:30 a.m. and then Dulles. Finally about 11:45 p.m. more bags arrived. This time they were from a United flight from Chicago that was scheduled in at 11:59 p.m. but, actually arrived at 11:30 p.m.
At this point a few of us went to the baggage agent asking what was going on, and got curtly told, “You’ll get your bags when we get to them.”
Finally, the bags from San Francisco showed up, about midnight, with no apology whatsoever.
In our case, while we hadn’t paid baggage fees, there was the added frustration that we had only checked our bag because we wanted to bring our friends, who were picking us up, a nice bottle of wine from California. By the time we got our bags, we were wishing we had brought them anything else, non-liquid, or paid whatever cost to ship the wine.
Now, as luggage stories go, this beats having bags miss a connection, being lost for days or having things stolen from luggage (all of which have happened to clients this month). But, it was still aggravating, and illustrates the biggest problem airlines have with checked baggage these days — the complete unreliability of the process.
In the grand scheme of things, most travelers have come to accept the idea of a reasonable fee to check a bag. But when bags that aren’t lost or mishandled can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour after landing to arrive, then that’s a little harder.
In our case, it just meant keeping our friends up later. However, in some cases it may make the difference between making or missing a meeting or a dinner. In the worst instances I’ve had clients miss the last shuttle of the night to their destination, as well as connecting flights on different airlines.
If airlines could commit to having bags on the carousel, say, within 30 minutes of arrival, then passengers might not try so hard to get anything they could on board.
And yes, stuff happens and planes can stack up. The frustration Friday was not only the delay, but the “what do we care” attitude of the baggage agent. One of the three flights had to get their baggage last, but there was no excuse for then putting the San Francisco flight behind a later arriving flight. Maybe if the airline had to return baggage fees after a certain delay, they would have made more of an effort?
On the way home, for what it’s worth, on a very busy night, United got bags out at San Francisco about 15-20 minutes after landing. Then again, the whole process seems to have become almost as random as a game of roulette.
And while consistency may be “the hobgoblin of little minds,” consistency is also what airlines need to make travelers feel comfortable checking their bags.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
