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US Airways Still Sorting Out Lost Bags

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 22, 2007

US Airways • Consumer Complaints • Christmas Complaints • An Insider's View --- News • Attendants: US Airways Jets are "Flying Vending Machines" • Screens Go Dark on US Airways • US Airways Faces Disability Charge • US Airways Cuts Flights From Pittsburgh • The Ides of March Lasted All Month for US Airways • Problems Persist for US Airways Passengers • US Airways Still Sorting Out Lost Bags • US Airways Makes Bid for Delta • US Airways Says Nuts to Peanuts • USAirways-America West Merger Still Baffles Passengers • Report Slams US Airways Christmas Performance • US Airways Turns In Jets, Cancels Flights • Florida: Treatment of Quadriplegic Passenger "Callous" • US Airways Wins Concessions from Machinists • Loan Extension Provides More Turnaround Time • Attendants Accept Cuts, Machinists Still Hold-Outs • Machinists May Walk • January Crucial for US Airways • A Christmas Nightmare • Breathing Room • Turnaround Plans • US Air Deathwatch

Watching the original New York Mets make a myriad of errors and mistakes that reflected a stunning ineptitude, manager Casey Stengel asked, "Can't anyone here play this game?"

Casey's question could easily apply to today's airline industry.

Besieged by problems that range from overpacked planes and weather delays to lost bags and poor communucations skills, the airlines seem to have a new villain every day.

In the past few weeks, American, Delta, United, and most recently JetBlue have been savaged by passengers trapped in planes grounded by weather or in unfamiliar airports where diverted flights landed.

JetBlue suffered six straight days of cancellations in the wake of the Valentine's Day ice storm that triggered arrows but no hearts from victimized passengers.

That same storm caused untold problems for other airlines too.

Consider the case of US Airways, a carrier already reeling from constant customer complaints about poor baggage handling.

It took the airline more than a week to sort out luggage belonging to some of the passengers grounded by the Feb. 14 ice storm in Philadelphia.

Adding insult to injury, most of those whose bags were lost had to wait in line for hours to file claims with the airline's baggage service department.

Mountains of luggage piled up at the Philadelphia airport, where US Airways just spent $20 million on new baggage-handling equipment.

The money didn't help after the airline scrapped 670 inbound and outbound flights through its Philadelphia hub last week. Uniting passengers with their bags proved impossible until Feb. 20, six days after the worst storm of the winter struck the City of Brotherly Love.

It was a replay of a baggage fiasco that occurred three years earlier, in December 2004, following a combination of flight cancellations and staff shortages.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation, US Airways ranked 13th among large airlines for mishandling baggage in 2006. With more than 10 months to go in 2007, the chances of bettering that performance may already be lost.

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