Lost Bag - RCL gets an A plus, AA gets an F

[LongTimeTvlr]

Wanted to say a few kind words about Royal Caribbean customer service. They earned it big time.

 

I just returned from a 9 day cruise on the EOS. We left from Cape Liberty in Bayonne on June 10 and returned to the same port on June 19.

 

We flew in same day to Newark airport directly from Dallas on AA flight 1590. No problems with the flight but only 2 of 3 checked bags showed up. Flight arrived at 11:45 on time.

 

Notified AA baggage claim staff immediately. They said no problem, it was on the next flight and they would get it to the ship before we sailed at 5 PM. Unfortunately I believed them, so we left for the ship.

 

At 4 PM we had not received the bag and the Royal staff had no news, so we called the AA Newark baggage number they gave us that morning. No one would answer the phone. Then we called the general AA 800 number and they tried to reach Newark and they couldn't get Newark to respond either. We ended up sailing without our bag.

 

We reported this problem to the Royal Caribbean Customer Service desk on board the EOS. They assigned a lovely young lady to help us. She immediately contacted AA for us and gave AA the details or our itinerary and asked AA for details on how they would get our bag to us in Bermuda where we would be for two days, after one day at sea. That gave AA 3 days to get our bag from Newark to Bermuda. She also arranged for me to borrow a Tux as mine was in the lost bag and offered to loan my wife a gown, but she already had one in the luggage that did make it. Outstanding service from Royal. We had not booked our flights through Royal so they owed us nothing in my book.

 

The Royal Caribbean staff person updated us everytime we picked up the phone in our room on the status of her campaign to get our bag back from AA. And it turned into a real campaign. AA had promised to deliver our bag to us on the first of our two days in Bermuda. When we got back to the ship after a day in Berumda, the Royal rep told us that AA had shipped our bag back to Dallas and was delivering it to our house!! There was no one there!! She then patched us through to AA and after an hour on hold (thank goodness we weren't paying the marine phone rates - the bill would have been over $300) the AA rep promised to have the bag flown back from Dallas to Bermuda by noon the next day.

 

Long story sorry - they didn't make it and we left Bermuda with no bag. Another sea day and we were in Nassau. Finally after 5 plus days our bag arrived in our room late that day in Nassau. We had consumed hours in discussions with AA and the very helpful Royal rep. More hours shopping in Bermuda and Nassau for stuff we needed that was in our bag. Not how we wanted to be spending our time. On the second day in Bermuda, we had wanted to visit the cottage where we spent our honeymoon in Bermuda 37 year ago, but needed to spend the time shopping for replacement items and never made it.

 

Most frustrating was it was almost impossible to communicate with AA. They refused to call us or to send emails. They insisted we call them or check their web site for status. After the third day they no longer updated the website. So we had to call to get any news and we were at sea on a cruise ship. If Royal had not let us patch through to the AA number we could not have afforded to call them. When we did call and reach the AA baggage rep, each new rep acted like this was the first time we called. One said "Oh you are on a cruise ship?" - this was clearly documented on the receipt slip they gave us at the airport when we reported the bag missing; and the Royal rep repeatedly gave them our itinerary.

 

And my favorite was one AA agent telling us - "don't complain to me, it was the last agent that messed up and sent your bag to Dallas. I didn't do it" I told her that I was complaining to her because I was sure the next time I called that new agent would blame her for whatever the excuse of the day was so I wanted to get my licks in while I had her on the phone.

 

It does not appear that AA has any notion of how to deal with lost luggage for someone going on a cruise.

 

Thank heavens for the great Royal Caribbean support

[1st mate]

My hat goes off to RCCL. I'm sorry for your problems with AA, but it is nice to hear something positive about RCCL instead of all the negative chatter.

 

Thank You!;)

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

Nice!

 

Boo Hoo to AA!!

 

***

[Dolphin-dan]

that is really cool of RCCL.

[DEIx15x8]

Royal Caribbean is good at dealing with bags even though they must be losing money on them, when they are not at fault. A few years back when we sailed out of Manhattan on the Nordic Empress to Bermuda we had our bags clearly marked and a bag count that we monitored. When we returned after the cruise we loaded our bags on the cart and counted them all to equal the total we should have. Later that day once we were home we received a call from RCCL saying that we had left a bag in the terminal. We were completely unaware of it and actually found out that the problem was caused by a purse that had been carried on arrival but was placed on the cart coming back. The bag was filled with all of our beach shoes so it wasn't very important but RCCL was nice enough to ship us the bag via UPS at no charge even though it was entirely our fault.

[megr1125]

That's great! I must say that the crew on Ex was extremely kind in assisting my mom and I in getting off the ship after the 2nd leg of what should have been a b2b2b...(well, the crew with the exception of the medical staff....but that is a loooongg story now and at this point it doesn't matter...)

 

Glad that the staff was able to track down your bag and shame on AA for being so dense....

[montgomeryfamily]

DEI, that was very nice of Royal Caribbean to ship the bag to you at no charge. Princess charged $50 to ship a bag my sister-in-law had accidentally left--she was glad to get the bag and willing to pay. But that was great customer service of Royal Caribbean to handle shipping the lost bag at no charge

[TravelLady928]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents to the OP's comments...we were on the same 6/10 EOS cruise and when we returned on 6/19, my mother's second suitcase was nowhere to be found. She was beside herself, because unfortunately, this was the suitcase with all her evening/formal wear. :rolleyes:

 

The Royal Caribbean employees were fantastic! We had at least 5 of them helping us search every single luggage pick up area for the missing suitcase for over an hour and one of the ladies personally helped my mom fill out her claim form. A few of the employees even checked outside to make sure her bag hadn't been left on the curb somewhere.

 

By 6pm that evening, they called us to say they had found the suitcase. It turns out another passenger picked up her black suitcase, didn't check the name tag, assumed it was his and walked off with it (who does that?!:mad:).

 

They shipped it via UPS at no charge to us and it arrived first thing Tuesday (6/22).

 

Hopefully this will never happen again, but we were very pleased with how helpful everyone was and how quickly the issue was resolved.

[onthewater51]

A few years back we had a near identical experience w/ both RCL & AA.

 

AA lost all of my wife's luggage, and flat out didn't care about helping. We flew from Maryland to Miami & the Customer Service desk in Miami was worthless. They told us she shouldn't have put things in the suitcases she would "need for the trip"! Absolutely amazing.

 

About a week after we returned from vacation it was all found in Texas! However, the bags had been rummaged through and most of her clothing had been stolen.

 

In contrast here is how RCI handled it:

 

We booked the flights on our own so RCL had no obligation to help us. Yet the folks at the Purser Desk went above and beyond. They were on the phone everyday w/ AA and in constant communication with us, keeping us updated. They gave my wife a voucher to purchase some clothing and essentials on board, and unlimited dry cleaning since she had few items to wear.

 

RCL was nothing short of superb. So when I hear people b--ch & moan about their customer service...I don't buy into it.

 

BTW... Wrote AA HQ a letter...no response...we've never gone back to AA.

[cb at sea]

Having had every flight we've booked with AA canceled or rescheduled to a time that will NOT work for us, then needing to scramble for new flights, it's not only LUGGAGE that AA can't transport!

 

I will NEVER attempt to book flights on AA ever again...unless it's my very last choice.

 

I'm glad you were eventually able to get your suitcase back!

[Jimnbigd]

And AA has the nerve to charge, what, $25 for the first bag? Did you at least get that back?

 

I live in Dallas and I am embarrassed by AA. They used to be really great. Now, I fear they will fold. And don't think it can't happen -- Does anyone remember Braniff? AA loses money bigtime and still pays executives bonuses. Sheesh.

 

Big pat-on-the-back to RCI. Cruise ships have the service airlines had 20 years ago. Gosh, I hope this doesn't mean that 20 years from now cruise ships will be like airlines are today!

[LongTimeTvlr]

Interesting to see the similar experiences.

RCL's service does stand out.

 

I have filed a claim with AA for the extra charges that resulted from the lost bag. They total about $400. It would have been a lot higher if not for the help from RCL. One of the many AA agents I talked with said they would re-imburse us up to $500, but I am not holding my breath. They would not document that to me in any way.

 

They also repeatedly refused to let me talk to a manager.

 

I have researched a blog written by the travel trouble shooter for our Dallas paper, and it has email addresses for AA executives.

 

I plan to write them an email. This is not about a lost bag. I understand how that can happen. In all my flights with them, I can only remember twice when they have lost a bag. Strangely the other time was on my honeymood to Berumda 37 years ago. Maybe it has to do with the Bermuda triangle. Of course when I travel for business I almost never check a bag.

 

The issue is their customer service once it has happened. They need to find a way to communicate with cruisers.

 

I have over 2 million frequent flyer miles with AA. They are HQ'd here in Dallas. Hopefully I can get a response, but their track record in this situation does not give me hope.

[hooked-on-travel]

By 6pm that evening, they called us to say they had found the suitcase. It turns out another passenger picked up her black suitcase, didn't check the name tag, assumed it was his and walked off with it (who does that?!:mad:).

 

I wondered the same thing, but then last month we had a couple do it to us. We both had Diamond colored tags on the identical suitcase, but of course had our name on two luggage tags. We looked to no avail; couldn't find our suitcase on debarkation. A nice port employee was helping us, but there wasn't much he could do with a bag that wasn't there. I noticed a bag identical to ours so I looked at the name. They were locals, so I thought they maybe grabbed the bags and were half way to the parking lot. We fortunately were just planning to take a taxi to FLL (from PE) and our flight wasn't for 3-4 hours, so we were flexible enough to wait on the situation. I suggested maybe the port employee could call them and see if the phone number on the luggage tag was a cell (b/c if it was a home number and we had to leave a message I was sure we'd miss our flight.) It was the cell, so they turned around and came back with our bag to get their bag, but thank goodness. I was already starting to make a mental list of all the things I'd never see again. Sure, they're just things, but that's not the point. Look at the name on the tag! Even special identifier ribbons on the bag didn't give these people a clue.

[vacruzer52]

I too have to say how wonderful RC customer service is. Several years ago our adult son was joining us on a cruise but arrived on a different flight. We were already at the dock when our son called us and told us that his connecting flight to Florida was delayed and he would be lucky to make it to the ship on time. We contacted one of the RC reps there at the dock and they went above and beyond to make sure our son made it to the ship before sailing. Our son's flight landed about an hour before the ship sailed and it was about a half hour drive from the airport to the ship.

 

I was absolutely shocked that not only dd our son make the sailing, but so did his luggage! We found out later that the RC rep at the airport convinced someone to go out to the plane and get our son's bag and bring it into the terminal for them.

 

In all the cruises we have taken (all with Royal) we have NEVER had a single problem with their service.

 

We are cruising on the Freedom on August 8th and we are so excited! Our future daugter-in-law is joining us and it will probably be the last cruise our 18 yo daughter will take with us for a while as she begins college in the fall.