Lost Luggage

[cruisintwinsmom]

X lost our luggage post cruise. Already having problems with customer service!!!! Any suggestions? Want to be proactive.

[C 2 C]

X lost our luggage post cruise.

 

 

You mean you never got the luggage when you got off the ship?:confused:

[cruisintwinsmom]

Exactly. One piece of luggage was missing. We looked everywhere!!!

[C 2 C]

I've never thought about it but there is no way of proving that I put out 4 suitcases rather than three outside my cabin door.:(

[cruisintwinsmom]

Next time we are walking the luggage off ourselves!!!

[gracecarmo]

One of our CC travel mates had the same problem, on our Hawaii RT in Feb. We got off the ship in LA. Maybe she will see this message and respond...Judy? (Tomatopa) Her suitcase never appeared, nor was it returned.

This issue gives me an idea: I am going to take a picture of my luggage outside my room with my room steward standing there with the luggage.

I don't know if this would be of any value, but it is something to go by if our luggage is "lost".

[BengalAZ]

We lost one piece of luggage on the 6/17 sailing of the Summit. We discovered that after you are off the ship, customer service is lacking. Fortunately the lost piece caught up with us the next day. We followed up constantly and feel that is one of the main reasons that we got our bag back.

[DonLou]

I've always marvelled at how the luggage thing works. They take your luggage, offload it into an open area and then you go search for it and pick it up. Always sounds like someone can just casually pick up your luggage and go on their way (not that it has to be intentional). Maybe that's what happened to your luggage.

[cruisintwinsmom]

The frustrating part is the attitude of the cs department in lost luggage. Somehow one of their reps wrote that we lost it on the airline---now they are acting like that is written in stone, eventhough I told them it was lost at the dock and have the personal property report.:eek: Furthermore, they only have representatives at the dock on the day that the ship is in port, so that means that no one is working on the problem until the ship comes back into port, another 12 days! Also my daughter needs a couple of the items in the bag for work, X won't cover any items that are needed until they find the bag. I really hope they find it---don't want to look for receipts.

[Gitte]

I am so sorry for you. :(

Maybe someone else took your luggage.

This happend with friends of us on our cruise last year. People took the wrong suitcase in the airport. They delivered the suitcase on the ship after 4 days.

 

Gitte

[Offtune Angel]

cruisintwinsmom: I'm sorry for your distress at X losing your luggage. This happened to us on San Diego/Hawaii R/T last October 23rd (2005). Our saga is too long to print here (believe me, I tried), but, if you email me (terry at offendashonline dot com) (use the symbols for 'at', 'dash' and 'dot', of course), I can give you the details, chapters and verses.

 

In summary, though:

1. write your history down (helps to maintain consistency & keep names & dates straight);
   
2. try to get an email address - and use it, following up with a telephone call each time;
   
3. keep calling, daily, and update your history each time;
   
4. get as many names as you can;
   
5. try to talk to a supervisor;
   
6. contact your travel agent for help;
   
7. contact your lawyer for advice;
   
8. being polite is always good, at first. We eventually resorted to a combination of being polite AND being annoyed;
   
9. if you come across anyone who is helpful, mention that fact to each person you talk to after that;
   
10. if all else fails, Email the president of X, with a copy of your history to date, stressing who was helpful and who was polite. Let him know, that you want immediate resolution since you've waited long enough.

I hope you don't have to resort to # 10, but, if you do, be direct.

 

Good luck.

 

P.S. It took us fifteen days to get our luggage returned to us after the cruise. Our situation was compounded by the fact that Hurricane Wilma had just induced chaos in Florida and we do not live in the 48 continguous U.S. states, which meant that when our luggage was found it had to be shipped by ground transportation. Throw into that equation -- we live in a different country (Canada) and all found luggage for international addresses has to go via Miami for a customs waiver to be completed. Our saga lasted nine weeks, although we had our luggage after fifteen days -- which is why our story was too long to print here.

[cusyl]

I was worried about our luggage making it to the ship and then making it back home with two connections.

I think I found a foolproof way to keep anyone from accidentally taking your luggage.

I went to Kmart and got the luggage tags that you can put info in and it laminates itself. All my luggage had a picture of my cat and the ownership info on the back. It was easy to spot in the warehouse and on the carousel.

No one could accidentally take it with that picture on it, also I had green and white luggage straps around them.

[cruisintwinsmom]

Offtune Angel: I will send you an email. Thanks for the advice. So far they have been like a recording---when I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told "your request is not supervisor worthy". What?!!!! This is just day one.

 

cusyl: I'm going to get white tape and put our initials in huge letters. The luggage wasn't even the typical black bag.

[Offtune Angel]

Long ago we bought 2 inch wide fluorescent orange tape and formed a 10 inch X on the front and back of each bag -- even the carryon's. Pretty hard to miss those X's.

 

In our case, the luggage hadn't even made it off the ship (confirmed by the rep at the pier, who later found the luggage), so mistaken identity was not the issue. However, seeing all those black bags lined up alongside all those blue bags :eek: one wonders how they ever keep it straight.

 

cruisintwinsmom, I'll look forward to your Email.

 

Terry

[Desertbelle]

In November we were on the Century, leaving/returning from Ft. Lauderdale. When we returned my husband and daughter, who had a very early flight were the first people off the ship. One of my husband's suitcases was was not there. When the rest of us got off a couple of hours later, the place was pretty cleared out and still I could not find the suitcase. We talked to the customer service folks and placed a claim.

 

The next morning, around 5 AM, I recieved a phone call from a Greyhound Bus driver calling from Mississippi....I have laminated luggage tags with our phone numbers and complete itinerary, so it was easy to find us.

 

Apparently one piece of luggage got loaded onto the bus and when all the folks got off the bus, our luggage was left. Thanks to the Greyhound bus driver, who put our luggage on a Greyhound bus back to us, we recieved our luggage about a week after our cruise ended.

 

Celebrity never contacted us about not finding our luggage....as far as they knew we never got it back. That made me a little upset, but we were just happy to have the luggage back.

 

It's amazing that more luggage isn't lost, the system they all use is crazy.

[CKBob]

Several years ago we arrived in the port of NYC. One of our bags was missing. One of the long shoremen went out to the curb and found it sitting out there. Someone had obviously picked-up one of our pieces of luggage and when they were loading-up they found they had an extra piece and just left it there.

[judyfssw]

Last October I accidently picked out the wrong suitcase and we left the terminal. Because we were waiting for a special van to pick us up, we spent almost two hours out by the curb. After about 45 minutes, I noticed that something was wrong with one of the suitcases (There were 3 women and we had 9 suitcases including carry-ons). Sure enough, I had the wrong one. The security people made me wait to go back into the terminal and took the suitcase that was not ours from me. While I was in the terminal, I found my suitcase and the people who were looking for theirs. All of us were very relieved and I didn't chew out the van company for being so late. Now, I have special colored ribbons on every handle of our suitcases and have not made that mistake again.

[cruisintwinsmom]

thank you all for your antedotes and tips. Will keep you posted on the outcome.

[Ine]

I understand your luggage was lost at the cruise terminal, not during the flight?

If so, try to contact the cruiseterminal yourself too with good describtion how your suitcase looks like etc.

I am sure they have a lost and found dept. There are almost daily cruiseships now, so people are working.

 

Send an e-mail to them, maybe through this link:

http://www.ptamsterdam.nl/site/contact.php

[cruisintwinsmom]

Thanks, Ine. I will email the terminal. I was somewhat shocked, but shouldn't have been surprised, that X only has staff there when they have a ship in dock.

[C 2 C]

When we were there last year one passenger had a porter pick up her luggage and was stopped just before she left the terminal by a passenger to whom two of the bags belonged. We just happened to be walking through since we were doing a B2B after the crossing. With no-one checking baggage "claims" I'm surprised this does not happen more often.

[Jimsgirl]

Was there another ship in port due to sail that night?

 

I disembarked at Vancouver on a cruise some time ago, my luggage two bags clearly marked and with coloured personal tags never made it off the ship. I searched, the staff from the ship searched, filled out forms and flew home. Next day I started calling, as you say no one at the port because no ships in.by day three, I got info, luggage found, safe in locked room will be returned to me by UPS.

 

Day five, contacted UPs, told UPS were not picking up due to payment problems with the company at the port. Day six, finally told that my luggage had been put on another cruise lines ship and had gone to Alaska, I would have to wait until ship returned.

 

No one could explain how 2 pieces of luggage so clearly marked could get on to a totally different cruise line without security being aware of it.

 

It took me three weeks of phone calls, E Mails etc to get my luggage. Found it had been forced open and someone had "picked over" the contents (not officials but would be thieves - oviously on the ship-or ships). Since the contents were only used clothing nothing taken.

 

Moral is do not put in cases anything of real value.

 

I wish you good fortune in getting your luggage returned

[Sammy Sails]

X lost our luggage post cruise. Already having problems with customer service!!!! Any suggestions? Want to be proactive.

On our last cruise 1/06 Century-10 day Panama Canal, WE lost a piece of luggage somewhere between the ship's terminal and the airport (car rental) and our hotel. I called Captain's Club and they were very helpful. To make a long story short, by 10AM the next morning I recieved a phone call fron Captain's Club that the suitcase was found and was being shipped home. It got home before we did. NO PROBLEMS with lost luggage here. They could not have been more helpful! And it was NOT their fault. My DH left one suitcase in the parking garage at the airport, and because of our Celebrity tags, the luggage went back to the pier and Celebrity knew to look for it and sent it on home very quickly.

[cruisintwinsmom]

Sammy sails: Sounds like it would be more helpful to call captains club than lost and found.

[cruisintwinsmom]

Offtune Angel: Did my email go through? I am hitting a brick wall.:mad: Thanks!