The Travel Detective

Travel Detective Blog: Where in the World is Peter Greenberg’s Lost Luggage?

Locations in this article:  Bangkok, Thailand Los Angeles, CA Seoul, South Korea Tokyo, Japan

At last, it was time to leave the airport 90 minutes after I had first landed or so I thought. I found myself standing in another long line behind the Korean Air 380 passengers who were waiting with their luggage. Finally, at 10:30 am, I left the airport.

Three hours later, I received a call from American. They found my bag. It’s in…Bangkok! Wait…didn’t the American agent in Tokyo tell me my bag was in Japan and loaded upon my flight to Los Angeles? The bag had never left Thailand. So now what? I was assured it would be flown to New York.

Then, at 5:45 this morning, my phone rang. Of course it was American Airlines calling to inform me that Thai Airways (an airline I hadn’t even been flying) had my bag. What was Thai Airways doing with my bag? No one at American knew. And the best part–the agent then told me that Thai was flying the bag to…Los Angeles! Oh wait, it gets better, later in the day I receive an automated message from the airline saying that my bag can’t be located. So now your guess is as good as mine about just where in the world the bag is.

I’m now in New York, scheduled to fly to Cairo in two days. This means the earliest the bag can now get to New York, assuming it doesn’t sit in Los Angeles for two days or get stuck in customs, is Thursday. Then, assuming it doesn’t get assigned to Vern and his van, we’re talking Friday delivery for a bag that should have arrived with me at 8:30 am yesterday morning.

In the service industry, the real difference isn’t in the delivery of a service, but in how a company, an employee, or a culture recovers when things go wrong.

In this case, American Airlines isn’t recovering very well at all. While we’re on the subject of recovery, I’m sure, I know what a lot of you are thinking…what about compensation in cases like this? Well, I’m thinking about it too. Not in only terms of the delayed bag, but also in my time that was lost, and in Yoko’s lack of common sense and understanding her own job description.

And, Yoko at American Airlines, by now, I think you know my last name and you should know that making sure this kind of behavior never happens again is part of my job.

 Have you had similar customer service nightmares? Share your experiences with Peter.

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By Peter Greenberg for Peter Greenberg.com