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Open luggage and missing items

lmoreno92
Explorer C

On Tuesday I flew in from San Antonio to BWI and when I was picking up my checked luggage one of them came out from the belt open because the zipper was broken. A few things came out and i tried going to the customer service desk but there was only one person there working and they were taking a while and I was in a hurry because I had someone outside waiting to pick me up. I don’t know if my bag was checked by TSA because some stuff is missing so if they left a notice it got lost, and there are a couple of my things missing but most importantly one of my prescription medications was lost. I tried calling the Southwest Customer Service at BWI but no one answered so I left a voicemail and haven’t heard anything back. I’m pretty sure that if there’s a way to report damaged luggage I already missed the deadline to make a claim because it’s already been a day. Do they keep small items they find at baggage claim??

4 REPLIES 4

Re: Open luggage and missing items

chgoflyer
Aviator A

Unfortunately, as you suspect, baggage claims must be made at the airport within 4 hours of arrival. You can try to contact the airport (and/or Southwest) to see if there's a lost and found, but I suspect that might be a waste of time. Southwest doesn't open or inspect luggage -- that would be TSA, and unfortunately many TSA employees have been caught stealing from bags. (You can also file a report with TSA, for what it's worth.)

 

As a reminder, you should never put prescription drugs in checked baggage -- always keep those with you on your carry-on.

Re: Open luggage and missing items

dfwskier
Aviator A

@chgoflyer wrote:

Unfortunately, as you suspect, baggage claims must be made at the airport within 4 hours of arrival. You can try to contact the airport (and/or Southwest) to see if there's a lost and found, but I suspect that might be a waste of time. Southwest doesn't open or inspect luggage -- that would be TSA, and unfortunately many TSA employees have been caught stealing from bags. (You can also file a report with TSA, for what it's worth.)

 

As a reminder, you should never put prescription drugs in checked baggage -- always keep those with you on your carry-on.


I agree with chgoflyer, about always keeping things you can't afford to lose with you in a carry on., ie meds.

 

It's been a long time since I flew into BWI, so I don't remember whether the baggage claim area is dedicated to specific airlines or not. If not, contacting airport lost in found is worth a try. If dedicated, a call to Southwest baggage claim also couldn't hurt.

 

About the 4 hour window to file a claim, you said you left a voice mail with Southwest because no Southwest employee was present. If you did that within the 4 hours, you might be able to say that you tried, and there would be a date/time stamp tied to your voice mail.

 

I wish you luck.

Re: Open luggage and missing items

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@dfwskier wrote:

@chgoflyer wrote:

Unfortunately, as you suspect, baggage claims must be made at the airport within 4 hours of arrival. You can try to contact the airport (and/or Southwest) to see if there's a lost and found, but I suspect that might be a waste of time. Southwest doesn't open or inspect luggage -- that would be TSA, and unfortunately many TSA employees have been caught stealing from bags. (You can also file a report with TSA, for what it's worth.)

 

As a reminder, you should never put prescription drugs in checked baggage -- always keep those with you on your carry-on.


I agree with chgoflyer, about always keeping things you can't afford to lose with you in a carry on., ie meds.

 

It's been a long time since I flew into BWI, so I don't remember whether the baggage claim area is dedicated to specific airlines or not. If not, contacting airport lost in found is worth a try. If dedicated, a call to Southwest baggage claim also couldn't hurt.

 

About the 4 hour window to file a claim, you said you left a voice mail with Southwest because no Southwest employee was present. If you did that within the 4 hours, you might be able to say that you tried, and there would be a date/time stamp tied to your voice mail.

 

I wish you luck.


I concur here that your voicemail with the details could be considered to be taking action since no one was available. 

 

I would call both airports in case it came loose at the origination airport, as well as the destination - although i would expect someone to put a piece of tape or something on it if the flap came open at the origination before loading, but who knows.

 

There wouldn't be much reason to cause it to open during flight unless it was turbulent.

 

One other thing would be if you had any prohibited battery type items, the TSA will remove those automatically. i.e. vaping equipment as one example.

 

Will the prescription be in its original container with your name on it? That could help. If it was not in its container, maybe TSA thought it looked suspicious in the x-ray.

 

But I think we're confusing issues - if TSA opened it in an official manner, they should have sealed it back up in an official manner. This sounds more like baggage handling to me.

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Open luggage and missing items

pilfered1
Explorer C

I had an item (iPhone charger) go missing from the front pocket of my duffel bag in November, and just received a letter that my case is closed and nothing can be done about it. They specifically said that if it's a compartment that could have easily opened during transport, there's not anything that could be done about the contents even though my bag arrived still zippered - I feel like it was opened and the charger taken because it could be felt through the thin duffel material.  Also, despite calling just under four hours after my flight arrived, the baggage service representative delayed filing a report, which is infuriating, and they cited being beyond the four hour time frame to present a case that in the letter I received. I hope you have better luck than I did. Sorry, it's a really frustrating situation to be in.