My Lost Bag Situation Is a Very Strange One

When you fly internationally and connect with various airlines/partners and do so at times with tight connections, it is likely that, at some point, you will end up at your destination without your checked luggage. Most of the time, it takes a day or two to reconnect your lost/delayed luggage with you. But, sometimes it can take a lot longer – and not be so cut and dried of a situation.

The Strange Lost Luggage Situation I Am Dealing With

Lost Bags Are Not Unusual

I rarely check luggage on my trips. The exception is when I am coming back to my family as I will often have gifts or some things that we have in the US or we cannot get in Europe. On a few of those trips, some of my checked bags have been delayed for a couple of days. It is always interesting to see from the checked luggage tags how the bags were routed to finally get them to me! 🙂

Sometimes, those bags will be “lost” for just a little bit. The carriers try to find them and sometimes they will show up while they are still technically lost in the system.

Delta and American Offer the Great Service of Baggage Updates

I may have some issues with airlines like Delta and American Airlines but I love how their app notifies me when the bags are loaded on the plane, when they are taken off, and when they arrive at the baggage carousel. It is so easy to stay current with my bags and even plan on little things like if I have time to hit the bathroom before going to the baggage carousel!

Other airlines do not have this feature (yet) but they could definitely benefit from having something like this. It would have been especially useful with my current situation that I am dealing with.

My Current Lost Bag Situation with Emirates Is Really Strange

As I said in the intro, when you have multiple connections that may be tight or are with different airlines, it is understandable that a checked bag may not make your flight. I have had that happen and I understand it. But, the situation I am dealing with is so different from that that I simply cannot understand it at all! Here it is.

A few days ago, I flew from Newark to Athens with Emirates. I have flown this flight in the other direction before and found it to be fantastic. Again, the flight itself was excellent.

But, when I arrived in Athens, only one of my checked bags came out. I went to the counter and found out that the other bag had never left Newark. However, I was assured it would arrive the next day or, at worst, in two days.

Bag Lost for Many Days – And What Makes This Strange

It is several days later and not only do I still not have my bag – the airline does not even know where it is! Now, here are the points that make this very strange to me.

• Emirates only has one flight from Newark airport
• That one flight is a non-stop to Athens (no connections to worry about)
• There were only about 150-180 people on my flight so not nearly as many bags as they may typically carry
• The bag was checked in along with my other bag that did make it

That’s right – there were no connections and not even other flights for this bag to get confused with! I mean, when the Emirates flight takes off for Athens, there should not even be another bag left in the luggage area bearing an Emirates tag – there are no other flights!

Yet, despite all of those things that should make this a simple case, it has been days and Emirates still has no news about the bag. There is absolutely no excuse for something like this to happen and for it to take this long to find it. I have filled out the reports and they keep saying I should have the bag before too long without even knowing where it is.

This really makes me wish I had checked a piece of smart luggage with tracking… In the meantime, those gifts that I had are now late and may never even arrive. Thanks a lot, Emirates.