5 Weeks After Emirates Lost My Bag – A Surprising Turn

In case you hadn’t read the previous posts about this, I took Emirates’ non-stop flight from Newark to Athens last month. While the flight itself was fantastic, they ended up losing one of my two checked bags.

5 Weeks After Emirates Lost My Bag – A Surprising Turn

The Most Simple Route Met With the Strangest Bag Loss

This happened from an airport that Emirates only had that single flight from and on a non-stop to another location where they only fly to from Newark and Dubai. It was a big disappointment and quite costly since it had Christmas gifts in it and weeks went by with no news at all (though their Twitter team was great about keeping me up to date that there was no progress).

The Surprising Turn

So, about a week and a half ago, I got an e-mail from an Emirates representative with these glorious words – “We have possession of your luggage. Where would you like us to send your luggage?”

I have to say – after almost 5 weeks had gone by with no sign of it at all, I just figured that bag was gone for good. I mean, what are the odds of them finding it after all that time?

I promptly responded with the address and then did not hear back from them again so started wondering what was going on. Last Tuesday, exactly 5 weeks since my bag had not shown up at the baggage carousel in Athens, my wife texted me the exciting words that our bag had just shown up at the house in NY!

The Route of My Lost Bag

When I got home, I checked through the baggage claim paperwork that had been in the bag and here was the story I was able to piece together.

After they must have lost the tags in Newark (though there was still an address/name tag on the bag that we found when it was returned?), the bag was eventually sent to Germany with Lufthansa. From there, it appears it sat for a little while before heading off to Cairo with Egyptair.

Once it arrived there, it sat in Cairo for about a week before heading back to Germany. Again, it sat there for a while and then headed back to NYC, JFK, and it was finally delivered to me in upstate NY.

Strangely enough, everything was still in the bag! I thought that if it ever was found that there would be things missing due to it likely being in an unsupervised position for a length of time. Yet, it was all there!

I found it interesting that it was picked up and transported by Star Alliance airlines before ever being reunited with Emirates. I am still not sure how I had a name/address label with the bag and that it was not found/matched up earlier but very thankful it finally was!

Is That It?

According to the Montreal Convention, after a bag has been delayed/missing for 21 days, it is considered lost and reimbursement needs to be made up to an amount that is around $1,600 (as of now) – until it is found. Yes, Emirates had finally found and returned it but I had to replace many things (gifts) after it went missing that they were to have reimbursed me for. As of yet, I have not received any reimbursement and this includes for things like the daily essentials that they were to have reimbursed me for (like toiletries and any necessary clothing).

Emirates reached out to me shortly after the bag was returned with the information regarding the reimbursement claim and what they needed. I provided all of that last week and am waiting now to hear what they will do. I will certainly do a post when that part is finished to cap off this crazy ride!

I do need to say that the Emirates Twitter team was great! They were very responsive and even checked into my various inquiries that uses the complaint form to see where in the process the complaint was. I really appreciate them and their contract agents in Athens who also kept me up to date for the first couple of weeks.

Have you ever had a bag missing this long finally show up?