Couple of notes from working baggage.
Not sure what the staffing is in BOS or how much time they have to research items like this or what the baggage office looked like on the day he flew. We have 2 people in the office (not BOS) most of the day and if its a bad day with lots of claims, arriving bags (that need to be delivered and leftovers or deals) will sit. The agents are so busy taking claims that it takes time to get out to sort all the leftovers in front of the office. Then another flight comes in and if there are more claims, you stop, take claims, then start searching the pile all over again. Something like a tagoff would probably be bottom of the list if there was a chance at getting the known bags out the same day.
Tag off. That means when it arrives in BOS they have no clue where it is to go. Depending on when the bag was brought to the office, you could have many flights to search for the reservation. If they were traveling interline on EI, that means they had a paper ticket which means an eticket search would have been useless. It would have taken time to look through all the arriving flights to try to find the owner. With a PIT address, that should have been a clue as to where to start looking, but since none of us were there, we dont know what they did or didnt do trying to find the owner.
If EI knew the bag didnt make the flight from BOS and hence, US didnt get it to them, they should contact US. They said (and showed) where they sent messages, but did US get them? The printer in baggage has been broken before which means it might not have reached them. Or they could have just sent tracer messages that didnt get to US directly. If EI knew the bag didnt get to them in BOS, why didnt an EI agent contact US baggage to check on a bag? Maybe they did, maybe not. An EI baggage agent could have contacted EI in BOS to go check the US leftovers (in person or via phone) to see if something was there.
It sounds like there was a breakdown all around in regards to getting the bag back to him. In many instances like this you have to have an agent who is motivated to do research and hunt down the person when a bag it tagoff. You also need the person who is missing the bag to get creative and think outside the normal channels in trying to hunt it down. It sounds like everyone was just waiting for someone to walk in and claim it or just hope that it would show up.
Also, it is the last carriers responsibility to get the bag to the owner no matter where it went astray. I've seen many times misconx inbound from Europe where US didnt get the bag until after the flight left. This means 1 day later for US to send the bag to the US and then most times another day to get it to us since we must physically clear the bag thru customs ourselves. It can be a time consuming effort with an international bag that is missing.
Since no one (appearantly) would talk to him, we have no way of knowing who did what or when in regards to try to get his bag back to him. All we know is that it was tagoff in BOS and eventually made it back to PIT.
Until someone can think of a way to get the baggage situation in better control, there needs to be better staffing to take care of the mess in the aftermath at the baggage office. If most of the other cities are staffed like my station (and BOS is a lot bigger), there are going to continue to be problems like this.
Not sure what the staffing is in BOS or how much time they have to research items like this or what the baggage office looked like on the day he flew. We have 2 people in the office (not BOS) most of the day and if its a bad day with lots of claims, arriving bags (that need to be delivered and leftovers or deals) will sit. The agents are so busy taking claims that it takes time to get out to sort all the leftovers in front of the office. Then another flight comes in and if there are more claims, you stop, take claims, then start searching the pile all over again. Something like a tagoff would probably be bottom of the list if there was a chance at getting the known bags out the same day.
Tag off. That means when it arrives in BOS they have no clue where it is to go. Depending on when the bag was brought to the office, you could have many flights to search for the reservation. If they were traveling interline on EI, that means they had a paper ticket which means an eticket search would have been useless. It would have taken time to look through all the arriving flights to try to find the owner. With a PIT address, that should have been a clue as to where to start looking, but since none of us were there, we dont know what they did or didnt do trying to find the owner.
If EI knew the bag didnt make the flight from BOS and hence, US didnt get it to them, they should contact US. They said (and showed) where they sent messages, but did US get them? The printer in baggage has been broken before which means it might not have reached them. Or they could have just sent tracer messages that didnt get to US directly. If EI knew the bag didnt get to them in BOS, why didnt an EI agent contact US baggage to check on a bag? Maybe they did, maybe not. An EI baggage agent could have contacted EI in BOS to go check the US leftovers (in person or via phone) to see if something was there.
It sounds like there was a breakdown all around in regards to getting the bag back to him. In many instances like this you have to have an agent who is motivated to do research and hunt down the person when a bag it tagoff. You also need the person who is missing the bag to get creative and think outside the normal channels in trying to hunt it down. It sounds like everyone was just waiting for someone to walk in and claim it or just hope that it would show up.
Also, it is the last carriers responsibility to get the bag to the owner no matter where it went astray. I've seen many times misconx inbound from Europe where US didnt get the bag until after the flight left. This means 1 day later for US to send the bag to the US and then most times another day to get it to us since we must physically clear the bag thru customs ourselves. It can be a time consuming effort with an international bag that is missing.
Since no one (appearantly) would talk to him, we have no way of knowing who did what or when in regards to try to get his bag back to him. All we know is that it was tagoff in BOS and eventually made it back to PIT.
Until someone can think of a way to get the baggage situation in better control, there needs to be better staffing to take care of the mess in the aftermath at the baggage office. If most of the other cities are staffed like my station (and BOS is a lot bigger), there are going to continue to be problems like this.
