Ever wonder about that damage to checked airline luggage?

[Carolinian]

Baggage handlers filmed roughly handing luggage stood down

The trio have been let go as Qantas and ground handling service Swissport Australia launch an investigation into their conduct captured at Melbourne Airport.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[am1]

I watched air canada man handle my sons car seat at ewr a few years ago after we were late for boarding because of a missed connection/I thought gates were both connected airside. I think a $100 payout then a $2000 payout as we were on standby, given seats then seats were taken away as apparently it was a mistake. I contacted the cta about it and got a $2000 payout. This was right before the United incident. Or I would have asked for the 10k each. Also lied to about flight options the next day. United refunded the difference in miles between business and cattle class.

 

[Carolinian]

Oh, well, the video that used to be up which showed how really appalling the luggage throwing was has been replaced by still photos that do not do justice to what happened.

 

[billymach4]

Oldie But Goodie

 

[billymach4]

 

[billymach4]

 

[stmartinfan]

My daughter checked a brand new TravelPro soft-sided bag last month that I'd given her as a birthday gift (nearly $400 on sale). First flight and the axle holding one set of the wheels arrived broken. Delta's response was to send her a brand new suitcase, but it was a hard sided Ricardo, which I'm sure cost much less. Luckily, we have a very good luggage repair shop near us, which many off the airlines have used for covered repairs, so she dropped the bag there to get the wheel replaced. The shop is an authorized location for Traveler warranty work, so they said they'd check with the manufacturer about covering the wheel replacement since the bag was brand new. Luckily, I think it's probably less than $50 if she has to pay out of pocket.

The same shop has replaced wheels for us after airline damage and the owner has encouraged us to keep using our old 2 wheeled TravelPro bags as long as we can, because "they don't make them like that any more." Only down side is that they are much heavier than most bags now, although we still manage to stay under the weight restrictions.

I suspect the 4-wheeled bags are more susceptible to wheel breakage than the 2 wheeled ones that offer ore protection.

 

[jeff123]

Oh, well, the video that used to be up which showed how really appalling the luggage throwing was has been replaced by still photos that do not do justice to what happened.

The video was removed from a New Zealand news site as well. I did find it on YouTube:

 

[billymach4]

What we see in that video is truly abusive and uncalled for unfortunately that does happen and there is no excuse for it. It won't be the last either unfortunately. Just consider yourself lucky if you're banging does not get abused in such matter.

 

[DaveNV]

Seems like the aggressive throwing would make it even more work for the handlers. Just drag it onto the belt and move on.

Dave

 

[billymach4]

Seems like the aggressive throwing would make it even more work for the handlers. Just drag it onto the belt and move on.

Dave

You're exactly right there but then what fun would it be to not abuse passenger's luggage

 

[Carolinian]

My daughter checked a brand new TravelPro soft-sided bag last month that I'd given her as a birthday gift (nearly $400 on sale). First flight and the axle holding one set of the wheels arrived broken. Delta's response was to send her a brand new suitcase, but it was a hard sided Ricardo, which I'm sure cost much less. Luckily, we have a very good luggage repair shop near us, which many off the airlines have used for covered repairs, so she dropped the bag there to get the wheel replaced. The shop is an authorized location for Traveler warranty work, so they said they'd check with the manufacturer about covering the wheel replacement since the bag was brand new. Luckily, I think it's probably less than $50 if she has to pay out of pocket.

The same shop has replaced wheels for us after airline damage and the owner has encouraged us to keep using our old 2 wheeled TravelPro bags as long as we can, because "they don't make them like that any more." Only down side is that they are much heavier than most bags now, although we still manage to stay under the weight restrictions.

I suspect the 4-wheeled bags are more susceptible to wheel breakage than the 2 wheeled ones that offer ore protection.

When my wife and I were on a timeshare exchange to Vienna about twenty years ago, when we got our luggage on arrival, her brand new bag was destroyed. We had to tape it up to get it to the timeshare. Delta gave her a voucher to go to a shop in the city and get a new bag. When we got back to RDU on the return flight, that bag had been damaged on the return trip due to the wheels being destroyed. At first Delta said it was their policy not to offer compensation for damage to wheels or handles, but when they found out I was a gold level elite in SkyMiles, they changed their tune, took us to a room full of new luggage and let my wife pick one.

The many problems with checked luggage from damage to late arrival (sometmies days late) have reinforced my tendency to try to take only carry-on luggage when possible.

 

[clifffaith]

Other than the lift over head and slam down move, everything I saw on the video looked like normal rush to empty the container and move to the next stuff. I would expect my suitcase to be tossed and dropped at the airport, just the way I expect the post office to toss and drop my packages during handling. What I hate is when they leave the luggage cart on the tarmac during rain. Learned that the hard way and now the first thing that goes into my suitcase is a plastic trash bag, and all my clothes and shoes go into that bag.

 

[Carolinian]

Other than the lift over head and slam down move, everything I saw on the video looked like normal rush to empty the container and move to the next stuff. I would expect my suitcase to be tossed and dropped at the airport, just the way I expect the post office to toss and drop my packages during handling. What I hate is when they leave the luggage cart on the tarmac during rain. Learned that the hard way and now the first thing that goes into my suitcase is a plastic trash bag, and all my clothes and shoes go into that bag.

Multiple bags were thrown off the conveyor belt onto the floor below and there seems to be no effort to retrieve them or even to see that they did not go off the side to begin with.

I recall a poster or two on FlyerTalk referring to baggage handlers as "luggage throwers" and this video seems to bear out that description.

I remember years ago, I had one of those Samsonite bags with the hard shell that they used to advertise on TV by showing gorillas throwing them around in a cage. In my single days forty years or so ago, I went to Club Med in Martinique for a week and took that Samsonite bag with me. I changed planes in Miami from Delta to Air France on separate tickets so I had to recheck luggage both ways. The bag did fine on the outbound flights on both airlines and on the return flight on Air France. When I picked it up at RDU, however, it wobbled badly so I examined the bag, and that hard shell was broken close to one of the wheels, which made it wobble. Delta said that they did not give compensation for broken wheels, and pointing out that it was the actual shell of the luggage broken, not the wheel itself did no good. I was just an average airline customer then and never got any compensation. I later found out years later on damage to my wife's bag that there was a different set of rules if you held elite ff status with Delta.

 

[Blues]

I remember years ago, I had one of those Samsonite bags with the hard shell that they used to advertise on TV by showing gorillas throwing them around in a cage. In my single days forty years or so ago, I went to Club Med in Martinique for a week and took that Samsonite bag with me. I changed planes in Miami from Delta to Air France on separate tickets so I had to recheck luggage both ways. The bag did fine on the outbound flights on both airlines and on the return flight on Air France. When I picked it up at RDU, however, it wobbled badly so I examined the bag, and that hard shell was broken close to one of the wheels, which made it wobble. Delta said that they did not give compensation for broken wheels, and pointing out that it was the actual shell of the luggage broken, not the wheel itself did no good. I was just an average airline customer then and never got any compensation. I later found out years later on damage to my wife's bag that there was a different set of rules if you held elite ff status with Delta.

I had the same Samsonite bag that was supposedly indestructible. Bought it brand new in (IIRC) 1998. Went on a tour of China, which included air both ways across the Pacific, as well as at least 5 internal flights, all on Chinese airlines. Came back pristine.

A month or two later we went round trip, SF - Chicago (ORD). United somehow managed to bash it in so badly that one corner was completely inverted (bashed in), scratches and dents across the rest of the bag, and the suitcase wouldn't close - clothes were spilling out. To this day, I can't imagine the scenario in which they managed to destroy it so completely. Running over it with a forklift wouldn't do that much damage.