Pro Photo West Fall 2019

CHECKED BAGGAGE…A CAUTIONARY TALE
By - Robin Swanson
With the holidays coming and with Imaging USA just around the corner, a lot of you will be
traveling by plane. I thought I would share with you some very important lessons that I recently
learned regarding checked baggage.
My sister and I recently took our Mother on a much anticipated cruise to Alaska. This was a
present for our Mother’s 87 th birthday. When we arrived in Seattle and went to get our luggage
from the Delta carousel in the baggage claim area, two of our checked bags could not be found.
We immediately went to the Delta Baggage Claim counter and reported the 2 missing bags. After
much confusion and frustration, we were directed to the Seattle Port Police where we went over
the videos from the baggage claim security cameras. YIKES! Right there on the video we saw 3
people STEAL 3 bags. One bag belonged to another passenger, one bag was mine and one bag
belonged to my sister (what are the odds?). The luggage thieves very casually walked in off the
street, grabbed our bags, then walked out the door to a waiting car and drove away. This is the
new reality…there is no one stationed in the baggage claim areas to check luggage tags. Any bad
guy (or girl) can walk right in off the street and take your luggage.
Now began the arduous process of filing reports with both Delta and with the police. The process
took several hours and we made it to the cruise ship with only minutes to spare.
Now what? We were embarking on an Alaskan cruise and my sister had NO CLOTHES and I
was missing some of my clothes and all of my personal items. The Delta people told us to buy
what we needed to “get by” and that we would be reimbursed. So that is what we did. Due to the
very limited shopping on board and the time constraints once we arrived in Juneau, we were
forced to buy things that we would never use again once we were back home…they were just to
“get by”.
Once we were home, we went through the cumbersome process of filing claims for the stolen
items and separate claims for the out-of-pocket expenses. Although Delta reimbursed us for the
stolen luggage, they denied our out-of-pocket expense claims stating that it is their policy to only
reimburse for the stolen luggage and not the out-of-pocket expenses. Had our luggage been
simply “delayed”, then they would pay the out-of-pocket expenses. We are still battling with Delta
over this.
Now, these are the important lessons I learned (many of these tips were shared with me by the
Seattle Port Police officer):
1. NEVER fly on the same day that you are meeting a cruise ship (or any other important time
sensitive event). Too many things can go wrong.
2. Make your suitcase stand out so that you can identify it from all angles (a ribbon tied to
the handle is not enough). Many bags look alike and if you have a plain looking suitcase, it is very
hard to identify on the security videos. Also, luggage thieves are looking for suitcases that are
non-descript. I was advised to use Red Duct tape to mark both sides of my luggage with a big red
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