Airmageddon at London Heathrow, my suitcase is missing. I know where it is but nobody helps me
Using airtags to check one's belongings, especially embarked suitcases is the only way to have any hope of recovering a missing beam at this time
KLM
LHR
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Last week, I took off from London on my crazy round-the-world trip..
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Saturday morning at nine o'clock I had the first flight from London to Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt to Tokyo, subsequent stops took me to Sydney, Auckland, Honolulu, and Vancouver.
The best bonuses
Today, Sunday 17, eight days after taking off, I returned to London., with an Air Canada flight. And from London I left again in the direction of Nice and from there home.
My suitcase, embarked in Honolulu, duly arrived on the delivery belt this time within minutes. However, the situation throughout the airport is still chaotic.
Gone are the piles of abandoned luggage, but suitcases scattered here and there can still be seen.
One step back
Aware of the problems around half of Europe, I had decided to fly to the English capital the day before, sleep near the airport and show up for departure in the morning punctual and rested.
In fact, everything went (almost) smoothly Except that my luggage never made it onto the conveyor belt. of Terminal 3 where he should have arrived a few minutes after landing.
Luggage tracking
In recent years there has been a great technological evolution in this regard, companies have developed systems that in real time inform, via official apps, where the luggage is and even there are those, like Delta, which awards passengers mileage compensation if luggage does not arrive on the belt within 21 minutes.
There have also been attempts at technological gadgets such as small gps devices to be placed in suitcases, to British Airways' reusable electronic tag.
I for over a year, the rare times I board a suitcase, I always place an airtags inside. It is small, it does not create interference problems, it does not clutter, and most importantly unlike all other systems, it guarantees me the highest probability of having my luggage pop out sooner or later.
I had just written about it a few days before my departure, telling how in a trip to Brimigham, via Paris, I had followed my suitcase.
Baggage that never arrived
When I arrived in London on Friday afternoon and I saw the chaos in the conveyor belt area I immediately checked where my luggage was. It was last reported to be in Amsterdam. More than two hours after landing, I decided, like other passengers to go and report the non-arrival of my suitcase.
To activate insurance and compensation claims toward the company PIR (Property Irregularity Report) must be completed. And in the case of a trip to the UK, a customs declaration is also mandatory.
When filling out the PIR you also ask the company where to deliver the baggage, in my case I avoided asking to have my luggage delivered to one of the intermediate stops on my world tour, simply because I deemed it impossible to bet when and where we might meet. I then requested that it be sent to my residence.
The next morning, when I woke up, saw that my luggage was near T3 Heathrow, the lost luggage office reopened at 8 a.m., my flight from T2 at 9:45 a.m., too high a risk of missing my flight trying to retrieve my luggage, given the chaos at T2 it was a wise decision otherwise I would have (maybe) retrieved my luggage but missed all my flights.
I therefore left without a suitcase with only what I had on me and in my carry-on luggage.
No news from the company
Today, 9 days after I landed in London aboard flight KL1031 I haven't received any more information from the company: if it weren't for the airtags inserted in my suitcase, I wouldn't know what happened to my things.
In this week while I was literally on the other side of the planet, I would see my suitcase move first to the T3 area, and then to T2. At that point I hoped it would be a prelude to homecoming, but instead nothing. For the past 4 days my suitcase, or at least my airtag has been immobile somewhere in Terminal 2 from which Star Alliance airlines depart.
How airtags work
The size of coins connect via Bluetooth to nearby Apple devices. There is no need to configure anything; the system is included with iOS devices and allows a signal to be transmitted, in total privacy, to the owner of the airtag.
My arrival at Heathrow
Today I arrived at London Heathrow from Vancouver, I retrieved the suitcase that I boarded in Hawaii, and since my suitcase turned out to be in the same location as mine, I asked the various desks for help.
No dice, KLM leaves from T3 so I was directed here.
First I tried asking at the check-in counters. of AirFrance-KLM, but it was explained to me that they have no control, so I walked from departures to arrivals and tried calling a dozen times from the service phone with no answer.
I tried calling, while I was in line to go through security, the number that was left for me when I reported. They answered but could not put me through to anyone from KLM.
In all of this the absurd thing is that According to the app I was within 100m from where my luggage had been detected, but of course you can't wander around the underground warehouses of an airport, and at the moment information about the altitude of the lost item is not detected.
Moral of the story, I left for Nice without my luggage., which continues to be somewhere inside T2.
Compensation and compensation
As I often say. Moving at this time without adequate insurance coverage is madness, too high the risks of getting stuck or even worse turning out positive away from home. After opening the report I made a claim to the company and will make a claim to the insurance company tomorrow.
In this case, my American Express Alitalia Platino is one of the cards with the best travel insurance available on the market and provides coverage for costs incurred for "emergency" expenses up to just under 3000€.
I had to buy everything, from suitcase to clothing. Considering that I was flying in the southern hemisphere where it is currently winter, I was forced to buy from underwear to a winter jacket, all the stuff that was inside my suitcase.