 It can even happen to me. I am a seasoned traveller and I know that things happened and mistakes can be made but I was totally unprepared for my most recent trip to Geneva Switzerland.
The trip was originally going to be a family vacation but due to health challenges, new jobs, moving, all of our family members dropped out. So what was initially a trip to Italy changed to Switzerland...what could possibly go wrong. Our initial reservations were made with a domestic carrier who I will not name at this time as I am currently trying to recoup money from them for their mismanagement, lack of compassion and overall extremely pour customer services. What was suppose to be a 12 hour trip changed to a 37 hour nightmare. This company who I will name CC changed our flight before we left 4 times. The 5th time it was changed, we were MID FLIGHT. Yes you read it, we were flying to our connecting flight when they changed our flight. Upon landing in New York, we were informed that our connecting flight to Rome would have us arriving at 2:38 instead of the original 12:15. The young lady who was checking us in, notified us then,...oh by the way, your flight changed, were you aware.....HOW?? My phone was in flight mode, no emails!! I informed her that we have a connecting flight on a different airline and that flight was leaving at 3:05. She opened her mouth and was about to say, you can make....I just looked at her and then she said sorry. Now mind you, we were LEAVING at the same time but arrived 2 hours later...how is that possible. Upon arriving in Rome, I immediately called American Express to assist with the situation, they informed me that there were no direct flights available and that the only flight available was leaving at 7 pm that evening. Meaning that instead of the 1 and half layover planned, it was now 5 hours. I accepted this new flights paid for the tickets and sat down while my husband picked up our luggage. I was in the process of looking for an airport lounge when my husband tells me....your luggage is not here. EXECUSE ME...how is that possible, his was here but not mine. So now, the frustration is real and I am besides myself. I go to the Swiss port, which is the international luggage lost and found. My Italian was strong enough and her English strong enough that I was able to make a claim for my luggage, but here is the catch...you have to provide them with your luggage code so that they can verify its yours. Why would I want someone else’s luggage, I am not comfortable. doing this. If you dont give the code and identifiable objects, you can not file a claim...WHAT IN THE WORLD is this nonsense. The purpose of the code is protecting the items and now I have to tell you code and tell you what is in there in order to file a claim, oh my goodness. I give her the number, pray she is honest and go wait in the lounge in Rome. 5 hours laters, we are on a flight to the Netherlands, then to Zurich and then Geneva. It is now 1:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning, we left chicago at 2:30 pm on Sunday, 30+ hours later, we arrive and we are the only plane disembarking. We get to the luggage carrier and you guessed it, NO LUGGAGE. So again to another Swiss port (my husband luggage made it) where I file another claim, it is now 2:45 am. We arrive in Geneva exhausted, frustrated and deflated. Never have I lost luggage before in all my travels, but this year, for the first time I had APPLE AIR TAGS!! When I tell you this was a saving grace, I turned on my finder...my luggage was in NEW YORK in terminal one. You read that, I have traveled for over 30 hours and my luggage was still in the states. We get to the hotel, check in and plop down. I am on TEN because my thoughts are racing, oh my God, will my luggage make it, will they open it and take something, will it be in tact. I called CC airline 23 times while in Geneva that same morning, getting the run around, rude employees, transferring me to departments that were closed and that continued for hours. Finally at 6 am I go down to the hotel concierge and ask if they could contact the Swiss port in Rome to see if they could move things along. My luggage was tracked and landed in Rome at 4 pm and finally I tracked it to Switzerland at 8:45pm. I have been in the same clothes for over 50 plus hours!!!! When my airbag beeped that it was nearby we took a cab to retrieve it. Luckily nothing was taken out of it, it was securely tagged. What a relief, but in the mist of this, we missed my husband brother who was to join us on Monday, we had to push back an excursion from Tuesday to Wednesday and while everything was beautiful, I had not recovered from the jet lag, the mental exhaustion and the sheer agony of dealing with CC airlines. So now it’s time to return and I call Airline XXX who was the carrier whose connection we missed because of CC. WELL, if you missed the flight going, they cancel the flight returning. We tried to check in and nope, no tickets. Again on the phone with AMEX and they came through AGAIN. The agent was so kind and helpful and I think she could tell by the sound of my voice, that it was not a good day. Again we had to purchase another set of tickets to return. Now mind you these are same day tickets so they are NOT cheap. We land in Rome, spend the day there and return to the states. I called Amex to file a claim against CC and they inform me that I can received compensation if the flight was cancelled due to weather, terrorism or highjacking. I call CC and ask to speak with an agent. I ask can she provide me information about flight XXX which was cancelled. Her response, oh miss I am so sorry but you have to make that request 24 hours after the flight, the information has been purged from our system. WHAT!! So for clarification, the black box that can survive an airplane hitting the water at 400 knots an hour, land on the bottom of an ocean can be retrieved where they gather all flight data and can hear the pilots talking but you can’t tell me what happened 10 days ago? Just to be clear, is that what you are saying...she said yes. I called American Express, spoke to the agents, she informed me....File a claim for EVERYTHING. BET!
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