<p>I went to Amsterdam years ago and my suitcase never arrived. My father called the airline and said “do something, my daughter is in Europe with no clothes!”–they found my suitcase–my mistake I had not torn off a previous luggage tag still on the handle so the bag was misrouted.</p>
<p>His suitcase is in Scottsboro Alabama - that is if it doesn’t turn up in the next couple of days.
Most of the major airlines sell (I assume) their unclaimed bags to this outfit in Scottsboro that resells them, usually unopened in a giant warehouse. It is a treasure trove of other people’s dirty underwear. Don’t know how this particular business has fared since 9/11 :).</p>
<p>If this was my son, the suitcase would show up the day after we finished replacing his wardrobe.</p>
<p>This month, Son’s bag showed up 6 days after his departure. It took several days for it to leave the states and then was routed around europe until it arrived at home. Many strange stories about baggage this season. One lady’s parents who were visiting received their bags 3 days late including the bag of a lady from Hong Kong! Today we went shopping for a bag large enough for him to cart his music keyboard back to the dorms. We found one! Just have to keep to the weight limits now.</p>
<p>Well, thanks for the laughs and the sympathy everybody. Still no sign of the darn thing. Today he went out and replaced his electric razor. They said they were mailing us the claim forms. Today is his birthday. Maybe he’ll get some clothes from someone!</p>
<p>Oh no … his birthday? I hope you can celebrate anyway and that you can get some satisfaction soon.</p>
<p>weenie:</p>
<p>His birthday? Not in his birthday suit, right? 
Congrats anyway!</p>
<p>Now that was funny…he is stating over, arriving naked.</p>
<p>:D HA! 'nuff said.</p>
<p>Ha! That is funny. No, not his birthday suit – just the same jeans and hoody that he has had on since Saturday! </p>
<p>Today he said, “It’s kind of good not having any clothes - I don’t have any laundry to do!!” (I never realized that laundry was stressing him out so badly.)</p>
<p>I’m thinking it’s good because his room is so neat! No clothes on the floor!</p>
<p>Aw, way to look at the positive side weenie :)</p>
<p>I heard that all lost baggage eventually end up in some place in ALabama I think, where it’s sold</p>
<p>I lost my bag once coming from overseas, and they found out, about 1.5 weeks later, we had to fill out a form about how the bag exactly looked and all… turns out that it was never put on the plane because the load was too heavy so they shipped it with another lot’s bags … pretty scary though, considering everything i bought overseas was in there, plus all the clothes! Good luck with finding that bag.</p>
<p>weenie, not quite the same catastrophe here, but when I picked up DS, he had just thrown some of his dirty clothes into his duffel, with the idea that he would do laundry at home for the 3 weeks he’s here. Fine, so far, but somehow he didn’t bring home any underwear! So I’ve had to run to Target to pick up a new supply. It makes me wonder just how much dirty laundry he hasn’t gotten around to!</p>
<p>weenie
Momof2inca’s Son’s story should make you feel alot better about your son’s saga…</p>
<p>My husband’s golf clubs didn’t make it on his flight this past Spring from Florida but turned up a day later at the airport. A rep called him and asked him to describe the bag and clubs. He did and then she said, “was there anything in the bag besides golf equipment?” He thought a minute and said, “do you mean a couple of beers?” She said yes and asked for the brand. Turns out my spendthrift husband didn’t want to toss TWO whole beers so put them in his bag to bring home. They were the clincher in a positive identification.</p>
<p>Momof2inca,</p>
<p>I had no where near as difficult a time with S as you did, but I was amazed to see the laundry mesh thing come out of the duffle bag full of stuff (son thinks of himself as efficient in packing the whole thing; he was just sorry he could not find a way to fit his SHEETS in too!) The duffle didn’t suffer, but the laundry bag has been stuffed so full that it has begun to fall apart. His first day home I did laundry and repaired the bag!</p>
<p>So sorry for the frustration you faced.</p>
<p>And Weenie, the loss of that coat and all the most essential clothes must be a real pain. I hope the airline will take responsibility!</p>
<p>To anyone who thinks it’s just boys who make elementary packing errors:
Since I’m graduating in May and have managed to accumulate enormous amounts of stuff over the last 3 years I decided I would try and get a head start on bringing stuff home and pack my bags only with things that I didn’t want to take back to Philly after break is over. All well and good except for the fact that I entirely neglected to pack any shoes to take back with me, so I’ll be trekking back from JFK to Philly in flip-flops in a couple of weeks. (Another of my quasi-male traits being that I am too stubborn to acknowledge such a schoolboy error and take one of the unwanted pairs of shoes back with me)</p>
<p>Worked for Pan Am MANY years ago, and sent many a telex looking for lost baggage. The telex was sent out to every Pan Am office at airports around the world. Although airline rules required that we respond to every telex, depending on where a bag goes, you may never hear a thing. Many places would respond that they didn’t have it, or if they did, sent it on the next plane. But some stations never responded. It was a standard joke among us that if your bag wound up there, we would never know. Those stations were primarily in the Middle East or Africa. We never received a telex from them asking for us to check for a lost bag, either. Must be nice to have such a “perfect” record, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Filed the claim yesterday - $2100. So now they’ll probably really start looking!</p>
<p>I’m trying to figure out at what point I can safely start buying new clothes for him. The phone crew in India seems unable to answer that question. If it takes 4 to 6 weeks for a check, and I go out shopping, I wonder what happens if the suitcase shows up in the meantime? </p>
<p>Yesterday we did go out and order new glasses.</p>
<p>evita, it’s funny that you mention Africa. One of my Ds went to Africa this summer on a teaching/volunteer project. She was to be there for six weeks. She arrived and her very well-planned and packed (and VERY expensive!) backpack did not. NOT a good place to be without the specific items you need. Fortunately, three days later it showed up. She was very thankful and so were the others she was travelling with who had been lending her their own precious supplies. :)</p>
<p>weenie, sorry to hear about this. Many years ago (too many for me to care to count), the airlines lost our luggage (3 huge suitcases). We were 3 people in a foreign country, on a vacation. They did allow a certain amount of money per day that the bags were missing to allow us to buy some clothing and sundries like a toothbrush! Perhaps, you can get an allowance from them for a few days worth of clothing until they either settle the claim, or find the bag.</p>
<p>By the way, all of our luggage was found four days later, and hand delivered to our hotel.</p>