It was 9pm, 40° colder than our home airport & we were bag-less…at a school for ants.

Don’t get me wrong, I love small airports, and this one was the ‘smallest of them all’. So small, that if my love were to be based just on their size…then this one would be Prince Charming…it was a pug dressed in non-slip socks…it was adorable…

…and I really got a chance to appreciate is as we waited…and waited…for bags that never came…

Ours was the last flight of the night. We’d flown into a ski destination, we were dressed for a beach party…we needed help.

When we finally tracked down an airline representative at his Polly-Pocket check-in “counter”, things were more complicated than I had hoped. See, this representative, he didn’t actually work for the airline (or any airline specifically). Apparently, this airport was so small that each airline had gone in and bought a time-share of this one employee. So, throughout the day he was literally everything to everyone (to say it another way – it also meant he wasn’t actually a part of any of the airlines). 

He was the right man for the job though because he was organized and nice. Really nice. Nice in a way that an actual representative from any particular one of the airlines couldn’t have been. Because, he put us (the customer) first. He just wanted us to leave with a positive impression of the airport and give us as much help as he could – which came in the form of too many toothpaste kits (for the 3 of us, he insisted we take 5)

Ultimately though, there was nothing this one rep could do. I mean, we all knew that already, right? But, like – for real – there was nothing he could do, he didn’t work for the airline. 

• In a kind of bizarre way, his distance from the airline made us all simpatico with problem. We couldn’t push him for more or complain to him about the airline, but…we could complain with him about airline baggage policies. Which – when all I wanted to do was grouch about our inconvenience – it was nice to have the guy helping us join in.

He was able to file a report for the missing bag and flag it for the next available flight. Which, as I began the reimbursement process, was very, very helpful. And, he suggested that we call the airline in the morning. He was sure they’d sort it out.

• We had been on United. He might have had all the confidence that they’d sort it out, but I’ve never been confident about anything with United. At the top of my list of weird/awkward experiences with the airline, I always think of United as the airline on which the 1st-Class-Stewardess complained at length and loudly to her co-workers about her unwanted body hair and then served me chardonnay with a healthy side-eye daring me to say it wasn’t the champagne I’d ordered.

So, there we were, with just the clothes on our back until the next flight arrived – tomorrow at 3pm.

We weren’t naked, but we’d traveled from LA’s sunny and 68° to Santa Fe windy and 29° (with temps dropping). So – in short – we’d brought bathing suits to a blizzard fight.

The only store still open was Target – which of all the stores to be our only option, wasn’t too bad. We were able to get new toiletries, underwear, coats, gloves & even boots. Sure, these things weren’t the matching snow pants and jackets that Jade had prepared for the next morning’s hike…but we weren’t going to die of exposure, so it was a win/win.

Mandatory Target Fashion Show

When the total came up around $350, Jade and I made jokes about the airline’s response. There was no way this was going to work out in our favor, even though it should. Really, everything we were buying should have been reimburse-able.

I knew that because over the last hour, I’d become an expert in ‘airline baggage law’.

The Google Airline Law Degree

Waiting at the micro-machine airport, I had done a quick search for passenger rights for delayed bags, and paid special attention to 2 bullet points ::

• Airlines are required to compensate passengers for reasonable, verifiable, and actual incidental expenses that they may incur while their bags are delayed – subject to the maximum liability limits (which is its own subsection).
  
• Airlines are not allowed to set an arbitrary daily amount for interim expenses.  For example, an airline cannot have a policy that they will reimburse a passenger up to only $50 for each day that a passenger’s bag is delayed.

So, with my Wiki Law Degree, I knew that (at least as written) the law was on our side. Also, it was freezing and at lease one of use was covered in airline lemonade, so it would be nice to get money for the things we had to buy to survive. But, let’s be real, anyone who’s ever flown on an airplane will agree – airlines somehow always find a loophole or a sub-clause that holds them unaccountable for whatever they want to do.

We kissed the $350 goodbye and set out to enjoy our trip.

After receiving our bags the next afternoon, I logged online and submitted our claim for reimbursement, making sure to send in a high quality photo of the receipt.

A few weeks past, and I had just assumed that I’d get a form letter explaining how ‘bags delayed in transit are actually either our own fault, weather related or an act of God‘ and I ultimately would not be reimbursed. 

So, I was really surprised when an actual United Airlines rep called me.

She must make dozens of these types of calls a day, but she wasn’t rushed and actually seemed concerned about our bags. It was really nice how she checked to make sure that our bags arrived and then asked about our trip.  

She signed off the call saying that she was submitting the invoice now and I should expect a check in a few weeks.

The check for $350 is currently on my desk. We actually got reimbursed for buying the clothes and toiletries we needed during the first day of our trip.

And maybe you can too.

Here are a Few Tips for Getting Reimbursement :

• (Before handing over your bags) Take a photo of your bag tag while checking-in. You really need the bag tag number to file a claim.
• Remember what you’re entitled to as a passenger. Glance over the passenger bill of rights.
• Report the bag missing at the airport to a representative. 
  • Keep in mind, this is just an airline rep at the airport, they might behave differently or have different information than the call-center airline rep who deals with this all the time. Also, this person won’t really have any say in the ultimate resolution of the situation…so give them what they need to file the report and then take what they say with a grain of salt.
• If you can, look up your airlines’ individual policies before making any purchases. Here are links to a few of the larger airline’s policies:
  • Delta
    • “Reasonable expenses are generally determined as $50 USD per day” but go on to say that this is not a cap. Airline’s can’t cap a claim.
    • “You must have already submitted the baggage claim form to receive expense reimbursement.”
  • American
    • American offers a handy form letter with checklist
      • Well it’s sort of handy, but also kinda makes you hate them because (in the event of a lost bag) it asks for receipts for everything in your bag
  • United
  • Southwest
    • This airline is noticeably the most hands-on. There doesn’t seem to be an easy-to-access online form. You have to call or send an email.
• Take a photo of all receipts you get for the goods you need – immediately.
• File your report as soon as possible – within 24 hours just to be safe (some airlines require that)
• If you have higher than expected expenses, make sure you make your reasons clear when you file.
• When I filed our report, I made clear that we had a kid that had spilled juice all over herself on the plane and needed new clothes and that we had dramatically changed climates and were unprepared for the weather.
• Follow up on your report. Many airlines have trackers that you can view online.

Having gone through this, what I really feel is that ‘it is possible to get reimbursed for lost or delayed bag, but still not definite’.

Even with the positive outcome in this situation, there’s no way I’d expect things to go well next time or with another airline…but it’s not impossible that they might end up in our favor. Basically, I learned that it’s worth at least trying to get reimbursed and that essentials can go over the suggested $50 if they can be justified.

Good luck, and don’t let the overall negative experience of dealing with airline regulations hamper you from getting back what your owed.