[QuidditchMom2]

Our daughter left for Honolulu via United on Wednesday, April 10 . She was supposed to leave at 10:15 am, but her flight to Newark was cancelled and then delayed several times until it finally left around 6pm. She then flew to San Francisco and had a 9 hour layover (in the middle of the night) before her flight to Honolulu. All in all, her trip took her 31 hours, instead of the 12 it was supposed to. I understand that these delays were because of weather.

Unfortunately, her suitcase did not make it through all the delays, but
the people at United told her that it would be delivered to her hotel in
about 2 hours. It never arrived. When I called 9 hours later, I was told
that it was still in Newark and scheduled to be on a flight the next
day, but not until 1:30pm. I called several times for updates and could
not get confirmation from anyone on the phone that it would indeed make
it onto that flight, nor could they provide me with any helpful phone
numbers other than the one I had called. They just kept saying "it
SHOULD make it onto the flight" and "if you have any further questions,
call us back." I had further questions that they couldn't answer, yet
they couldn't give me any contacts that could. Even when I called at
1:20pm to make sure it had been scanned and was indeed aboard, they had no idea, saying that they aren't always scanned.

Finally, this morning, wheresmyluggage.com showed that it had arrived in
Honolulu at 10:45pm Friday night, but as of 11AM, twelve hours after
arriving in Hawaii, it still hadn't been delivered. The woman I talked
to when I called this time actually called the delivery service, and I
was told it would be there in an hour. It was finally there when she
returned to the hotel after THREE full days in Hawaii.

I am beyond disgusted with the way her missing luggage was handled
and with the fact that my daughter, who was supposed to be
enjoying a vacation of a lifetime in Hawaii, spent over 60 hours (plus
the 30 it took for her to get there) with just her purse and the clothes
on her back. I did speak to someone yesterday who authorized her to
spend up to $100 on clothes and toiletries, but she was with a tour group and couldn't exactly leave to go shopping.)

I wrote to the airline to see what they were willing to do for her to help rectify this issue. At the very least, I thought she should be reimbursed for her $25 baggage fee and perhaps be allowed to check it on the way home without charge. In addition, she will have to submit a form and receipts for the $100 she was authorized to spend, which will be even more time spent on United’s many errors. I asked United to, at the very
least, simply credit this $150 to her credit card (or send it in the form of a refund check) to cover the two baggage fees and the $100 credit.

Their response was "Checked baggage fees are a transportation fee and can be refunded only if the bag does not travel or if the bag is lost and not found. When a bag is delayed, the fee still applies. We are unable to waive checked baggage fees when the fee applies." They also told me that we must submit the form and receipts in order to get the $100 credit. RIDICULOUS!!