[maroontiger08]

I am a 23 year-old consultant, business traveler, who will spend an extensive portion of my career traveling for my job. My relationship with American Airlines was severely damaged beginning Thursday, June 24th. After boarding the plane, myself and about 10 other people were requested to "swim upstream" with our baggage while other passengers were still attempting to board and seat themselves. We were then made to check our bags to our final destination at the last minute. As this item is typically a carry-on and I am in a town I do not know with a rental car, I packed my GPS and my glasses; two items I would not typically pack in my checked baggage. With the chaos of the weather delayed flight, the attendants having issues with locating tags for all of us and determine airport abbreviations, and several passengers trying to get off the plane and then back on to get out of the way of others, I did not even consider what items were in the bag. When I arrived at Hobby Airport, my final destination after Dallas, I waited around the two moving baggage carousel for 45 minutes. I had to review both carousel as the monitors never indicated which of the two moving carousels my bag was on. Additionally, there was no announcement or notification when all of the bag from my flight had been de-boarded. Therefore, at 1:45 AM with no American associates left at the airport, myself and another individual were assisted by the information desk office in filing missing bag reports. Since my parking stub was in my GPS case, I had no card to leave the garage, so I wait 10 minutes while they research and had me file out paperwork. I final left the airport at 2 AM, after landing at 12:45 AM, for a flight that typically lands at 10 PM. About 24 hours later, my bag was delivered to my home with my GPS (in a purple and brightly multicolored polka-doted case) missing.

[jimworcs]

This has come up before. I do not think the airline can reasonably argue that "electronic" items are exempt under their T&C's when it was them who forced you to check it, when you had taken it on as hand baggage. I suggest you file a complaint with the DOT. There is a link to this under quick links at the bar on the top of this page.

[maroontiger08]

Thank you. I have tried this. I will post on the site if anything is accomplished by this task. I appreciate the suggestion.