Lost Luggage: A Story in Governance, Privacy, and Process Automation

Lost luggage. Occupational hazard of the road warrior, right? I feel like I get stung by this more than is statistically likely, but I suppose we all do. I'm long past taking it out on the helpless lost baggage agents - that's a terrible thing to unleash on someone who has no responsibility for, nor ability to do, anything about it. 

But tonight's episode was a little different. Background: I was flying home from a speaking event and had the opportunity to get out a bit earlier on standby. Now, everyone who flies knows that per the FAA, or airline regulations, or something someone believes on their own, your bags Must. Be. On. Your. Flight. You can't fly on a different flight from your luggage. Well, unless the airline decides to. Or something. So in this case, there was a pop-up during the register for standby process that noted that my bags could go out on the standby flight, even if I didn't make it on, so I should check with the baggage claim office upon arrival. 

No problem; I checked my bags in at 1:15 pm for a 5:14 original departure, expecting that my bag would either arrive early, or be on my original flight. I made it on the standby flight. Aside, but relevant: my standby ticket put me in boarding group 4, and they are limited to 1 carry-on that can fit under the seat; moreover, they were already looking for people to check additional carry-ons. So between the two, I gate-checked my second carry-on. 

Boarded. Flew. Landed. Went to baggage claim. Waited. 

The gate-checked carry-on arrived about 10 minutes after I got there. 

After 30 minutes, I checked the app. There's a setting for "Track my bags", so I did. I saw a note with the following message: 

Bag arrived on a different flight. 

We wanted to let you know that your bag will arrive [emphasis mine] on a later flight. To save time and skip the baggage services line, use the United app to set up complimentary bag delivery. You can also call [number] for additional assistance. 

There was a helpful link to set up bag delivery, so I clicked it. As a reminder, this is a link from within the United app, which I was logged into at the time. 

The first field it asked me for was my United Mileage Plus number. 

Then it asked me for the rest of my personal information. 

It asked me to describe the bag. It did already know the claim ticket ID. 

And it asked me for a delivery address. This last I'm of two minds about. What are the odds of someone, based in Denver, flying the second leg of a round trip out of and into Denver, would want their luggage delivered to somewhere other than the address United has on file? It's possible, I suppose, but why not a similar confirmation as "shipping address" and "billing address" being on every form ever? 

I got a confirmation message, with a file reference, a confirmation number, and a bag tag, and the note that "A confirmation email has been sent to JWILKINS13@GMAIL.COM". That was over 90 minutes ago; no email has arrived. Yes, I checked my spam. 

So, some questions, two IG/privacy/process-related and two selfishly relevant probably only to me: 

• Why does the "deliver my bag" bit require the same information United already has about me? Is it a different system? Pass it through - like you did the fact that my bag has or will arrive maybe. Is it a different vendor? Same same. 
• Why, for something that people generally get extraordinarily upset about, is there no actual email despite the explicit promise in the message in the app? 
• When can I in fact expect delivery of my bag, which has, among other things, a medical device in it? I guess I'll be calling that number shortly. 
• And the big one - how did a bag that I checked in 4 hours early, using the United Premier desk, with actual human beings, not make it onto my flight? 

I did call the number, and it greeted me by first name on pickup, which was a bit creepy, and already knew that my call might be related to a delayed bag. It asked me to confirm last name, and then simply said, "We are searching for your bag and will post an update as soon as it located." Or check the website. Which I did, and it said,  So again, the whole "has arrived" and "will arrive" appear to be garbage at this point.  

Update: about 5 minutes ago, the baggage tracing site (https://www.united.com/en/us/baggage-tracing) has been updated to indicate that "Baggage Received at Airport". Still no email, though....

Interesting update: at 9:30 PM MST I got a text indicating that "Tijan" (name? company?) had picked up my baggage - and that I will be notified when my baggage is sent out. So.... I read this as some non-DIA entity is in possession of my bags but not directly on the way to deliver them? Still no email. 

Final update: Communications improved overnight; I got an email and text combo at 12:30 am that the deliver was on the way, and one at about 6:50 am that the suitcase had been delivered. Which it has! Haven't confirmed contents etc. - that's next. But this whole saga still does have me wondering about their process - there's clearly room for improvement from the privacy, IM, and process automation perspectives.