What Did United Airlines Do To This Luggage?

Isn't is nice how airlines continue to come up with new ways to surprise us? Like, hey, your dog is dead! Or, hey, we're gonna make this trip take 10 extra hours, get to know your neighbor! Or that time they let you sleep on the empty plane. The latest: the luggage you carefully chose and packed for your trip has been inexplicably and utterly destroyed.

A tipster sent in these shocking photos, with an account of her story (surprisingly, it does not center around an in-flight bear attack). Her adventure began on June 13th at New York City's own LaGuardia Airport—after many cancellations, boardings and deboardings of different flights (all on United), she finally got on a plane that lifted off for Colorado. Upon arriving, our tipster's luggage was nowhere to be found, and three days later it turned up with no warning about the condition it was in. Everything was completely soaked, moldy and shredded (with some items missing all together); she tells us employees at the airport in Colorado didn't know the protocol in dealing with her situation because they had never seen anything like it before.

Customer service agents (via phone and in the airports) were uniformly unhelpful, made empty promises of monetary retribution to replace some of the goods during the trip, and yadda yadda yadda, it's been over a week and there are still no answers. Seriously, WTF do you think happened to this luggage? We've contacted United to see if they have any answers, and will update when/if we hear back.

The tipster, who happens to be a “premier” United Mileage Plus member, is currently traveling around the country and tells us: "Hours of my vacation, hundreds of minutes used on my mobile phone plan and several thousands of dollars have been either spent (on new items) or tossed aside (on irreplaceable items). I have been treated like garbage. My goal is to alert everyone I know of the disregard for my time and belongings, so they can avoid flying such a disrespectful and irresponsible airline in the future." Your move, United!

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in News on June 21, 2010 4:33 PM

Comments [rss]

Dylan

United are utterly useless. Last time I flew United, I witnessed United baggage handlers kicking both mine and another passenger's guitar case across the tarmac before picking them up and literally *throwing* them onto one of the trolleys. Everyone on my flight was waiting to deplane when we saw this. We (me, the other guitar owner & all the people in our section) stood there in slack-jawed astonishment. Luckily my guitar was not damaged, but the SKB flight case looked like it had been tied behind the plane and dragged the whole way from SFO to ORD.

Cannibal

looks like the aftermath of a hippie and a land mine

RevWaldo

It just failed the gorilla test, that's all.

http://www.youtube.com/v/749iU2Zv1kw

RevWaldo

It just failed the gorilla test, that's all.

http://www.youtube.com/v/749iU2Zv1kw

AP

I'm a frequent flyer and have had many minor issues/inconveniences with various airlines. Yet NO airline has been as consistently horrendous as United, complete with terrible customer service both in the airports and out.

Regardless of fares, I choose airlines based on their customer service--if you treat me (and other customers) well, you get my business. I made the decision YEARS ago to NEVER, ever fly United and I've never regretted it. They are truly awful.

lightsformunny

I prefer to put my belongings in a sturdy suitcase that can withstand the obvious wear and tear of travel, as opposed to a cheap $10 piece of shit backpack.

rosweed

My wife had a brand new soft sided suitcase destroyed by United. The entire front section was ripped off. United refused a claim because they said the front was external to the suitcase. American denied my claim after they busted another suitcase handle. They said they won't cover external things, even thought the handle was collapsed inside the suitcase and covered with a zippered, padded pocket. I wrote to them and they gave me 2500 air miles to shut me up. Which was fine with me because the suitcase has a lifetime warranty.

Briana Parker

And don't forget the guy who had his guitar broken by United and wrote a song about it. It's pretty fantastic/adorable

nicemarmot

I'm so lucky. I haven't had to fly United or Northworst since college. And yes, United destroyed one of my bags once. It was especially fun when I was 18 years old and had no money to purchase a new bag. I did learn my lesson: Don't ever check a soft, non-luggage-type bag. If you want to fly with it, you have to carry it on. I've had two cheap little bags destroyed over the years, whereas every luggage-type bag I've checked has come back damaged at worst. Cheap materials and poor construction won't do well on those luggage carts, baggage claims etc.

julienne

This guy had problems w/ United, too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

DFHdez

She flew to Colorado, as in Denver, the home of the automated luggage system that was milliions of dollars over budget, and designed to get rid of human baggage handlers because they were unionized? Well you get what you pay for.

youngpro

i say it's her fault for using a probably already-tattered BACKPACK as if it were a steel-clad suitcase

David

If you use a strong steel-clad suitcase, they will still need to tear it apart to make sure that it doesn't contain anything dangerous. If you give them your luggage at the beginning of your trip and at the end of your trip they give you some marginally useable remnants of your belongings, you should just be thankful.

My sister-in-law packed all of her most valuable and personally meaningful possessions into boxes and put them on a pallet and sent them to the US when she moved here from Denmark. She sent the pallet with SAS. SAS stole the whole pallet and told her many stories about where it might be for many months. My sister-in-law lost all her stuff and and wasted an enormous amount of time listening to those crooks.

EastRiver

Home of the automated baggage system that was abandoned in 2005.

EastRiver

Home of the automated baggage system that was abandoned in 2005.

SP's Ghost

+1

jaycjay

"these shocking photos"

Anyone who finds this "shocking" hasn't flown very often.

Worst one I had happened flying into Newark a few years ago. Fortunately I left my laptop at home, but used that bag to pack a bunch of stuff. Normally I'd carry it on, but I was in Kentucky for work and the Paducah airpor was only served by turboprops. I would have had to gate-check it anyway, so I just checked it through.

It was raining back here, and while the bag did come through the carousel at EWR with everything else, it appeared to have been run over by the luggage truck. It was soaked, torn open, and covered with grease.

I had been up most of the night and left my hotel at 530 am, so didn't even feel like dealing with it. Just went home.

jimmycracks

it was probably run over by a plane as it was taking off

then some staff recognized it as the backpack that fell off the back of a luggage truck

put the remnants back in a bag, sealed it then sent it on its merry way not caring what will become of the situation since its not going to be his fault anyway and someone else will deal with it.

or magic!!!

Nyctini11

" A tipster sent in these shocking photos, with an account of her story (surprisingly, it does not center around an in-flight bear attack)."

NOW that gave me a good laugh!