{sorry, a little long with a question...}
We just returned from our first European vacation. I gleaned so much information from this board about booking and points. It was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to go back!
Our only hiccup occurred when we returned to the U.S. I had made reservations from London to Philly on British Airways, then a flight from Philly to St. Louis on Southwest 2 hours 45 minutes later. First the BA flight was late and then they lost our luggage. After searching and searching they had us (and several other people) fill out forms and gave us a letter explaining what would happen when they found the luggage.
We then made the very long walk to the Southwest counter hoping to get the next flight to St. Louis. (Side note--bad airport design in Philly. We had to walk outside for approx. 7-9 minutes. Someone mentioned we should get an employee shuttle if we found one.)
When we finally get to Southwest they are closed for the evening but an employee was sitting near by waiting for her ride home. God bless that angel woman. She logged back into the system and told us there were no more flights that night but she would get us on the first non-stop the next day. She then checked us in and printed boarding passes for us at no additional cost.
So we had to get a hotel with a shuttle for the night. At this point we are jet-lagged, exhausted, hungry and on London time (1 a.m.) My husband booked a nearby Hilton. That's when I remembered we had AirTags in the bag. We looked it up and it showed that it was in Philly. A minute later BA called and said they found it and could we come back for it. My husband is a runner so I stayed put while he ran that long route back to the other terminal. There were 6-7 other passengers also returning to the area to pick up their found bags. Despite having called him to come back, no one was at the BA counter so he had to get someone from Qatar to go find a worker. When they showed up, he mentioned the expenses we just incurred due to the baggage loss and that BA needed to pay for it. That worker said we must have just missed our bag on the turnstile. He pointed out the unlikely odds of a half dozen passengers all missing their bags and then them suddenly being visible two hours later. So that worker gave him a BA business card of a person to contact with our complaint.
We would like BA to cover the cost of our hotel, dinner and one extra day at the parking garage in St. Louis. This totals about $245.
Any advice on how to approach this with BA?
I paid for the BA flight with CSP so I made sure all the additional expenses incurred were also put on that card, so if BA balks I may file with Chase.
Despite this hiccup at the end, I would go back in a heartbeat. I'm already planning our next adventure.