[gholt]

SWA didn't deliver the baggage of about 6 people on a flight from Los Angeles to Houston Hobby on Sept. 28 2009. I was one of them. Rather than get my baggage to me that night, they said they would have it delivered by courier the next day.
I got a call early in the morning, wanting to know when I would be home for 4 hours (as if). I scheduled a delivery, and my baggage had not arrived by the time I had to leave, which was the end of the agreed-upon 4-hour window.
There was a message on my answering machine when I got home telling me that there would be a $50 charge for COD delivery if I wanted them to try again.
I called the courier company and got no help at all. They were not sympathetic, and said it was up to the airline to decide if they would pay for a second delivery. I was also told that Southwest sometimes delays luggage when the flights are full, to save weight. So if this is an operational decision by the airline, why are they trying to make it my problem, by demanding 4 hours out of my day and then wanting to charge me for delivery?
Southwest Airlines is not being customer oriented with this baggage issue.

[Silent Bob]

If you knew you wouldn't/couldn't be home at a set time, why not make arrangements to simply pick up the bag at the airport? That way in case of any damage or loss, it can be reported immedietely.

I was also told that Southwest sometimes delays luggage when the flights are full, to save weight.

Most airlines deal with this issue, and that may be the case of your flight, but they didn't put the burden of payment for delivery on you initially, they gave you a window, you agreed, you left and thus missed your bag being delivered. So they have done their part, now it all falls on you. If you want your bag, I'd say simply go and pick it up rather than shell out the money.

[AirlinesMustPay]

The OP said he only left after the 4-hour period had expired. I think he was good to even commit himself to 4 hours.

So the OP may tell the airline to take the bag back from the courier and he will collect it himself. After he collects the bag, write to the airline's consumer affairs dept and claim the cost of the trip to the airport. If he lives close to the airport he need not make this claim unless he has to take a taxi.

A novel approach if the bag only contains some inexpensive clothes and toiletries is to give the airline a deadline to deliver the bag, say 14 days. If they fail to deliver it, you consider the bag as lost and claim for its value. I think most airlines pay $9 per lb. So if your bag is say 30 lb that is $270.

When you make that claim see how quickly they deliver it to you, even if their airport manager has to deliver it in his car after work.

[gholt]

I had actually considered filing a claim for lost baggage - but I have a small laptop in the bag. What really irks me is that "Action Courier" started lying to the airline.. first they said they tried to deliver my bags yesterday morning, and then when I was talking face-to-face with the baggage manager, they told her that they were at my place at 7pm. Since I was outside feeding my cats at 7pm it's plenty obvious to me that no delivery service trucks even drove by. The only indication I have from "Action Courier" they there were at my house was a note on my door and a message on my cell phone at 8pm.
The Southwest Airlines baggage manager was cold and apologetic and sided with "Action Courier". I told her I didn't appreciate being made to deal with Southwest Airlines subcontractor, because I bought my ticket from SWA, and I gave my bags to SWA. I'm just one customer. They couldn't care less.

[PHXFlyer]

Hiring a 3rd party to deliver delayed bags has been a common practice for years. I'm not sure why you object to Southwest, or any airline, using a local delivery/courier service. I'm sure they actually do a better job (locating addresses, etc.) than the airline could do itself.

That being said the last time I "received" a delayed bag from a delivery service it was actually delivered with some other bags to another address in the same town. Luckily the people who received it were nice enough to call and even dropped it off. Sometimes stuff just happens. Drivers are late or can't locate the address, bags end up at the wrong destination, etc. No system can ever be 100%. I'm sure even FedEx looses track of a shipment in some rare circumstances. I think Southwest has a reimbursement schedule for bags delayed more than 48 hours. It's not much but you should try to get them to pay for each calendar day, past the first two, you do not receive your bag.

As for picking up the bag yourself I Googled Action Courier in Houston and was able to find an address. If they want $50 to re-deliver the bag why not just go pick it up yourself?

[gholt]

that's what I ended up doing. It was the cheapest and easiest thing to do, to - HOU is on the way home from work and the parking only cost $2.00. What I objected to about the subcontractor is not that the airline used one, but that I was made to deal with them, rather than the airline.
IMHO American business has done way too much of this game of passing the buck and not being responsible for the actions of their subcontractors. It makes an adversarial relationship between the customer and the business, and when the business is a service industry like an airline, that's doubly bad.

[PHXFlyer]

Once the bag was turned over it becomes the contractor's responsibility to get it to you or return it to Southwest if undeliverable. They probably have internal tracking systems not accessible to Southwest. It's the courier company that figures which route to place the bag on and estimate an approximate delivery time. A call to Southwest would only necessitate call to Action Courier so why tie up a "middle-man" on the phone when you can just deal directly with the courier?

[Jetliner]

Something else that has to be understood is the delivery companies don't normally deliver for just one airline. So Southwest might give them 10 bags to deliver at say 9am, and United 3. United has no way to know that Southwest is bogging down the delivery company. Or it could work the other way. It just depends on how much each airline gives the delivery company at one time, and at that, how much to each area. If you have 4 drivers, each going the 4 basic directions from the airport (N, S, E, and W) If 9 of those 13 deliveries are going north, it will take longer for some of them then any of the other 4.

The part about leaving off bags to save fuel is not true. Each bag will cause some extra fuel to be burned, but the cost of one delivery alone could kill any savings of probably 4 or 5 bags left behind, or maybe even more. It depends on what the delivery charges are, and how long the flight is (fuel used). And each city is different. When I did baggage service in Tampa, we actually had some of the lowest delivery rates of any city. But here's a comparison. I had times that I had to send a bag to Sarasota (about 1.5 hours drive). For us to send a bag there was $45. But for Sarasota to deliver a bag to Tampa was $65 and up. Even a local delivery in Tampa was $12-$25. And those numbers are for each stop. So if I deliver a bag to you, and then another to your next door neighbor, that's two charges.

[Roms47159]

Originally Posted by gholt

I had actually considered filing a claim for lost baggage - but I have a small laptop in the bag. What really irks me is that "Action Courier" started lying to the airline.. first they said they tried to deliver my bags yesterday morning, and then when I was talking face-to-face with the baggage manager, they told her that they were at my place at 7pm. Since I was outside feeding my cats at 7pm it's plenty obvious to me that no delivery service trucks even drove by. The only indication I have from "Action Courier" they there were at my house was a note on my door and a message on my cell phone at 8pm.
The Southwest Airlines baggage manager was cold and apologetic and sided with "Action Courier". I told her I didn't appreciate being made to deal with Southwest Airlines subcontractor, because I bought my ticket from SWA, and I gave my bags to SWA. I'm just one customer. They couldn't care less.