[ecproducer]

I've flown US Airways almost exclusively for more than 10 years, and I've always enjoyed a good experience. But the last time I traveled, a bit of a kink:

I flew to Tampa from Philadelphia on May 10 on Flight 779. When I arrived at my hotel, I opened my luggage to find the enclosed padded laptop case was entirely unzipped and upside down. There was no TSA brochure indicating they had opened it. I powered it up and the laptop remained on for several minutes, then abruptly shut down. The computer will no longer power up.

As I mentioned, the laptop was secured inside my checked luggage in a separate travel case. It was enclosed in bubble wrap and placed in the center of my luggage, surrounded by clothing.

I understand the stated baggage policy is that electronics will not be covered by damage, but I think this incident should be an exception. While sitting in the back of the plane, I observed the baggage handler loading the plane. He was throwing the bags onto the conveyor belt, and at times, missing -- the bags were thrown right onto the tarmac.

I took video with my camera phone. You can see it yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlAfGqVFcsA ... the video runs about 1 minute 30 seconds. At 1 minute 10 seconds in, you can see the handler toss a bag, miss the belt and the luggage crashes on the tarmac.

I think I have a reasonable expectation that US Airways will handle my luggage with a reasonable amount of care. In this case, the extraordinarily rough and unnecessarily careless way the handler chose to load the aircraft caused damage to my laptop in the checked bag.

So I complained to the airline.. and got the response I expected:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting the Central Baggage Resolution Office at US
Airways. I apologize for this unfortunate incident and for the length of
time it has taken us to address your email.

This experience is not characteristic of the level of service US Airways
is striving to provide. Please accept my personal apology for any
mishandling of your property. We always welcome hearing from our
customers, and you may be sure your comments will be relayed to our
Station Manager in Philadelphia, so appropriate action can be taken.

Regrettably I was unable to locate a claim filed for this incident by
our Philadelphia Baggage Office. When a customer arrives at their
destination and does not immediately report the damaged property, we
cannot honor any subsequent claim. All damage must be reported in person
within four hours of arrival, thus allowing for a physical evaluation to
be completed prior to any assumption of liability.

Additionally, per the Published Airline Tariffs we are unable to
compensate for your computer, as electronic items are among those items
excluded from coverage when transported in checked baggage. If you have
not already done so, you may wish to contact your personal property or
travel insurer to see if you have coverage for an incident such as this.

I appreciate this opportunity to explain our position and
sincerely hope we can restore your confidence in our service.

[Silent Bob]

The bag doesn't exactly "crash" to the ground as described. For those that haven't seen the video, the handler tosses the bag, it does land on the conveyor belt, but then kinda tips off of it. Now if you wrapped your laptop as securely as you say you did, then one can deduce that it wasn't the bag tosser that damaged your laptop. between TSA and the baggage crew (and I'm guessing TSA), someone had to go in, open your bag, go in the middle of your bag, remove the bubble wrap, and take out your laptop. I don't think a fall, like the one in your vid, would do, what you described, to your laptop.

Lesson learned: never pack electronics in your checked luggage no matter how secure you pack it, especially a laptop!

[Leatherboy2006]

what I find interesting is there is only one baggage handler loading the planes, I have seen in the past two one taking off the cart and then handing it to another baggage handler who put it on the belt to the plane. I would blame management for not having two handlers out there. The one guy probably had so much time to load the bags and thus it would take forever if he hand took each back from the cart to the belt.

[Jetliner]

Actually one person is quite normal, and has been for many years on most airlines. What struck me as odd at first is how far the cart is from the belt - it could have been closer. Also, he was less than careful by throwing them. However I have to agree with silent Bob - if your laptop was that carefully packed, then this fall did not do it.

In fact, I can tell you what DID do it. That bag belt system. I worked in Tampa, and I am VERY familiar with that belt system. When it has to transfer a bag from one belt to another (which will happen a minimum of 4 times) it uses what is called a kicker. This is an arm on the side of the belt that pops out to push the bag on the next line. These things hit HARD. I've seen it snap the head off of a golf club.

Ultimately it is rather stupid to pack a laptop as NO airline will cover this if it is missing or damaged.

[ledaelida]

Yeah they don't know how to handle baggage. After going down the run way and waiting in line for at least 30 min to take off they figure out that they did not load the luggage the right way. We then have to go back to the damn gate and they reload the plane.