D has an AirTag on her dog’s collar! Apple had a Black Friday deal last year so I bought a bunch for stocking stuffers. And since no one stuffs my stocking, bought a couple for me too. 
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Just to add–take a picture of your bag before you leave. Take pictures of what you packed inside. When they say “what did your bag look like?” it helps to hand it to them.
Put address inside and out of your bag. Tie a pink bow around it so nobody else grabs it.
Put tags on/in EVERYTHING–your carry-ons, strollers (other baby stuff), personal items.
And then go carry on.
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AMEN—we checked two bags Friday, got delayed until Saturday, and got into our home airport with neither bag! We had photos to sow the baggage counter clerk.
Luckily, the chocolate gifts are in one bag, and the dirty laundry is in the other!
They apparently flew home today----hope we see them delivered before the weekend.
@Htas
I’m curious about this. I was on a SWA flight SJC–> LAX–>DC. After I got on the SJC–> LAX portion SWA cancelled the second leg; I found out by looking at monitors once I arrived in Los Angeles. Because the cancellation was attributable to weather (although the Burbank–> BWI flight apparently did make it out, so I’m still unclear how that flight could avoid weather and this one couldn’t) there was “nothing” that SWA could do. I asked directly (and kindly!) for a hotel voucher or if they could fly me back to the bay area and I’d leave from there the next day. Nada. The silver lining is that I have family a couple of hours from LAX and they rescued me for the night and drove me back to LAX at 2:30 in the morning.
Was there something I could have done?
Airport weather condition can be highly local. BWI can be fine while DCA or IAD experiences lots of weather related delays/cancellations. On the other hand, airlines often use weather conditions as excuses. Regardless, when the second leg of your flight was cancelled, the airline should have put you on the next available flight, and if that flight was on a different day, it should have issued you a hotel voucher. If I were you, if the airline refused to issue a voucher, I would have booked a hotel myself (getting into and out of LAX, even with the help of your friend/family member isn’t fun) and dealt with the airline later for reimbursement. I would have also checked with flightaware to see if the cancellation was truly caused by the weather, not due to some staffing shortage (which is common these days). If it’s the latter, the airline may owe you a flight voucher too, in addition to a hotel voucher.
I would still try to get some type of compensation out of SW. Many times airline use weather excuse when it’s not weather related. DD’s flight got canceled. Thy told everyone to get hotel rooms and later claim for reimbursement. That’s what she did. When she tried to get reimbursed, the representative was using weather card and no reimbursement. It took few phone calls and emails but she finally got reimbursed for hotel, Uber to hotel and points for inconvenience. If it doesn’t work with one representative, keep calling until you have it resolved
@1NJParent and @seal16 , I wish I had asked CC when I was hanging out at LAX for hours before leaving the airport! There was a silver lining; I got to see my elderly dad and wish him an early birthday in person. I guess I could ask for points for inconvenience, but I’m not sure what more I could do now, in that I don’t have a hotel bill/uber bill to ask to be reimbursed. But I’m more knowledgeable for next time. Thanks!
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Ask for the points. Say you took care of the expenses yourself, they won’t ask questions. They likely won’t give you anything if you don’t ask for it!
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I will put in a plug for Expedia. When Jetblue cancelled my flight, I actually called Expedia to rebook me. I was able to get a flight myself, but they were on the phone with Jetblue for hours in trying to rebook. Jetblue wouldn’t give me a hotel room, but Expedia gave me $100 toward a room.
I just got airtag for my luggage for the Italy trip.
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You might have got lucky. Issues normally multiply when you book via a third party. I may use a third party website to do some comparison but I always book direct (flights or hotel rooms). With near universal staffing shortage (particularly customer service reps), calling isn’t a good option. If you’re not near an airline ticket counter, you’re probably better off using the chat function on airline website or on twitter. If you still can’t get a quick response, I’d suggest leaving the airline a message (via its website, or email, or twitter), telling them that you have to make your own arrangement because they weren’t responding and you expect to be reimbursed later.
That’s what I did when I got caught up in Southwest’s massive cancellation last fall. I got reimbursed for the new flight and hotel (except for the cost of extending my car rental and the hotel parking fee) plus a future flight voucher worth $550 (for the two of us).
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Flew home Saturday morning, bags appeared at our door 6:30 AM today–appear to be in excellent shape. Wondering if opening the one containing the dirty laundry will require HAZMAT suits…
Air Canada will waive baggage fee. Offered me a travel voucher—HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I opted for a refund.
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I agree with @1NJParent. I needed to cancel some reservations recently with Expedia and it wasn’t easy.
It depends on your status with Expedia. Just like with any other travel programs.
So you have to have the right “status” to get good service? That’s ridiculous.
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No, you get a dedicated call line. Fewer folks in the q. Pretty much like with a first class TSA lane.
I bet the agents answering calls from those frequent Expedia users do not get yelled at as much as those manning the regular lines.
Also, cancellation rules might differ for “frequent fliers” - this used to be the case when airlines had cancellation fees. Alaska etc. waved those fees for some members.
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Cancellations due to weather aren’t covered. But that being said, you can ask them to print out the flight manifest and that it was indeed cancelled due to weather. A better bet is to get yourself settled then write to the airline ( all have places to send details). Make sure you include flight #'s, date, time etc. And if you are a member of that airline cite your FF#. You can usually get reimbursement, thought it can take a long time.
You can also often work with your credit card company. Amex is especially helpful. I’d bet that credit cards tied to FF programs are as well. It’s good to hear that people have had good experiences with Expedia cancellations. In the past, I haven’t. Super long waits and often the help desk has trouble understanding basic requests.
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More fun. Son is at least back in US but turns out his entire return trip got cancelled and nobody can figure it out, Said between the strikes and shortages it’s been an exciting trip,
My thoughts about travel is we’re on the 3 week countdown to whitewater rafting camping trip and coastal California road trip with my D and I cannot wait! E-mails are coming frequently now from the rafting company with tips and more. Really starting to think about what to take.
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That sounds awesome. Where are you doing the whitewater rafting. The Grand Canyon is on my bucket list.
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S and DIL are suppose to be flying back from vacation tomorrow mid afternoon, domestic flight. Would be interested to hear any airport reports this weekend on how well (or not!) flights are going. Skeptical for them because weekend, holiday weekend, not an early flight…