Stealing Bastards From American Airlines

[Rson]

So I took a trip to Italy for a few days and picked up some of the usual tourist items. 11 bottles of Wine, 4 bottles of Balsamic Vinegar, Box of espresso and 2 litres of Olive oil.
Before:





I had all of it when I landed at JFK and I made a transfer to LGA. When I got to Dallas 4 bottles of wine and my Sony P&S was taken from a bag of 10 of them. Somewhere an American Airlines employee swiped my stuff.

Has anyone had something lifted from our luggage? What is the process to get compensated?

[LanceHaynie]

Well it could of been customs sifting through your bag as well... Just a thought.

[Breezy]

That sucks royally.
We have never had things stolen persay but certainly destroyed suit cases.
I despise AA btw lol.
I hope you get your money back.

[Rson]

Nope I made it through customs with all of it. I checked. I had to transfer from JFK to LGA and go through customs at JFK.

[HotHolly]

My mom has stuff stolen on American once. She didnt get anywhere. And she usually can get results. Once when I was preggers and flying alone, something bad happened, and I got stranded in DFW. She got the president of the airport on the phone and someone actually came to find me. American has a claims procedure, but Im not sure I have heard of anyone getting any compensation. Ive had lost bags show up 2 weeks later. If you booked your ticket with a credit card with travel incentives, it may have baggage insurance. Am Ex and some Cap 1 cards have benefits. Either way, send something in writing. You wont find out if they'll do anything until you try and a phone call isnt enough since there is a drunk guy somewhere in JFK shooting passengers with your P&S.

[ramblinray]

All airlines are notorious about thieving employees and not compensating you for your loss. If you get anything besides a runaround, I'd be suprised. Seems like someone posted a link to a video where they take a pen, poke it in the zipper and basically pry open your bag. The rifle through your stuff taking what they want and then pull the zipper back and forth until it's zipped like it had never been touched. There are places that have plastic wrapping for luggage so it is really evident if someone messed with the bags and makes it less likely some will bother yours if wrapped. Thieves like speed and wrapped baggage is to slow and too much of a hassle.
Good luck with getting a positive response from the airline. Leason learned. Carry on anything you don't want taken or can't afford to loose. But also remember the 100ml bottle 1 qt bag rule applies to all carry on so the booze will have to be checked.

[Rson]

Current offer from AA......15000 miles. (about the same cost as my camera and wine)

[LoungeLizard]

From someone with nearly 300K AA miles, they're practically useless due to the lower capacity.

Now, did you declare all that stuff in customs? If so, you probably paid duty on it as it's above the maximum allowed. Will AA refund you the duty paid?

[ShutteredEye]

Ugh. What a nightmare.

I have friends that have had their guns stolen out of locked cases. Which is very interesting since airlines require that you inspect the weapon with them to assure that it is unloaded etc, at check-in, and then lock the case while you're present. A couple of friends have picked up empty cases at the end of their flight, still 'locked'.

[Al Buckner]

Don't forget TSA !!! Although it is being kept pretty quiet, there have been a few TSA Agents fired for this kind of thief.

[d2creative]

Yup, had an old beater laptop stolen on the way back from vacation once.
American Airlines.
They lost my luggage and when I got it back the laptop was missing.
Wouldn't have cared but it had most of my vacation pics on it.
Lesson learned.

[Rson]

I have 50,000 miles currently with the 15,000 so that ups me to a roundtrip ticket to europe.

[ShutteredEye]

Originally Posted by Rson

I have 50,000 miles currently with the 15,000 so that ups me to a roundtrip ticket to europe.

Since they're parking so many planes, there's uber-competition for what miles seats that are available. Most of the miles-gurus are saying to pretend you don't have any miles at all for the next 3 years, because that's what it's going to be like...

[LoungeLizard]

Originally Posted by Rson

I have 50,000 miles currently with the 15,000 so that ups me to a roundtrip ticket to europe.

...maybe...if you plan well ahead...and are very flexible...

I just checked for a similar trip - couldn't get anything unless it was double mile category.

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by ShutteredEye

Since they're parking so many planes, there's uber-competition for what miles seats that are available. Most of the miles-gurus are saying to pretend you don't have any miles at all for the next 3 years, because that's what it's going to be like...

I just spent 30,000 frequent flyer miles to go to USVI. I had to book a day before I wanted, and come back a day later, but otherwise no sweat. There were 60,000 mile seats available on all flights to the caribbean. Depends on where you are going at what time of year. Want to go to St. Thomas in February? Can't even book a full fare seat for that one.