Comments on: Princess loses passenger’s bag, charges her to return it

By: Brooklyn

Brooklyn — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:56:08 +0000

What about the inconvenience of doing without their luggage on vacation? Were they compensated for the replacement cost? Princess is at fault – their cruise, their responsibility. The fact that it has a policy in place that involves charging the customer under any circumstances is completely unacceptable and suggests that this happens far too often!

By: Mekhong Kurt, Bangkok, Thailand

Mekhong Kurt, Bangkok, Thailand — Thu, 27 May 2010 02:30:36 +0000

I second Bob (September 18, 2009) on this one.

By: Best of the web – Roaming Tales: Travel links for 28 September | Roaming Tales

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:49:38 +0000

[...] Christopher Elliott from Elliott.org has two extraordinary stories about cruising. In one case a cruise company lost a bag and then charged $69 to deliver it once it was found (make sure you read the person’s [...]

By: firefighter

firefighter — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:54:47 +0000

We have the similar situation happened to us three years ago. We could not find our one piece of luggage and we also had purchased a transfer.The rest of the incident was quite similar to this couple. The only different was no wrong bag was put on the shuttle. When we got home, called Princess numerous times, e-mails, sent mails…they just didn’t respond at all. Finally I told them “this is the last time I ask you to give me the info about where our missing piece was; otherwise, I’ll inform as many as media as I can about the “story”. Three days later we got a call from Princess telling us that the bag was on the way and the shipping? FREE OF CHARGE!

I don’t blame this couple to ask many media for help. In some cases (especially small cases), Princess won’t do anything unless you go further action. Since the three years ago incident, we (include our big family) have never on Princess anymore.

By: John

John — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:40:48 +0000

Obviously Princess didn’t follow the “normal procedure” to send the passengers’s bag on a next shuttle and also Princess didn’t inform passengers that they have found their bag and given them the options for shipping their bag. so I think Princess should refund the shipping asap not in a month or longer.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:37:24 +0000

I agree with Bob and LadySiren. My luggage was placed outside the cabin and in Princess’s hand. If I could not locate it because one of the crews, stevedore or whoever misplaced somewhere else, it should be Princess’s responsibility because they asked us to do so. Or from now on, Princess should not ask their customers placing their bags outside the stateroom or the customers carry all their own bag while disembarking.

To receive the refund in 4-6 weeks? Why it needs to take this long? If Princess chose to refund the money (they should have sent the bag at the first place!), they should have sent the check right away, not in weeks! Is Princess telling us something here?

By: Eddie

Eddie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:07:08 +0000

I just didn’t understand why Princess not contact the passengers when they found the bag still at the terminal–the same day, the following day(s)……

Even the passenger “left” their bag accidently, Princess would do nothing for the unclaimed bag even the bag still have the passengers’ information?

By: fun guy

fun guy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:48:17 +0000

I totally agree with Bob. If Princess misplaced my bag that made me not finding it, missing my flight, Princess should take the responsibilty. In this case, the couple have tried to find their missing piece, didn’t want to hold up the other passengers, filed the report, waited for Princess feedbck. They have done their part.

Princess admitted their wrongdoing by sending them a check 4-6 weeks later? Unbelievable!

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:24:53 +0000

I don’t think I should wait in a shuttle ready heading to airport just because of a passenger still keep finding his/her bag. From what I read this couple still have 2 1/2 hours spare time at the airport kept waiting for their bag, this telling us that they really didn’t want to hold up the other passengers and they did file report to Princess reps at the airport. They were not stupid to me, they were just a easy talking couple.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:53:46 +0000

Princess admitted they have misplaced the op luggage, they should have more responsibily to send their bag in the first place plus Princess didn’t communicate with op for they finally found their bag (it should be few hour later or the end of the day). For a month? Oh my God! 4-6 weeks to get the refund? Oh Princess, you can do better!To me, I can’t tolerate that!

By: Timothy

Timothy — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:34:40 +0000

If Princess misplaced the customer’s bag in somewhere else, how the customer could collect it? Therefore, I believe it was a lost luggage report until later Princess FOUND it. Of course Princess could find it baecause they misplaced it at the beginning.

By: FL Traveler

FL Traveler — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:25:54 +0000

It doesn’t appear the luggage was lost only misplaced or delayed. The mistake the trvelers made was listening to the baggage handler who was not an offical rep of the cruise line. He stressed not holding the shuttle up and the passengers went along with it. Princess’ response was (to me) appropriate and considerate. Hopefully they will not be smeared in the TV or newspaper reports .

By: Salyer

Salyer — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:48:54 +0000

We have written a long and details about this incident but it didn’t publish the whole! That is why you didn’t realize all the facts.

(1) We have been looking for the missing bag over 15 minutes before the bag handler came over for assistance. Obviously the missing bag was placed at the different area.
(2) We “admited” we left for the airport without one of our bags because we were told to get on the shuttle by not holding up the other passengers.
(3) and because the bag handler made assurance that he would keep finding our bag and put it on the same bus or one of the later bus. We trusted him and tipped him too!
(4) The bag handler put a wrong bag (similar but not ours) on the same bus.
(5) At the airport, we reported this incident and returned the wrong bag to a Princess Rep.
(6) Two Princess reps both said “under normal procedure, Princess would put the bag on the next shuttle, and they repeatedly made assurance that the bag would be coming on one of the shuttles.
(7) With their assurance, we have waited for 2 1/2 hours at the airport until we have to get on our flight..
(8) We DID file the missing bag report at the airport with the Princess Rep and we were told that Princess would contact us the next day.
(9) No one called until we contacted Princess few days later.
(10) We filed the claim again with Princess.
(11) Nothing heard from Princess for 2 weeks, then we mailed a letter.
(12) Three days later finally got a first call from Princess telling us they put our bag on QM.
(13) QM docked and nobody contacted us until we kept calling Princess about our bag.
(14) Finally the bag was delivered at the door but we were asked to pay for $69 which Princess have NEVER mentioned to us!
(15) Just got a letter today from Princess. Princess ADMITTED that one of our bags was put in another area of the cruise terminal.
(16) For showing their gesture of goodwill, a check would be sent in approximately 4-6 weeks!

Hello everyone, yes we were so stupid for listening and following the instructions and we ended up missing our bag for over a month, and then now we have to wait another 4-6 weeks to get our $69 back!

Are we patient enough?

By: Nobody

Nobody — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:02:55 +0000

Everyone needs to look at the cruiselines from this view. Just about everyone that works for the cruiselines (like the baggage handlers in this story) are not employees of the cruiselines. They are contract help hired by the cruiselines and work for someone else that collects money from the cruiselines and pays the help some of it. That may be the same scenario you dealt with in flying to the home port, on a regional carrier whose planes are all painted with the major airline paint scheme and logo.
So when you go to the ship’s doctor and he kills your loved one in undeniable negligence and malpractice, good luck trying to find this contract employee when he flees back home to Dashhowuz, Turkmenistan. The cruiseline will tell you that you have to sue the MDzRUs that sent this doctor. One who could only find work that required 12-months stay in a room the size of a jail cell (but with access to the medicine cabinet.)

By: LadySiren

LadySiren — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:19:59 +0000

Late chiming in here, but geez…this thread is full of apologists for the cruise lines. $69 is not a “paltry” sum, especially after you’ve just shelled out for a cruise. It sounds to me like the OP did try to contact a person she thought was able to assist with the missing luggage; if you’re an inexperienced cruiser, in a hurry because your shuttle is waiting, and standing on a crowded, confusing dock, could you mistake a luggage porter for a Princess employee? Yes, you likely could do just that. And as for swearing of cruises because of one “little” disagreement with Princess, I’m sorry but this is just one more on the gigantic pile of dog dung that the recreational travel industry has become. Between airlines and cruises gouging passengers with fees and compounded by poor service, I’ll stay closer to home, thanks.