Lost luggage question

Delayed luggage is pretty common and all frequent flyers can tell you a story or two about that. It may take a week or two but it does show up eventually. Lost luggage is quite rare, though. I can undestand your worries but so far you're still within a normal range of what happens with luggage.

Reducing you luggage to carry-on is not a bad idea, however, I don't see how that would be applicable to a guncase ...

Well, I'm going to continue to tell him not to worry as much - at least until a few weeks have passed.

My husband and I lost our luggage in Africa two years ago with South African Arilines. They were unable to tell us where it was. Luckily, we got it back ten days later. Although it had been obviously searched through, almost everything was still there and we lost nothing of value.

Your husband is right to worry about the firearms. Luggage often goes missing in Africa and I'm sure guns are most desirable to steal. In Nairobi airport alone, there were hundreds of bags sitting insecure in the arrivals area. The employee manning the lost luggage booth kept trying to give me other bags. I could have easily walked out with my choice.

Needless to say, I've become a lighter packer and haven't checked a bag since. Good Luck.

It happens but usually it'll turn up pretty quickly. It can take over a week to get it in rare cases. Call Delta and ask if they know anything.

Do be aware that if the baggage is lost, you get jack in return. International luggage is covered by something called the Warsaw convention, which only requires recovery of "For international travels, including the domestic portions, subject to the Warsaw Convention, the liability limit for delay, damage or loss is approximately $9.07 per pound ($20.00 per kg) for checked baggage and approximately $400 per passenger for unchecked baggage. Where the Montreal Convention applies, the liability of the UA Carrier for the delay, damage or loss to checked and unchecked baggage is limited to 1,000 Special Drawing Rights per passenger."

Delta knows nothing - they say they're checking. The guns are valuable & he had them insured for the trip. It's nice to know they're covered, but he'd rather have them. You have to go thru quite a bit to get them on the plane including a visit several days before the flight to register them with customs & then once they're finally checked in the airlines treat them just like any other baggage (their words). No real security.

This could take a long time. In all probability your bags have been tagged and information stored in a system known as World Baggage Tracer. Where Africa is part of the equation WBT is phenomenally slow, it all rests on the input by humans when a stray bag turns up. That often never happens in Africa.

I have to warn you that there is a very strong possibility you will never see the two pieces of lost luggage again.

I hope you get your luggage back but I have to tell you that from my personal and professional experiences of dealing with central and southern African baggage issues – the statistics are stacked against you.

One thing I can tell you is that when Delta say they have no information and that they are trying their best – they’re telling the absolute truth ( I don’t work for Delta ). Airlines hate this as much as passengers and it causes them deep embarrassment.

Unfortunately baggage handlers in most of the African airports are not paid by the airlines, they are paid ( badly ) by the airport. Sadly there are instances of theft.