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Slightly more than a week ago I had a flight with some co-workers from GRZ via FRA to BER. The flight from GRZ to FRA (with Air Dolomiti/EN) was delayed and we missed the connecting flight from FRA to BER (with Lufthansa/LH). We were rebooked to a flight the next morning.

As I had important things to do in Berlin at the same day, I decided to continue my journey by train rather than plane. And with the service desks at FRA being completely overwhelmed (to the point of people starting to scream at each other) and being somewhat fed-up with the situation myself, I decided to go without my checked-in baggage.

I have since tried to get my baggage back, but have only run into dead ends. What options am I missing?

I have tried the following:

  • I have tried to report my missing baggage to Lufthansa on the same day and the next day via their website. The website only said that I should contact "the airline I had my last flight with", i.e. Air Dolomiti

  • I sent an e-mail to Air Dolomiti the same day. I got an automated response with a reference number, but not a "file reference number" that would enable me to search on their baggage tracer. I have sent them a pdf form with a detailed description of my baggage several days later, but not received any response. Not even an automated one.

  • I filed a missing baggage report with FRA airport. They have sent several automated E-Mails that they have not yet found my baggage.

  • I discovered that it is possible to track my baggage via the Lufthansa app, but it was already to late to report it missing. The tracking messages had several "internal errors", but it looked as if my baggage might have been returned to GRZ. (It seems this baggage tracer has in the meantime stopped working at all.)

  • I sent a missing baggage form to Lufthansa today

  • I have thought about contacting the lost&found department at GRZ airport, but the airport website does not give any contact details for this department.

  • I have tried to call the Lufthansa service hotline several times last week, but they either kicked me out of the line or I gave up after waiting up to 45 minutes. Generally my confidence in getting a helpful answer from hotlines is quite low.

Any other ideas? Am I missing something obvious?

Update: I have been able to contact the airport in GRZ, and they said that according to their system, the baggage with my baggage identification tag is already in BER. My next step will then be to try to get the baggage from BER.

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    Did you notify LH that you wouldn't take the second flight and use a train instead?
    – Hilmar
    Commented Jul 7, 2022 at 17:19
  • @Hilmar That would only have been possible after standing in a queue for three hours (according to co-workers who stood in that queue). Waiting for so long would have meant missing the train.
    – WantMyBaggageBagg
    Commented Jul 7, 2022 at 18:58
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    @WantMyBaggageBagg Queueing or not queueing, I realize that this is not what you want to hear, but after all you left your luggage voluntarily behind. It was not lost by the airline. Considering all the luggage currently stranded at German airports because the airlines and airports are fucking everything up, I would not expect your case to be handled with priority.
    – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo
    Commented Jul 7, 2022 at 19:44
  • @Tor-Einar Jambjo "Comments are used to ask for clarification or to point out problems in the post." Which of the two is the point of your comment?
    – WantMyBaggageBagg
    Commented Jul 7, 2022 at 21:21
  • German Spiegel reports there are 5000 bags left at FRA at the moment spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/…
    – Bernhard Döbler
    Commented Jul 8, 2022 at 19:57

1 Answer 1

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(posting this as an answer because I cannot edit my original post anymore and also because it actually contains the answer):

I went to BER in person last Friday (July 7th) and was able to a) look through a lot of lost baggage and b) get further corrobation that my baggage is already at BER.

At that time, they had about 500 bags from inside the Schengen area and about twice as many from outside. I searched the Schengen area bags and some that were being processed, but did not find my own baggage.

Today I went to the airport again, was led to the same place and told that the number of lost pieces of baggage had increased by about 25% since last friday. Did this mean there was a chance my baggage might have turned up? More importantly I was told to look through the non-Schengen bags as well. And true enough it turned out that my baggage had landed in that part of the interim baggage storage! The staff compared the number on the baggage receipt and I was allowed to take my baggage home (I did not have a file reference number. If you have a file reference number, you should probably not just bring the original baggage receipt/baggage identification tag, but also your file reference number).

I want to point out that the staff at BER and GRZ were really friendly and professional and (this is actually yet more important) so much more responsive than all those online forms I filled out and emails that I sent to LH and Air Dolomiti. So a big "thank you" in case any of you read this. Another thing to point out is that it is a good idea to turn up early. At 8:45 everybody is still relaxed, there are no queues and few newly-arrived passengers looking for their lost baggage. But the situation at 10:00 is quite different. On July 7th they only let me look for my baggage from 9:00 on, so turning up too early might not be worth it either.

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