Twice in the past 2 weeks I've picked up family members at JFK flying from LAX in J. Both times, AA misplaced the bags. The first occurrence led to them delivering the bag to the home the next day. The second time and the bag still has not been "located" it has been 3 days... (this was the day of the bad T-storms and over 70 passengers on the flt were in the same situation).

The baggage aagents at AA say that they are still having issues at JFK with backlogs. I had thought that the software glitch had been resolved.

I understand delays and trickle-downs from bad wx, but, 3 days????
The first time this happened last week the flights were on time and there were no irregularities in the flight operations to blame.

Now before the flames begin, we rarely check bags and only do when we absolutely have to with good reason.

What's going on? Job action? Software problem? sunspots?

I flew into JFK late Friday night (well, even later when you include the wx related delays). Baggage claim was a nightmare, they were primarily offloading bags on 1 carousel, they had cancelled several flights so more bags had to be distributed than usual, there were no AA personnel in the area, and they weren't displaying which flights were for which carousel on the screens, instead announcing it occasionally on the PA instead. People were lined up 5-7 deep all around the main carousel, which was piled high with unclaimed luggage, impeding new luggage from making it out. It was a disaster. Unfortunately for me this was the one time this year I had checked a bag. But compared to everyone else there I was lucky to get mine with only a 1 hour wait, as most other passengers I spoke with had been waiting for 3-4 hours!!! Many of them visitors from overseas who had no idea what was happening.

Good luck with getting your bags.

Does this include international arrivals at JFK? I'll be flying in from LHR and due to its draconian baggage sizer, I'll most likely have to check. Any recent experiences with international arrivals at JFK?

Don't let a trivially small number of observations by the OP color your thinking of JFK baggage handling. Thousands of AA bags get delivered or properly transferred every day. Play baggage roulette often enough anywhere and you'll come up a loser eventually, however.

What is also remarkable is the # of premium high ticket customers that they are upsetting. This was evident by the ridiculously long-snaking-lines stretching from the Plat/Exec plt/ First/Biz class line at the baggage claim complaint dept.

Both of my relatives were in full J, they are pissed. What a perfect way to sour a customer relationship after coughing up 2,4,6 even 8k for a ticket (international and premium domestic).

One would think AA senior management would have addressed this by now.
I have had several experiences with the dregs that JDiver speaks of throughout the years. It seems to only be worse recently.

Additionally, I saw several groups of passengers being told that they would have to pay for the baggage to be delivered to their homes at their expense!

3 days later, a bag is still MIA (not the airport)

Yes the problem affects international arrivals too, as the domestic and intl terminals come to the same baggage claim area. The passengers waiting for 3-4 hours came from all over, intl and domestic.

Hope this gets sorted soon, as I have an intl trip this week! I will bring the number of a couple local news station, I hope they will be interested if I witness the zoo I experienced on Friday!!!

My most recent experiences arriving internationally have been with legal US 22" carryon, which I was allowed to take on departing AA at LHR. But in the end, as others have said, it's the same baggage handlers, whether the carousels are in International Arrivals or Domestic.

The advantages with International Arrivals are that the widebody aircraft have containerized baggage and the containers must be delivered to the Customs facility, before any sorting or the like happens. So if you are traveling with legal carryon, you can grab it, take it thorugh Customs and take it in-hand for your next flight (assuming LHR have taken it from you and made you check it.) If you re-check, it gets mainstreamed into the system, I am afraid - but at least it gets sorted for departing flights, perhaps a small hope.

The percentage of bags that get through JFK is undoubtedly high - but the percentage of bags that are delayed or worse is also probably higher at JFK than most airports, if not all, in the USA AA system. It's not making the news because it's the norm, and we're not seeing complaints here, over the long term even, because of that either.

The JFK folks need a technical assist from Logan (the manufacturer,) some training, and a general AAttitude readjustment, IMO.

AA still doesn't have a location on one of the bags. Every agent I have spoken to (exec plat, baggage services etc) can't even reach a human at JFK. They were not helpful in terms of options or assistance. One agent actually said "you can't expect us to solve the problem overnight, it takes weeks for people to train on the equipment and catch up..." Another said.... "you know, we do ship millions of bags..."

At what point is the bag just considered lost?

How does the JFK station chief keep their job with such a systemic problem in baggage affecting so many premium customers?

JFK baggage has been a nightmare for years, but, now it has reached monumental proportions (from the chaos I've witnessed several times in the past few weeks).

Ironically, I booked a flight LAX to GRU via JFK instead of going through MIA, thinking my checked bag would have a better chance of making it! The bag would be scheduled to be inter-line transferred to JL's JFK-GRU flight...do the described problems also affect connections, especially to non-AA flights, at JFK??? Sounds like it wouldn't help to try to collect the bag at JFK and re-check it on JL....

What I don't get is nothing about costs comes is spoken about this.

The airlines are losing loads of money and are charging us for each and every step we take with them, while fuel is one of the biggest costs.

I would gather expenses related to lost or delayed bags such as passengers buying essentials and being reimbursed, expensive hand delivery by courier or shipping after the fact, re handling costs at the airport when they expected to do it only one time etc.. has got to be huge!

When will the airlines realize baggage efficiency can reduce costs dramatically

I don't know the answer, except to say that if it affects the entire sort / distribution system or it's software related (as per recent media releases) until it is sorted out it's systemic. OTOH, I do suspect JL would be much better about getting the bag to you in GRU if it is delayed until the next flight - you won't be dealing with AA's JFK surly baggage employee cadre.

Enjoy your flights!

Stuff happens.

I check bags every time I fly; once in a while they get delayed. It's usually for a day or so, sometimes it's more. Yes, it's annoying but... so are many things in this life.

^^ Well said.

Funny. It was nearly the same situation at LGA at 2:00 am Saturday morning except that all the unclaimed luggage was blocking the path to the baggage claim office.

On my flights to/from JFK and Asia I always used to take AA167/168 through NRT. For a list of collective reasons, I have switched to using the CX flights JFK/HKG. The baggage handling at JFK, sometimes taking 45 minutes or more for the first bag after landing, guess-which-carousel, etc., is one of the entries on that list of reasons for switching.

Yes, baggage can be lost/delayed at any airport. But baggage handling at JFK is always operating on the edge of collapse for whatever the reasons are. But the one reason that AA can address and do something about, human, is clearly being ignored, or denied, by AA management.

It's a shame. A shiny new terminal and probably the crapiest baggage handling in the system. Don't look for anything to change anytime in the foreseeable future. The level of expectations on the part of the vast majority of travelers is that s#$@ happens and this is just one more fact of life of air travel these days. AA management knows it and is satisfied to cut back on staff hours and not make the necessary investments, or whatever is needed to properly address the issue as long as there isn't any visible uprising by the pax.

If this were an isolated situation, I would agree, however... this has been a well documented issue at jfk for some time. They are particularly and consistently bad. A simple search of this site and of recent media reports will reveal the massive scale of the problem.

As the trusted voice, JDIVER, aptly stated... "dregs" of humanity!

The sad thing is that whether its just incompetence or a willfully moronic job action, AA baggage is costing AA a lot of $ and goodwill. These cretins are helping put themselves out of business.... sad!

Hopefully AA will take the appropriate aaction against both labor and management at the station.