Oct 12 - CHARLOTTE VIEW: My luggage went MIA with American Airlines + LAN

Charlotte View's host, Claudia Pureco, shares her worst baggage-handling nightmare. On 9/27/2012 she flought from Charlotte, NC to Lima, Peru to meet a spiritual group on an11-day trek through the south region of Peru.

Her luggage, however, didn’t make the rendezvous. Consequently, Claudia had to travel with the group without personal cleaning supplies, raincoat, swiming suit for the hot springs, sunscreen, warm clothes for the mountains, in fact wihout any clothes but the ones she’d shown up in. Over the 11 days, in between increasingly frustrated calls to American Airlines baggage office in Lima, she traveled with her group on all-day walks wearing whatever the other members of the group could share.

And still today, after 15 days of her return, her luggage is still MIA. She had to open a new file case since the old one was CLOSED and she was told her luggage had been delivered to a Travel Agency in Arequipa, Peru.

If true, this was done outside any procedure, without her authorization, without her knowing and without any oficial confirmation

During the ordeal, the airline representatives told different versions and denied any monetary assistance even when the luggage was lost over the 5 day mark. They refused to call her back at a local cell phone or to send emails so she could stop spending over $100 in phone calls. She was left endlessly on public phones waiting to have someone answered, have to tell the story AGAIN, only to be left on-hold, listening to the clicking sound of coins lost.

BREAKING NEWS: as of 10/12/2012 the luggage finally arrived to Claudia's home it was waiting on the front door when she opened the door to let her dog out. A very happy reunion. Thank you to whom ever pulled the right strings to make it happened.