United Express has major baggage these days — and not the emotional kind.
Passengers on United Express flights into Denver International Airport say there are major issues with the airline’s baggage handling, with some waiting hours to retrieve their checked luggage during this travel week.
Ed Tonini of Louisville, Ky., flew to Denver on a United Express flight this week. His small bag, which he checked at the gate, took about 30 minutes to retrieve. But nothing could have prepared him for the baggage claim area, which he said was utter chaos.
“It was a comedy. People were ready to riot — there were children crying and hundreds of people that were very testy, sitting on the floor, waiting, and no United people there to tell us what was going on,” he said. “Our flight was a little over two hours, and it took more than two hours to get our bags.”
Tonini said there were stretches of time as long as 35 minutes that the baggage carousel was empty, yet flights continued to arrive. At other times, there were so many bags on the carousel that they were falling onto the floor, he said.
United has 145 daily “mainline” flights and 258 regional flights — those handled by United Express — through DIA, airline spokesman Charles Hobart said. Baggage service for mainline flights is handled in-house by United.
In September, United Airlines announced its contract with SkyWest Airlines for the majority of its United Express below-wing ground baggage handling at DIA would end, resulting in a job loss for about 650 Denver workers.
SkyWest, which held the contract for nine years, was replaced effective Dec. 4 by Simplicity Ground, a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Menzies Aviation.
Hobart said weather delays, cancellations and holiday travel, combined with Simplicity being new on the job, all are contributing to the delays.
“We are not meeting our customer’s expectations when it comes to wait times for their bags. We are working with Simplicity, as we do with all our business partners, in order to meet those expectations,” he said. “Only a minority of United’s DIA customers have been affected.”
One of the major issues, Hobart said, is that many bags are being misfiled.
“The bags that are destined for Denver, for whatever reason, end up in the bags that are set for connecting flights, when their destination is actually DIA ” he said.
Hobart added that customers can help the situation by making sure their bags are clearly marked.
“The quicker it is for us to identify and locate a customer’s bag, that’s one less bag that we’re going to have to worry about, and that’s one more bag that’s going to be in the hands of a customer,” he said.
Tonini said a United employee called the situation a “nightmare.”
“I was told it’s been like this for the last few days,” Tonini said. “The employee told me Simplicity has only about 20 percent of the people they need to do the work. They can’t get anyone to come work for $8 an hour, so that’s why they’re short-staffed.”
Simplicity Ground and its parent company, Menzies, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Tonini, who says he was encouraged to file a complaint, called the experience “inconsistent” with his mostly positive relationship with United.
Industry index Airline Quality Rating, using data compiled by researchers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Wichita State University, ranks airline quality on multiple criteria, one of which is mishandled baggage.
According to 2012 data in the 2013 report, United had a mishandled-baggage rate of 3.87 per 1,000 passengers, up from 3.66 per 1,000 in 2011 and 3.4 in 2010.
DIA spokesman Heath Montgomery said the airport’s baggage systems and TSA are operating normally.
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or twitter.com/LauraKeeney
United’s bag
Mishandled-baggage rates per 1,000 passengers for United Airlines, according to a 2013 Airline Quality Rating report:
2012: 3.87
2011: 3.66
2010: 3.4
