I belong to a Travel Portugal group on FaceBook and before our trip I had been reading nightmare stories about the wait to get through passport control in the Lisbon Airport. Tales of 3.5 hour waits on line were common and had us all nervous when we got off the plane. Little did I know that we would face a different airport obstacle…
The line for passport control was fairly long but it was moving along quickly. I can’t even remember why but for some reason I logged into the American Airlines app while we were waiting on line and when it opened up, my heart dropped. A warning message was displayed at the top of my page stating that 1 of our 4 bags had been delayed. Ugh. What a way to start off a trip!
What made it even more stressful as we stood on line was that we didn’t know whose bag it was. They printed all 4 tags out and just put them on any bag so the names on the tags and the bags didn’t match up. I went through all the scenarios in my head and hoped and prayed that it would be my bag that was delayed so that it didn’t negatively impact our kids’ trip.
Well… I got my wish. After getting through passport control we went to baggage claim and watched the bags come out, waiting anxiously to see who was going to lose this lottery. My oldest son’s came out first and I was immediately relieved because I think he would have really struggled with the anxiety around a lost bag and let it impact his enjoyment of the trip. Next came my husband’s and finally my youngest son’s.
The boys and I settled in on a bench near the baggage carousel and continued to hope that some straggler bags would show up. My husband headed to the well-hidden Lost Luggage office where he was relieved to find only one person ahead of him in line. His relief soon turned to frustration though when it quickly became obvious that the office was completely inefficient. After 45 minutes of the staff helping a single customer, my husband politely inquired if someone would be able to help him soon because we were trying to catch a train to Porto. The staff member was irate and told him “I’m working! What does it look like I’m doing? Eating? Drinking? Smoking? No, I’m working.”
So while my husband continued to wait, I researched the fastest way to get to the train station and figured out what we would have to do if we missed our train. Finally it was his turn and the painful lost luggage reporting process began. It was definitely a bad sign that they asked for every hotel we would be staying at during our 10 days in Portugal. Despite the fact that everyone had a computer on their desk, the process was inexplicably completely manual. They had my husband write down our hotel information on a sheet of paper while they filled out forms by hand. We knew this was not a good sign but had no idea how bad it would actually end up being.
Finally my husband made his way through all the bureaucratic red tape and emerged from the office with the all-important delayed baggage file number. We sprinted out the airport door to the metro station and made our way to Oriente Station, where we got to the platform with less than 5 minutes to spare. While I was nervous about leaving Lisbon without my luggage, I was extremely relieved that we made our train to Porto.
A few hours later we arrived at the Sao Bento train station in Porto. Walking through the lobby and seeing the stunning azulejo tile murals, my stress just melted away. I was in Portugal. Bag or no bag, I was so excited to be here and knew we were going to have an incredible time. We walked to our hotel and I soon discovered that there are some benefits to “traveling light”. The walk was steeply uphill on uneven cobblestone sidewalks and while the rest of my family struggled dragging their wheeled luggage along, I just had my backpack. Maybe not having a bag wasn’t so bad after all!
We let our hotel know that my bag was lost and should be delivered the next day. (My bag apparently missed the first flight (from CLT to PHL) and had to wait until the next Lisbon flight which was 24 hours after ours.) They assured me that this was not uncommon and that it would likely be delivered the next day with no problem.
Since we had submitted the report and could see through the American app that the bag was loaded onto the next flight, there wasn’t much for us to do at that point but wait. But when my bag didn’t arrive in Porto the next day, we reached out to American Airlines. They assured us that it was in Lisbon and would be delivered.
But it didn’t show up the next day either and when we checked the status of the claim, it had been closed. In a panic, we reached out to American again. They told us it was just procedure to close it since they had gotten the bag there and that the luggage delivery company was still tracking it. And at that point, American basically washed their hands of the situation. They told us we would have to work with the luggage delivery company (Portway) to resolve it from that point forward.
But that was easier said than done. There is no direct contact information for Portway. You have to call the Lisbon Airport main number and try to get connected. We made several attempts but nobody ever answered when the main airport tried to connect us. I found an email address on an old Trip Advisor travel forum and sent a message, hoping the address was still valid.
To make matters worse, we were leaving Porto the next day. I was nervous that we would miss the bags in transit, although by day 3 in Porto with no bags, I was pretty sold on the theory that they were waiting for us to go to Sintra so they could deliver it there because it was much closer to Lisbon.
Fortunately for us, we had 3 days with a wonderful guide based out of Porto, Igor Araujo with Porto Tours & Transfers. Our second day with him was a transfer from Porto to Sintra with stops in Aveiro, Nazare and Obidos. Once he heard I still hadn’t received my bag, he got on the phone with the Lisbon Airport and quickly succeeded in getting through to Portway. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to have a native who was very familiar with the airport and its processes calling on my behalf. They assured him that the bag was already on its way to Sintra and would be there by 9pm.
When we checked into the hotel around 6pm, the bag wasn’t there yet but the hotel confirmed that the delivery company had also called them and told them it was on its way. Unfortunately, we were staying at a smaller hotel that did not staff the front desk after 7pm so I was stuck waiting for my luggage while the rest of the family went out to get dinner. I was sad to miss out on exploring the town of Sintra but relieved that my bag was finally on its way.
Except that it wasn’t. It never arrived and I headed up to our room dejectedly at 9pm. I was worried because until this point, they hadn’t made any attempts to deliver it. While that had been frustrating, it was worrisome that they told multiple people it was already on its way to Sintra and yet it never arrived.
And I was right to be worried. When Igor picked us up the next day, he couldn’t believe that the bag hadn’t arrived. So he called Portway again and this is where things really got interesting. They were shocked that it hadn’t been delivered. They were certain it had been put in the van and went out for delivery yesterday. They said they would have to call him back but they were clearly worried because they now had no idea where my bag was. When they called back, they told him that they thought it was on a bus to Porto and that they would call him back again when the bus arrived. Guess what? The bus arrived and my bag wasn’t on it. So now it appeared to be officially lost, which was super frustrating since it had been delayed but was always at least accounted for until this point.
We continued our tour of Sintra and headed to Lagos in the late afternoon. While we were driving, they called Igor and let him know that they had found my bag. It had been delivered to a hotel in Lisbon. We were still not going to be in Lisbon for 3 more days and we weren’t even staying in that hotel when we got there. I seriously just had to laugh at this point.
They told Igor that they could just hold it in Lisbon until we got there or send it to Lagos but that it wouldn’t get there until the next afternoon. Since we were only staying two nights in Lagos, Igor was worried that we would miss the bag and thought we should just have them hold it. But we were staying at an airbnb in Lisbon with no front desk, and we knew delivery there would mean sitting around waiting so we decided to chance it and have them send the bag.
By now I bet you can guess how that turned out. The bag didn’t come. By this time we had parted ways with Igor after a great three days of tours, but they continued to call him with updates, which he kindly continued to relay back to us. They told him that they tried to send it to Faro but the airline couldn’t fit the bag on the plane. (My bag is a standard sized rolling bag.)
So we were back to getting the bag in Lisbon. Because we didn’t want to wait around for another luggage delivery that might never come, we headed to the airport when we got back to the city to pick it up ourselves. But as we were walking in to the airport it hit me… the lost luggage office was behind security. Ugh.
We went to the spot where baggage claim exits into the unsecured part of the airport and talked to the security guard stationed there. He pointed behind me to two phones – one for Portway and one for Groundforce, the two baggage handling companies. But there was something else behind me… a lot of frustrated looking people.
The problem was that nobody was answering the phone. There was one phone for each company and it was a direct line to their office behind security. But nobody ever answered. There were probably two dozen people standing there and they had all tried calling, to no avail.
I talked to the security guard again and he was nice enough to try to call for me when he heard I had been without my bag for 7 days. But they didn’t answer for him either. I went out into the airport and found a Portway desk. They called too. No answer. By this point my husband was irate and headed to the American Airlines counter. Although they had tried to wash their hands of the situation, they were ultimately responsible for getting me my bag so we hoped they would be helpful. (They weren’t.)
In the meantime, I decided to try emailing Portway again to see if they would respond that way. Although they didn’t respond, about 10 minutes later someone came out and called my name so they must have read the email. I had to show them my passport to get behind security and left behind a lot of angry and confused people who didn’t understand why I was the only one they were helping. Finally I made my way back to the office where it all started.
But of course, my bag wasn’t there. They pointed to a pile of bags in the corner and were surprised when I said mine wasn’t there. There was some frantic talking in Portuguese and people scurrying around and finally someone came from a back room with my bag. They had me sign for it and that was it. No explanation. No apology. Nobody even acknowledged me when I thanked them and said goodbye.
I had to laugh when I saw the tag on my bag indicating a rush to Porto. “RUSH” must mean something else in Portuguese. I went 7 days without my bag and then had to pick it up myself – and even that took two hours.
So lots of drama and a long story but all was well in the end. Although it was super inconvenient, I can honestly say I didn’t let it impact my enjoyment of Portugal. We had an incredible trip – just ignore the fact that I am wearing the same two t-shirts in all of our pictures. 🙂