Aer Lingus - Alienating customers with horrible service

UPDATE:  We finally receive our bags Thursday and fortunately everything was in them!  A big thanks to Trevor Steele - super customer service rep who cut through the bureaucratic BS and got shit done.  Trevor was the only employee to sympathize with us and to take initiative.  Thanks Trevor!

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We need your help!  Aer Lingus recently lost our luggage and they are providing horrible customer service.  We are so worried we won't get our luggage.  Help us #freeourluggage by sharing our story through social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc).  Much gratitude - Jeff and Megan

SITUATION: We recently traveled back to the States for a weekend via Aer Lingus.  They lost Megan's bag and then proceeded to follow it up with horrible customer service.  I hope this story gets forward on to their management so they can make the appropriate decisions to fix this for future customers.

The reasons our experience was so bad:

1. Lost Baggage - obviously this is bad.  But to some extent it's understandable and a risk whenever flying commercial airliners.  I get that logistics don't always work 100% especially in a complex industry like the airline industry.  But things get exponentially worse with their poor response.
2. Bad policy - Aer Lingus per their policy won't reimburse a customer if it has been less than 24 hours since the bag was lost.  In our situation this was horrible because we had a wedding the next day and would not be able to officially buy stuff until after the wedding started.  I can think of many other situations (e.g. an interview or pretty much any business meeting) where a person would need to purchase stuff within 24 hours.
3. Disorganized process - the process for creating a claim is opaque and confusing for a customer.  We gave them our information but had to request things like "contact information" and our "claim #".  Had we not asked for this information we may never of had contact with Aer Lingus.  Furthermore, the lost baggage is handled by different groups at the different airports we traveled through (Chicago, Dublin and Chicago).  Those groups can not access all the same information and thus many of them are useless.  Our suitcase is currently in a black hole in Dublin (or so they think).
4. Bad decisions - during day 2 in Chicago we told the Chicago baggage claim team to leave our luggage in London since we wouldn't be able to receive it/use it before we had to return to London.  Instead Aer Lingus flew our luggage all the way to Chicago on Sunday just in time for it to arrive as we had to leave.  This is a waste and just increased the risk that they would lose it again (which they did).  How infuriating.  C'mon Aer Lingus fix your processes.
5. Reactive service - it's been four days since Aer Lingus lost our luggage and they have yet to proactively reach out to us with anything like an update.  It's up to us to constantly call them and badger them to create any progress on finding our stuff.  It's pathetic and shows how much they don't care.
6. Terrible attitude - we've now had over 7 conversations with Aer Lingus employees and they have yet to apologize for the inconvenience of losing our baggage.  If you truly care then act like it.  A little humble pie and sincerity would help alleviate our frustrations and give us confidence that things could still work out.
7. Inaccessible service numbers - their website does it's best to hide any customer service numbers.  We've had to scrap and even then we've gotten meager results.  Megan waited on hold for over 50 minutes with the Dublin HQ and never got an answer.  That's unacceptable and costly for us.

Aer Lingus - help us #freeourluggage

Reflections on our visit to Auschwitz

Note: The Holocaust is a very difficult subject yet one I believe needs to be talked about lest we forget.  I spent extra time thinking about how to write about this in the most sensitive and accurate manner.  I hope you learn a little bit from it and feel inspired to visit yourself.

While in Krakow we decided to visit Auschwitz - one of the most infamous Nazi concentration/extermination camps.   1.1M people died there, more then all the British and US losses in the second world war.  As global citizens we thought necessary to visit this dark piece of history.  It was a time for reflecting on history, morality, and humanity.  The camp is in the Polish country side, not far from Krakow.  The area would be scenic if it weren't for the knowledge of the evil done there.

Our tour was audio-guided by a highly trained expert.  She provided insightful commentary and answered our questions.  There are multiple components to the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.  The first is the older camp which now houses the museum and artifacts.  As you walk to it you see the infamous sign with the cruel lie "Work Makes You Free":

We then walked through the camp.  It was an eiry chilling experience made more ominous by the overcast skys and drizzle.  Survivors of Asuchwitz (their weren't many) say the place is almost the same as it was then except there was no grass just mud.

Barbed wire and train tracks.

Auschwitz was at the center of many railroads.  This was planned and indicative of the ruthless efficiency in which the Holocaust was conducted.  The brick buildings were former barracks that were turned into pseudo prisons.  We saw the places where thousands were tortured, experimented on, and executed.

The museum exhibits were instrumental in connecting the empty physical site with the actual human impact.  Most chilling were the leftover relics.  Their presence shows the crimes, their quantity shows the magnitude, and their categorization shows the evil calculation.

Pots and pans of the victims.  Most brought their closest possessions unaware of their future fate.

The luggage of the victims with names of real people.

Recreation of the operation of the large gas chambers.

After the exhibits we walked to the first crematorium.  It is still physically present and it provides chilling evidence to the crimes there.  As the war turned against Nazi Germany they increased the pace at which they executed their crimes.  This involved the construction of 4 large crematoriums and around 100 barracks.  The living conditions in the barracks were designed to provide a horrible experience.  We toured a recreation of one of those barracks.

As the Soviet army approached in 1944 the Nazis began destroying evidence of the camp.  They burned and destroyed records and demolished the crematoria and many of the barracks.  Below is the wreckage of one of the large crematoria.  Even so there is plenty of evidence of the evil there.

The visit to Auschwitz was extremely powerful.  Its a somber experience that creates more questions the answers.  To me it is a reminder to never lose our humanity and to appreciate the freedoms we do have.  To me it is also a reminder to fight for others and to stand up against tyranny.  We all have obligations to look after and take care of each other.  And we all have moral obligations to promote peace, understanding and diversity.

Auschwitz Memorial

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Auschwitz the wikipedia page is comprehensive and consistent with what we learned during our tour.  The BBC has also produced a solid documentary on Auschwitz which can be seen via Netflix.

Floating down the Vltava in Cesky Krumlov

During our central/eastern Europe vacation we took a side trip to Cesky Krumlov.  I was lukewarm about visiting Cesky Krumlov when Megan first proposed the idea.  It seemed out of the way and we had so many other big name places that we wanted to include.  Megan persisted and fortunately her tenacity paid out as we had a wonderful time in this small countryside town.

Cesky Krumlov

Visiting Cesky Krumlov is akin to stepping back into history.  The town center is a UNESCOheritage site, making it well protected and preserved.  All the shops, bar and restaurants are local and authentic.  The roads are winding, narrow and paved in cobblestones.   The heartbeat of the city center is the pretty town square with shops and cafes.  The city center is in the shadow of the beautiful Rosenberg Castle across the river.  The Rosenberg Castle has two really cool things: an authentic baroque theatre and a bear pit! 

Laibon - Cute CK Restaurant

Our first night we ate at a wonderful restaurant on the river.   We arrived just before dusk and were treated to some magical views.

The atmosphere was cozy, romantic and unpretentious.  We struck up conversations with the staff and enjoyed chatting with the owner – a nomadic world traveler.  The food was quite tasty.  We got the vegetarian sampler – a bit of dhal, thai curry, middle eastern seitan, and Mexican black beans. It was eclectic and tasty.  The beers were tasty too.

Enjoying our delicious dinner at Laibon

River Kayaking

Our main attraction for Cesky Krumlov was the river kayaking.  There is a bit of infrastructure in place where you can rent kayaks or rafts and then journey down the river for a day or more.  Along the river there are stops every 2-3 miles where you can resupply with food, restrooms and beer.  The route was quite scenic in August as we saw plenty of Green.

Impressive selfie work by Megan.

Pure Czech Republic.

Each of the small stops had its own local flair.  We indulged in pancakes, chips, fruit, and multiple orders of sausages. 

Sausage, pumpernickel bread, mustard and beer after a few hours of kayaking

One stop even had a touch of bizarre Amercana.

Must also be an SEC fan

The major challenge we encountered was a rainstorm 2/3 of the way through our trip.  We were enjoying one of our sausages and beers when the rain began to come down with ominous clouds in the sky.  At this point Megan and I decided to race out the weather rather than stay in the comforts of the shelter.  It was a big mistake.  We ended up getting absolutely drenched and I was freezing for the next hour.  Our lack of composure in our composure in our decisoinmaking was pretty poor.  After 30 minutes the rain stopped and we made it to a shelter where warm food and drink warmed us up. 

Enjoying the views from the Castle.

 We would highly recommend rafting in CK as a way to see the countryside, get some exercise and sample local food.