Brittanee S.
Forced to Gate-Check Our Carry On, Lost for Weeks, and Still No Resolution
Our experience with Air France has been absolutely unacceptable. On October 1, 2026, we were forced by airline staff to gate-check our carry-on bag at Portland International Airport because we were told there was insufficient overhead storage. We did not want to check this bag because it contained our camera equipment, but we had no choice. We arrived in Rome on October 2, and our bag never arrived. We were subsequently informed that it was still in Paris at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The bag contains over $1,100 worth of camera equipment and accessories, including a Sony camera and an additional lens that we had purchased specifically for our trip to Italy. We intentionally packed these items in this bag so we could use it for additional purchases during our travels. Instead, we spent our trip without our camera equipment and had to purchase an additional suitcase for €25 because our original bag was missing. What has made this experience even worse is Air France’s handling of the situation since then. We have repeatedly contacted customer service through email, telephone, and Facebook Messenger. Phone calls have not gone through, email responses have been minimal, and Facebook Messenger has been the only somewhat reliable way to get a response. Even then, we have received no confirmed location for our bag and no delivery date. On October 7, we received written confirmation from the Rome baggage-handling team that our request to reroute the bag to our home address in the United States had been processed. On October 12, Air France told us that the latest recorded update was from October 3 and that the bag was only expected to arrive in Rome. They could not confirm that it had actually arrived. We subsequently reconfirmed our home delivery address, yet we still have no bag and no meaningful resolution. We have provided an itemized inventory, purchase-price screenshots, our travel itinerary, and delivery instructions. We have done everything requested of us, yet we are still the ones chasing the airline for basic information about our own belongings. The bag was taken from us because airline staff required us to check it. We trusted that it would be transported with our journey, and now we have spent weeks trying to get it back. Luggage delays can happen. What is unacceptable is leaving customers without their belongings for weeks, failing to provide reliable updates, and making them repeatedly chase multiple channels of customer service just to get answers. We are now pursuing formal compensation for the missing contents and the additional expense this situation caused. We should never have had to spend our vacation without our camera equipment or return home without knowing where our belongings were. Based on this experience, I cannot recommend Air France. The lack of communication, accountability, and resolution has been incredibly frustrating, and I sincerely hope the airline takes this complaint seriously and improves how it handles delayed and potentially lost baggage.



