Coincidence... I think not.

On our brief stop in AZ in January, John and I purchased some IKEA frames and checked them as baggage on our U.S. Airways flight back. They were wrapped in an enormous amount of packing material, marked fragile by us and by U.S. Airways, and we were assured that they would arrive safely.

When we landed in Anchorage, we noticed a significant gouge in the side of the box. We thought the glass might have broken. So, when we got home, we opened the box... but, since the frames hadn't shifted and the glass was intact, we left them in the box until our matted prints arrived. HA HA.

Once we received the matting and began unwrapping the pictures, we found each frame damaged at the corner that was gouged. We hadn't even thought the frame would crack and not break the glass. We tried to repair them, but 2 of the frames were utterly beyond repair.

Despite our keeping the box and taking pictures, U.S. Air said we needed to have let them know in person within 4 hours to submit a claim AND denting is normal-- they can't be held responsible for damage caused by normal handling.

We've since exchanged a few fruitless emails where U.S. Air tries to explain that denting is part of their normal handling process... UGH. Finally, I decided to just submit the complaint to the Better Business Bureau.

Much to my non-amazement, U.S. Air isn't a BBB accredited business... while their competitors, who have always handled any issues promptly and courteously, ARE. I don't think it's at all a coincidence that Delta (who credited me miles because I had to sit in a broken seat with a poor seat assignment) IS a BBB business (as is Southwest--though, to be fair, some others aren't) and U.S. Airways, who hasn't even offered to refund the charge we paid them to fly the bag, is NOT.