United Airlines Faces Class Action Lawsuit over Delayed Baggage

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United Airlines is facing a class action lawsuit filed by Illinois passenger Gina Spadoni, who alleges the airline purposefully placed her’s and other passengers’ checked bags onto later flights in favor of fulfilling cargo shipments.

Spadoni alleges in the United Airlines class action lawsuit that she boarded a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles on Sept. 21, 2013, and paid an extra $25 in baggage fees to check her luggage to her arrival destination. The bag complied with United Airline’s weight and dimension restrictions for checked pieces of luggage and yet it was still placed on a later flight, the class action lawsuit claims.

Spadoni alleges that United Airlines has adopted a practice of leaving paid passenger luggage and instead prioritizes profitable cargo shipments when their domestic flights are approaching their weight limit. The United Airlines class action lawsuit alleges that United continues this practice because the payment for on-time cargo shipments produces bigger profits than the paid passenger luggage.

There is also a greater loss of profits for airlines like United that have promised full refunds for late cargo shipments, though the same cannot be said for passengers’ luggage. The United baggage class action lawsuit also states, “The removal of checked baggage, rather than cargo, harms passengers, but not United, as United reaps the profit from its transportation of cargo[.]”

While sending a passenger’s luggage on a later flight is not strictly illegal and is covered in the United ticket agreement of carriage practicality—which states that a passenger’s luggage may be sent on a later flight if transportation of luggage becomes “impractical”—it does not make it acceptable for the airline to give preferential treatment to cargo shipments over passenger luggage. Spadoni’s class action lawsuit claims that it was “practical, possible, and reasonable” for the airline to transport her luggage.

United spokeswoman Jennifer Dohm stated via email that United Airline plans to fight the proposed class action lawsuit, believing that the suit has no merit.

Because Spadoni is not the only passenger who has lodged complaints about United’s alleged luggage and cargo practices, Spadoni and her legal representatives are pursuing a class action lawsuit that will allow other United passengers to join the suit.

According to the United class action lawsuit, eligible Class Members would include:

“All Illinois residents who purchased a ticket for carriage on a United flight, or on a flight of any predecessor corporation of United, since Sept.21, 2003, who paid a checked bagged fee and whose checked baggage was transported on an aircraft other than the aircraft on which the resident was transported, when cargo was transported on the passenger’s aircraft and the passenger’s aircraft was weight restricted.”

Spadoni is seeking monetary compensation for herself and other Class Members in the form of a currently unspecified portion of damages, refund of baggage fees, and also includes compensation for time and money passengers spent trying locate and obtain their delayed luggage.

Spadoni is represented by Thomas A. Zimmerman Jr., Adam M. Tamburelli and Frank J. Stretz of Zimmerman Law Offices PC and Robert A. Clifford and Shannon M. McNulty of Clifford Law Offices PC.

The United Airlines Checked Baggage Class Action Lawsuit is Spadoni v. United Airlines Inc., Case No. 14-CH-11119, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, Chancery Division.