On the 3rd Day of Christmas...

...my mom got her suitcase back!

Finally.

And what a journey it has been.

Day 1:
- The bag didn't arrive to Chicago customs on mom's original flight on the 15th. That flight from Munich was delayed, and mom missed the connection to Austin, and had to spend the night in Chicago. She arrived here on the 16th.
Day 2:
- We filled a baggage claim report on the 16th with United, and the Austin airport. We were expecting the bag to be here within 24 hours.
Day 3:
- On the 17th, we started calling the 1800 #, and realized it always routes to India. They were just telling us they are tracing it, but don't yet have the confirmation of the location of the bag. We told them about the medications in the bag, and asked it the search can be expedited. The snow storms were making havoc in Germany, and many flights were delayed/canceled.
Day 4:
- The calls continued on the 18th. Someone gave us the WorldTracer number, which supposedly could be used by Lufthansa as well, but their system didn't pull up anything with that number. We called LH in the US, and were quickly told they cannot track anything for us. It is United's problem, and they need to do the investigation. We got LH Baggage Service number in Munich and started calling them for us with no answer. At midnight we called LH at Sarajevo airport, and were at least told the bags left that airport on that first flight. They were assuring us that the bag is still in Munich, because it was chaos there with delays.
Day 5:
- Continued calling LH in Munich for 3-4 hours on the 19th. Started with daily calls to India requesting them to send new requests to all the airports to do another search.
Day 6:
- On the 20th, United folks in India told me the bag is on flights Munich-Chicago-Austin for that day! Great news. The bag was last scanned in Chicago, and it should be in Austin that evening. The status on united site also updated to say the bag is on the way to its final destination. Bought few items and will file interim expense claim for those. Mom finally had a good night sleep.
Day 7:
- When no one called us by 11am on the 21st, I called United in India again. Now I was told they again don't know where the bag is?! It was not scanned in Chicago, like I was said the day before. The last scan was in Munich! The online status changed back to "At this time, we have not been able to confirm the location of your property". Sad. Confusing. Requested another search request sent to all the airports.
Day 8:
- If the bag is not in Sarajevo, and we can't get any response from Munich and Chicago, lets call Austin airport. We got someone to answer on the 22nd, by accident. The lady searched their little office, and the red bag was not there. We went there ourselves that evening, and searched United' and all other airlines' baggage offices. No bag. We spent almost two hours at the airport, asking to get other phone numbers, another search in the system, to talk to someone from United in Chicago. Finally that lady connected us to a phone that she could not give to us, and we talked to their office in Chicago. They did the same manual search, and the bag was not there. So, it meant it's still sitting in Munich. They even had trouble reading their report; first they read that it was sent on those flights, then that it only meant that someone requested for the bag to be sent on those flights. I managed to get a copy of their internal messaging printout with record of all the daily activity about our bag.
Day 9:
- On 23rd, daily call to India requesting another search request sent to Munich airport
Day 10:
- On Christmas Eve, the 24th, called some friends in Sarajevo to buy and send mom the medications, since we have no idea if the bag will ever arrive.
Day 11:
- On 25th, daily call to India requesting another search request sent to Munich airport
Day 12:
- On the 26th, I googled up some 13 email addresses for LH in Germany, and sent a mass email to all about our complain requesting some response. 5 addresses came back as not good.
Day 13:
- In the morning of the 27th, we got an email response from the LH Supervisor Baggage Services in Munich, apologizing for not being able to contact them. He said they had 10,000 bag backlog! And he confirmed that our "bag has definitely left Munich on 20 December to Chicago onto UA7638 on 20 December to Austin". Now what?! Email him back asking to double-check. United site still says they don't know the location. Called LH in the US - they don't handle the search; was told to call United. Called United in India - was told the bag arrived in Austin today at 11am! Asked to double-check (they've made mistakes before), but they still confirm it. Didn't want to tell mom about it until I can confirm with Austin airport, but they didn't pick up for an hour. In the mean time, the bag was delivered to our door.

Hallelujah!!!