Originally Posted by
bingocallerb22
Cur, yes, but not referring to carry-on. I sort of feel responsible for that, it is in my care. It is when I give my checked bag to AC, it is in their care and they damage it.
Lets not always blame the victim... what if the pax packs “un-stupidly” and there is still damage? Or the bag is damaged, not the contents?
I've seen the whiskey bottle example before. Actually, IMHO it is not a very fragile item. The round shape is structurally one of the strongest... but I have seen someone standing beside the carousel with a suitcase dripping red wine (a charter).
Thinking about a previous comment about bags being damaged by the airport systems, not AC per se. I gave my bag to AC. To me they are responsible, I have to deal with them. If the common services at the airport are responsible for damages then AC has the responsibility to deal with them... I think this is a common-law principle.
I am still wondering about LH covering broken wheels, while AC does not. How is this possible? Does AC have the relatively longest list of damages they don't cover? What about their “duty of care”?
I agree, there is
dammmmaggee, like the post with the mangled metal suitcase. That's messed up, it probably got ran over or something. But where is that balance between care of duty, negligence, and regular wear and tear? Your suitcase has one less wheel when you get it back than when you checked it, but what if that wheel was defective, hanging on a thread, etc.? Should the company be fully responsible for your crappy bag's crappiness? Was the airline failing to uphold its care of duty when one of their staffers went to pick up a bag by the handle, but the bag was so heavy the handle just ripped off? What if the bag isn't heavy at all, but the handle still breaks because it is that crappy? The reality is that your bag will be dropped, shoved, pushed, pulled, thrown, etc., and because it cannot withstand this handling of others (sorry, but your suitcase is just that, a suitcase, it's not a living thing, it's going to be thrown, dropped, shoved, pushed, etc) means the airline is responsible for what could be poor construction of a bag?
I would go off of negligence and outcome as the metric, not just outcome. A suitcase getting run over and dented is negligence. But someone throwing a 50lb bag 6-15ft inside a cargo compartment is 3ft high in order to get the flight out on time (in order to allow cnx bags plenty of time to make their onward flight), and that bag exploding because it is a piece of crap...doesn't seem very negligent to me. Or a handle being ripped off when grabbed by a rampie; I think you have to go after the cause, not the symptom: handles exist so they can be grabbed, and cheap handles will break eventually. Simply because a handle broke while in the care of the airline doesn't make the airline responsible IMO. That's like saying the daycare is inevitably responsible-and automatically blameworthy-because my kid had a cardiac arrest and had half their face paralyzed while under their care. Sure, the daycare
could be responsible and blameworthy, but simply because something occurred under their care doesn't mean
it is automatically responsibility carte blanche. Or what if you leave your 1994 Ford Windstar to a valet, the valet guy goes to open the door, and the handle breaks? Or the van hits a pillar because the brakes failed? Is the valet responsible for this damage?
With LH replacing your wheel, wow...that's a good airline. Maybe it's because they are a large company sponsored and supported by the government that operate in a very consumer-centric culture? Or because the laws in Germany or different?
I haven't gone through the process of a majorly damaged bag, so I'm not jaded, but I'm pretty sure I will be jaded. You just have to be like that sh## disturbing math professor from YWG that goes to the CTA over everything.