Alitalia MilleMiglia - Recourse for AZ Delayed Baggage Claim Rejection?

After a great trip on the new A330 from JFK-FCO this past February I was sad to see my luggage did not arrive in Rome. I was told it would not arrive for at least a day, so I was to purchase needed items and would be reimbursed.

After no contact from AZ for half of the next day, an Italian colleague called and was able to get some information. At around 3pm local time they said the bag would be delivered the next day. This was unacceptable so a taxi was hired to go out to FCO and collect the bag.

Immediately upon my return to the US (6 days later) a claim was sent by Priority mail to the office in NYC containing receipts, etc. I heard no word for 45 days so I called in and they found no record of my claim, I was told to resubmit. No contact again so this time I followed up in writing, they asked for a dossier number and I gave all reference numbers I had. 11 days later they wrote declining my claim saying it was not submitted in time.

Beside the fact they had my bag and were not going to deliver it until the next day I am very disappointed by their decision on my claim. Does anyone know a way to lodge a formal complaint with EU authorities? Or possibly escalate to a central claims department?

This should also serve as a warning to others, if you mail your claim in, you should use certified mail!

I'm not sure why you want to involve EU authorities in this? It seems to me that you have a purely US issue: you said you sent a request for payment in the US using priority mail, and that they said they did not receive it and declined payment. Do you have proof of sending (was it registered or do you have at least a post office receipt?) If so, I would send a copy to them. If not there is not much you can do. For all you know, the problem might lie with the post office which may have lost the letter rather than with AZ, or however stupid it may sound, are you sure the address details you were given were entirely correct?

Anyway, in a nutshell: (1) if you have proof of mailing, make a copy, send it to customer service and do scream and kick about how unacceptable it is that they have lost your claim while you have proof you sent it. Ask for an answer within x days (e.g. 2 or 4 weeks) and if it doesn't work go to a small claim court in the US. (2) if you have no proof of mailing, then you have no legal leg to stand on anyway. Going to a small claims court would only serve to make you lose your money, any EU jurisdiction would only serve for your case to be dismissed as they would have nothing to do with it, and any expression of outrage would only serve for you to be ignored even more ostentiously by the airline. If it is the case and you do not have any proof of mailing, then the best you can do is keep a low profile, call them, tell them that your letter must have been lost somewhere and ask if you can resubmit it by registered mail, which you should have done - at least the second time.

I quote orbitmic completely. Just to give you a data point if you get to discuss compensation, the usual approach by AZ is to reimburse 50% of the articles you bought while waiting for your luggage to arrive. I wouldn't know about the taxi.