South London Bon Viveur

With all the security and cctv at LHR it should be well within the Police's capability to have a good go at identifying the scumbags responsible for this. Have they said anything at all about how their investigation is progressing? Whilst the English media may currently be up in arms at perceived Police inaction in respect of crimes such as theft and burglary, I would have thought that theft of or from baggage at our number 1 airport would be an absolute policing priority.

revan

They will say, quite rightly, that the risk of compromising passenger baggage is far outweighed by compromising the UK border by not making thorough checks on incoming visitors.

Stopping potential Jihadis going to join IS may be a higher priority for Heathrow Police given the current climate.

jacobitetraveller

it rather annoys me when I read statements from people who immediately say one should claim on your travel insurance

the responsibility lies with HAL----the bag was in their care when it was stolen--so your claim should be against them

questions you may want to ask them is where was the bag found and why did it take 4 days for it to be found---seems very lax to me

Often1

OP's status has nothing to do with his status. BA's job is to deliver the bag to the carousel and that it did. I'm not even sure why OP would file a claim with BA at all. OP's bag was stolen, that is a matter covered by his luggage insurance or for which he has chosen to assume the risk.

Neither UA nor any other carrier is going to treat him any differently. Nor should UA.

An interesting side note is that there are multiple rants on FT from people who have been stopped at the occasional LGA baggage checkpoint and asked to produce their claim.

Worcester

Never quite understood the arrangements in US airports where the baggage reclaim in many domestic sides are outside of the secure are, so anyone can walk in an take baggage.

My father once was working out in the middle east when they stopped for lunch and had the bags stolen, apart from a battered, very old carpet bag. Which just happen to be the one filled with that weeks payroll for a remote site...

I always leave my bag unlocked as a signal there is nothing valuable in there, and I have travel insurance.

Often1

I disagree that the bag was within HAL's care, as in "duty of care". Not everything that goes wrong in life is somebody else's fault to the extent that the somebody else is liable.

jacobitetraveller

please explain why the bag was not in the care of HAL and they do not have a duty of care

simons1

This is why you pay your insurance premium. It covers these risks. The insurance company will engage with other parties as they need to. So why shouldn't the traveller turn to their insurer?

Does it? That's not what HAL says.

http://www.heathrow.com/arrivals/baggage-reclaim

"Baggage handling and delivery is your airline’s responsibility from check-in to collection"

Plus the customer's contractual relationship is with BA not HAL.

Without knowing where the bag was in the intervening period I am not sure how you can exercise that judgement. It may have been removed from the premises for a couple of days before being returned and dumped there.

simons1

HAL do not at any stage have any responsibility for the bag. That is between BA and its baggage handling agents from the beginning to end of the process.

mario

From BA's own Conditions of Carriage:

BA says that only the person with the baggage tag can claim the bag - they failed to comply with their own CoC as they let someone else take the bag.

BA is responsible, simples.

LTN Phobia

I am sorry to read that the OP had his bag stolen. It has always made me feel quite wary when there is a big queue at immigration for that very reason. It never seemed very secure to me.

There are all sorts of solutions and semi-solutions that I can think of (e.g. access to the particular carousel when the baggage tag stub for the right flight is scanned) etc but that's no good for the OP right now.

Given the OP has had the police find the bag, albeit with a jacket missing, I do hope that the police has checked the CCTV. Maybe there is a criminal group operating to commit this kind of crime and they will hopefully catch who has done this.

As for the recourse, I think the best solution would be the travel insurance. If they believe HAL or BA have liability, then they may well pursue them. It will save the OP having to have the hassle of chasing up multiple parties with an uncertain outcome. Insurance companies can make our life easier - that's one of the things we are paying for. Use them, instead of taking on the case yourself, even if it's just to save time.

Meanwhile it may be worthwhile complaining to the immigration department. Obviously they are not responsible for the criminal act by someone but it may may well have made it (inadvertently) easier for crimes to be committed.

As a somewhat strange thought though, we always complain about slow baggage delivery. Here is one benefit of slow baggage delivery. It reduces the risk of theft because we are there despite a long immigration queue!

TabTraveller

Well most travel insurance policies have a single item limit of around £500 so in this case there would be uninsured losses to consider.

The question I would be asking of BA is what reasonable steps did you take whilst my bag was in your custody to ensure it wasn't stolen and that it was delivered to me?

Clearly delivering to a baggage carousel where there is a good chance the passenger won't yet be present is an issue as there is effectively nothing to prevent the bag from being stolen or interfered with.

HIDDY

That's what I was thinking. That's why I prefer arriving at luggage reclaim before the bags start coming off.

mario

As I said above, if I take the Conditions of Carriage to the letter, BA says that they will only deliver the bag to the rightful owner.

It was their choice not to deploy staff/take measures to make this happen - therefore it is their responsibility to pay for the stolen bag.

I agree with LTNPhobia that travel insurance may be a best option as it is less hassle, let them deal with BA. However, if my travel insurance didn't cover the full amount of the stolen bag, I would simply write back to them saying to pay up or I'd go to Small Claims Court, quoting their own Conditions of Carriage.

simons1

I don't think I'd waste the cost of a stamp and a piece of paper. They won't be the slightest bit interested and the letter will go in the receptacle provided for that purpose.

Indeed but then the single item limit is something you have to bear in mind when transporting an expensive item of clothing. Maybe a letter to BA covering uninsured losses, but I would expect them to decline it. At that point decide whether small claims is worth the effort.

I'm sure BA would reply saying with the volume of traffic it would be impossible to deliver every bag to coincide with the traveller's arrival at the reclaim. They would probably also be able to come up with some stats showing the vast majority of people complain about late arrival of bags as opposed to early.

The only foolproof way is to check bags against tags on the way out, happened to me in Lusaka last week, however I suspect people would soon be on here moaning about delays in getting out the airport and also about the increased costs that would result.

Fortunately you hear about cases like this quite rarely. It doesn't make it in any way satisfactory, however if the Police can't identify the perpetrator then recovery from insurance would seem the most practical way forward.