SUETHAMPTON

please beware before you fly VUELING. They lost my luggage on a 30 minute flight in November at the beginning of my vacation. I spent most of my vacation on the phone or at airports trying to deal with this. I have gotten misinformation many times, been lectured by their so called customer service, hung up on twice when I Asked for a supervisor, told there was NO supervisor, no place to email...they need my documents to compensate for the luggage that is STILL lost..I was given a PO box to send this to..no shipping company will deliver to a post office box! I live in Ecuador, and after MANY phone calls to Spain was finally emailed a physical address to send the documents.. ('Somehow they can send emails )after spending $200 to ship these documents VUELING airline..REFUSED the package. Although my insurance company has been very professional, they cannot compensate me without a release letter from the airline..I am at a loss as the documents are headed back this way.
Do yourself a favor and just avoid this unprofessional airline.

beckoa

SUETHAMPTON, welcome to Flyertalk.

We've relocated this thread to the Other European Airlines forum as that's where your carrier is. If you'd like any other advice on this situation feel free to post.

Please note this originated in the Flame Free Information Desk

~beckoa co-moderator Information Desk

Often1

1. Where was your flight to/from?
2. How did you pay for your ticket? Credit card to the airline, travel agent, independent website such as Expedia?
3. What is a "release" letter and what is it that your insurance company wants it to say?
4. If you are making a claim against your insurance, what is it that you are sending by way of documents to the carrier?
5. How does it cost $200 to airmail what I presume are a list of lost items and receipts?

Mwenenzi

10 of 1000's of people will continue to fly on Vueling Airline

So why did you not post the documents?

Aviatrix

The OP did post the documents. The airline refused to accept them.

Re-read the original post.

Mwenenzi

They were refused at the phyiscal address when sent by the shipping company.
To me a stamp on letter/package and sent via post to the PO Box would be the better way. Stamps do not cost $200

Often1

We really need answers to detail questions from OP. It's impossible to help without knowing some of those things.

OP may well be covered under the Montreal Convention and that may be actionable anywhere Vueling does business. Not really worth speculating until OP comes back.

David-A

I don't know why you think flight duration has anything to do with the chances of loosing luggage. And, for most simple trips, if it is going to be lost, there is a 50% chance it will be on the way to the destination.


All airlines loose luggage, the question is how they handle it, and how you handle it.

You had travel insurance (by the sound of things), so that is a good start.


As others have said, what does your insurance need from them?
What are you sending to the airline?


The postal service will. And you can send registered postal items to PO Box addresses.

(I've also sucessfully sent courier documents to Spanish PO Boxes, usually the courier company delivers a note to the PO Box, for recipent to arrange collection.)

Why on earth did you spend 200 USD on sending documents? How is that even possible?

Well, surely you have proof of purchase of the tickets, and you now can get proof that delivery was declined, and you presumably have the email from the airline instructing you to send the documents to that address?

Have you tried presenting your airline with that?

(As I assume you will want to try to recover the courier costs? - assuming, that is, the airilne or insurance company request that you use a courier?)

Airlines loose luggage from time to time. All of them. Even with the best will in the world, accidents can happen.

The question is how you deal with them. I've flown Vueling many times and found them quite professional, I know there is a chance my luggage could be lost - as is the case with any airline.

Do yourself a favour, if you want some (generally really good) advice from people on FT (many of whom have made all sorts of claims sucessfully against all sorts of airlines), calm down. Explain clearly. What happened, and they why each subsequent step was taken.

Finally, if you look on your keyboard you will find two keys that are usually a bit bigger than all the ther others. The long thin one you have obviously found, as it puts spaces in. The other takes a new line.

garethlewis

$200 couriering documents? Did you send a printed copy of the entire internet?

UltraRant

Given that OP lives in Ecuador and tries to send documents to a physical address in Spain (after carriers refused to deliver to a PO box, which makes sense with the following conclusion), where the airline actively refused to accept the package, I assume we're talking about registered mail here, not regular mail. In that case it can be $200.

Furthermore, we need details. More information. Otherwise it'd be difficult to help.

JamesEaston

I have to agree wholeheartedly with the theme of this thread though, never fly Vueling.

They offer some form of "business class" where the tickets are fully refundable, except the transaction fee. Booked four of these types of tickets for a period of several months but only used one. Long before the other tickets departure date called Vueling to have them refunded. Was told the refund would take six days. Two weeks later called them and was told "we issued the refund, check with your credit card". Obviously knew that wasn't true but gave them the benefit of the doubt, called, waited another week and called Vueling again. Was again told "we issued the refund, check with your credit card".

Got an email address to "escalate" customer support. They, unbelievably - in writing - claimed the same thing. So sent that email to the credit card company and the tickets were charged back but had to wait the three months for them to dispute it (which they never did).

So be warned - they will NOT refund your fully refundable tickets under any circumstances and will lie about it indefinitely. The only way is a chargeback.

Assume they will go the way of Spanair in the not too distant future since they seem to be run by morons....

Often1

Don't know where you are located or where your CC issuer is located, but in most countries, it would be sufficient to make one call and then dispute the charge. That is particularly so where the carrier advises that it issued the refund.

Your post suggested that you had to wait 3 months for the carrier to dispute. Not sure why that would matter.

JamesEaston

By "most countries" I think you mean the USA?

It's an EU regulation. Merchants have 90 days from the date of the charge back to dispute the charge back. If they do not reply in that 90 day window your money is returned. That was the case with me.

If the merchant replies on the 89th day, the customer is then forced to provide further proof and the 90 day clock starts again. It has taken six months for me personally to get a successful charge back on occasion. Extremely frustrating.

Often1

It can take that long in the US too. But, the CC issuer is required to issue a temporary credit immediately on the filing of the chargeback. Thus, the amount does not affect credit limit and interest does not accrue (although it is within the discretion of the issuer to assess the interest if the chargeback is later denied).

Bottom line is that it doesn't really matter how long it takes when the temporary credit is sitting there.

JamesEaston

That's terrific for card holders in the USA. 217 some odd other countries have different regulations.