lost_in_barcelona

Arrived on DUB-MAD-BCN, flight into MAD delayed, missed connection, booked on a later flight. Asked 3 separate staff members to confirm bag would be on the later flight. Of course they confirmed.

I've bought essentials, i.e. underwear, toiletries, but I am getting really peeved here, I can't get through on phone, tracking website says it's still being traced.
3rd night in Barcelona without my luggage.

Each day, they say it will arrive to my hotel that evening, but it never does.

Can anyone offer further advice?

When can I look to replace items? How much can I spend? What compensation am I entitled to?

Thanks

alanw

Why can't you get through on the phone? The number is 902 341 342. In my experience, it is always answered, though sometimes there's a wait.

chilledflyer

I feel your pain. I lost my bags on my SCL-MAD-LHR flights 2 weeks ago. It took them over a week for the bags to reach me, by the time they got to London, I was back in Moscow.

All I can say is Iberia was appalling the way they handled my case. Although you can't really get angry with the agents on the phone since they are simply relaying what they can see on their screens. The problem I think stems from the lack of personnel on the ground actually retrieving the bags. For me, it took IB 2 days to confirm that the bags are actually in Madrid and took another 3 days to confirm that they were being sent to London, then another 3 to confirm that the bags had arrived in Moscow - all you can do is ring everyday and ask them to send a telex to the airport asking them to confirm the status of your bags on a urgent basis. I would also recommend you noting the name of the agent you spoke to (also note down the time and date as well) so that at least you can hold that person who relayed the information to you liable if he or she gets it wrong. I rang 3 times a day and made damn sure that a telex was sent to the airport.

FYI - you are allowed to claim compensation of max. EUR50/day up to 7 days for basic essentials for the period your bags are missing (e.g. EUR350 max). Remember to keep the receipts (at least this is what IB told me I am entitled to). The amount of compensation is the same of Y/J pax (which I think is totally ludicrous). What's even more ludicrous is that after 7 days - they will not compensate you for anything. It is only after 21 days after your bags have been missing, will they file a missing bag claim. There is no compensation for the period between week 2 and week 3.

I hope this helps - I know exactly how you feel dealing with IB. All I can say is stay chilled and just enjoy BCN.

P.s. Welcome to FT

malcolmkettering

I've been successful in claiming that €50/day reimbursement a few times. You just need to do exactly as they outline; send in original receipts, use postal mail not email, etc. And in my case, I had to keep following up with the reimbursement until finally they said "check's in the mail". And the check did eventually come in each case.

Side note: my mother was a Business Plus passenger with delayed baggage once and we actually submitted a claim that totaled more than €50/day and they paid the full amount. So perhaps while the stated benefits of J vs. Y pax are equal, in reality maybe you can get more if you ask.

superspudbucket

Am trying to submit a claim for the 50 Euros per day for delayed luggage. I'm back in the U.S. and the Iberia 800 phone number doesn't seem to work. I waited on hold for a few minutes and then it hangs up.

I'm trying to figure out the procedure on how to file a claim. It seems that you need to send it via regular mail. I have an address of

Apartado de correos 36.299
28080 Madrid, Spain

Does this sound right? I'm going to try contacting them again later but is there anything specific that should be sent along. I have the original baggage claim tickets, receipts for what we bought, etc. Do I just send a letter outlining everything?

Also, according to the Iberia agents I spoke with when I was in Spain we are only allowed 50 Euros per day even though there were four of us traveling and five delayed bags. The excuse was that IB only pays 50 Euros per report rather than per person. Of course, no one mentioned this was I filed the claim, although I specifically asked about what the compensation would be.

alanw

That's the correct address. The phone number you should be calling in the US is +1 800 772 4642.

Don't expect an immediate reply from mail sent to that address. It does get answered but it can take many weeks.

piiit

And if you dont want to pay the high prices for the 902 service numbers in spain just check over here for the landline number:
http://wiki.nomasnumeros900.com/Iberia

902 341 342 = 915 149 944

Good luck

superspudbucket

Thanks for the feedback. Out of curiosity I decided to get the "official" word on procedure from Iberia. What a pain. First it took five calls, four times the call was simply dropped by the system and once an agent tried to transfer me and disconnected me. Finally I was able to get an agent to talk to me who actually took me step by step through the Iberia.com website to the place where you can submit a question...not a claim. So I submitted a question and asked how to submit a delayed baggage compensation request....we'll see how long the response takes....

Anyway thanks again for the feedback. I'm rather curious what Iberia tells me and how long it takes!

MGW2000

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm in the same boat... I flew ORD-MAD-LHR just to try IB (and earn AA miles), and I ended up having a very tight connection in MAD. I submitted my report, and really hope I get the bag back. I feel like if this were AA, they would have simply rushed the bag on the next LHR flight; IB said I "would probably get the back tomorrow".

Matt

superspudbucket

Just thought I'd update my experience with Iberia. SLOOOOWWW....

I messaged Iberia three times via its webpage interface which telephone reps informed me was the only way to get instructions on how to file a luggage claim. Initial messages were sent on July 13 and July 21st and I never received a reply. On August 9th I tried again and specifically complained that my earlier messages had not received a reply.

On August 11 I got a call from a rep.

I was told to send receipts , the original missing luggage claim form, boarding passes, copies of the passports for all four passengers; and the luggage tags to

Iberia VIP Luggage Dept.
P.O Box 36299
Madrid 28080
SPAIN

The rep also claimed that we were each eligible for 50 Euros per day rather than the 50 Euros per claim (which was for four people). We'll see.

johnikidd

Flew London Heathrow to Miami via Barcelona on Sat 24th March 2012. Booked through British Airways but didn’t realise that they use Iberia for the Barcelona to Miami leg of the journey.
Delayed out of Heathrow by 40 minutes and subsequently arrived in Barcelona for connecting flight 30 minutes late. However we made the connection with time to spare.
We were twice reassured by the purser and flight attendant that the luggage had been transferred and was on board the Barcelona Miami flight.

Arrived Miami Saturday evening and waited for our luggage, which didn’t arrive!
They knew all the time because when we asked what was going on they produced a note with our names on it and that our luggage had not been on the plane!
We were not the only ones either!
Despite all our efforts with a totally unhelpful and ‘didn’t give a damn’ Iberian representative we got nowhere and at 1 am Sunday morning was given a ‘chit’ with a reference and a phone number to call and basically told to clear off!
The phone number didn’t work and at 4 am that morning I find myself at Walmart trying to buy clothes and toiletries!
We spent the next week phoning and e-mailing British Airways, Iberian and Miami Airport trying to find someone who could tell us where our luggage was! We would be on the phone for hours a day and getting no-where.
BA says it’s not their problem as they were not the carrier; yet it is their name on the tickets, luggage receipts, boarding cards and who took my money!
With Iberian you cannot get through to the luggage department. If you call the office and try to get to speak to a human being, they say that they do not have a number for the luggage department and have no way of contacting them!!
Twice got through to Iberian (via Miami airport main number) who then said that they cannot find the luggage and have no record of it!

Got back to Miami airport yesterday (we had been on a much anticipated cruise – no clothes- great huh?) stormed up to the Iberian desk to say where are the bags and they supervisor says one minute and ‘hey presto’ he brings them out!!!!
No explanation, no apologies!

Then checked in at BA for return flight absolutely seething. The supervisor knew all about it and explained that she had just returned from leave, had heard about this and went over to Iberian that morning and sorted things!

Remember BA said ‘not their problem’!

So BA and Iberian. They did not reply to my e-mails or phone calls. They offer no explanations or apologies. They just ruined a dream holiday!
If someone had at least texted me or e-mailed a response saying sorry and we’re looking into it that would have been something to alleviate the worry.
You know I have flown all over the world, even with third world airlines and have never been treated so badly!

Bottom line is this:
BA and Iberian will not take ownership of any problem they have caused.
If you are happy to risk losing your luggage then fly BA or Iberian.
If you are happy to fly with a carrier who is impossible to contact then fly BA or Iberian.
If you want to fly then fly BA or Iberian, then take hand luggage only!
If you are happy to fly with a carrier who really doesn’t care about you then fly BA or Iberian!

alanw

Iberia is the airline.

Iberian is a peninsula.

JDiver

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Iberia (the name of the airline) was responsible for your luggage, not BA, as IB operated your last flight to the cruise originating in Florida.

Iberia's applicable luggage page is here (you will need to enter the Baggage Tracer file reference / claim number you were given by Iberia). When our bags were missent by AA and Iberia (last flight in the itinerary was to BCN operated by Iberia) we were given tracer information and we recovered our bags; the system worked well and our bags were delivered to our hotel in time to catch our cruise (but we did not expect to cruise the same day - weather, strikes, mechanical issues, connections, etc. can go awry and if we had done that we could have missed our cruise departure). The Iberia people at luggage claim I filed my claim with were helpful, but of course what they could do was limited until the luggage actually arrived.

Baggage can still be misplaced by airlines - all airlines. You may have averted some of the problems by having some "emergency" clothing etc. packed in a carry-on as allowed. Glad you got your bags back, and I hope you did not let that spoil the entirety of the cruise - you didn't really just go to show everyone your clothes, right?

(I do take your final advice - we can travel easily for up to six weeks with one maximum carry-on and a "personal item".)