Originally Posted by
Octavian Antony
I will handle this with AA when I go back to LHR on Monday evening. I had no insurance of my own.
I recommend you get travel insurance if you want to cover the cost of potential baggage damage etc.
However, I do feel that airlines should not make so much fuss over a damaged bag, and because they are together in the OW alliance, they should not start counting whose blame it was and who had committed the original sin. It may well be that BA damaged the bag in the first place al LHR and it arrived damaged at LAX and AA had to replace it. Even Menzies Aviation has OW flyers everywhere and they should have dealt with it. AA did say to have my bag replaced at ARN, as it was my final destination, and rhis is why I asked Menzies Aviation to handle it.
It is not about counting whose blame it was and it also has nothing to do with OW alliance or any other alliance for that matter. It is about the IATA agreement, which the airlines in question are member. The agreement says it is the last carrier that handled it before the damage is found by the passenger that will be responsible for dealing with the passenger/damage. (It's up to AA if they want to blame BA for the damage but it does not involve the passenger.)
AA was incorrect to tell you to have your bag replaced at ARN as it had absolutely nothing to do with ARN or Menzies or even BA in terms of dealing with you. Your annoyance with Menzies should be addressed to AA if anything, because Menzies really has nothing to do with it and they cannot possibly be expected to deal with it. I'm sure you do not expect them to pay for a new bag when they had nothing to do with it and they do not even have a contract with AA at ARN and they cannot bill anyone for it?
I was put in the awkward situation as a BA Gold and OW Emerald to drag my bag around at 10 pm through an almost shut down airport.
I'm sure it was awkward but your status has nothing to do with it and I am really not sure how you were expecting your status to help in the situation.