My baggage is damaged?
If your luggage is visibly damaged upon receipt at the airport then, before you leave the airport, you must file a PIR - Property Irregularity Report. It's really important that you do this before leaving the baggage claim area otherwise you give up the right to compensation..
Some damage to the contents may not be visible until you open your luggage at your home/hotel. These must be added to your PIR as per the instructions given there. You will be compensated for the damage.
If there is damage to items that are needed immediately then these may be purchased and added to the PIR. See
https://www.qatarairways.com/en-dk/b...ishandled.html for details. Please remember that the PIR is dealt with by the baggage handling agent NOT QR.
My baggage is lost or missing!
Most people refer to lost baggage. Baggage is rarely lost in its entirety. it's usually mishandled or misplaced, and in the vast majority of cases it will turn up, more or less intact.
Getting to your destination, either at the start or end of your journey, and wait by the luggage belt only to find your trusty companion of a bag not arrive as it should on the luggage belt is at a minimum annoying, and can be frustrating.
As a rule of thumb, airlines do not loose baggage. In fact they have very little influence over where baggage goes. It's the airports that handle baggage, and whilst they are doing that under contract to the airline, it's rarely anyone from Qatar Airlines that has "lost your bag". Hamad Airport might have mishandled the bag, but to most people this might appear to be the same thing.
Before you leave the airport you must file a PIR - Property Irregularity Report. It's really important that you do this before leaving the baggage claim area. It might be that the airline already knows that your luggage didn't make the flight and it's already on its way to you on their next flight, or a flight operated by another airline.
Most airlines, including Qatar Airlines, use a global system called
Worldtracer to report, identify, and route mishandled and misplaced bags to their correct destination. Your PIR at the airport will start the Worldtracer process.
The
Qatar My Baggage web page will allow you to see updates on your missing baggage report, and to file a report if you didn't do it in the airport before you left the baggage area.
Whilst you might be concerned and frustrated, actually calling the airline to inquire where your bags are will probably have little effect in expediting the bags to you. The one exception is if the bags have now got to your closest airport and you want an update on what happens next. The World Tracer system is pretty effective providing the information you have provided as as accurate as possible.
Whilst the rules say that an airlines responsibility is to get the bag to an airport, usually they will go the extra mile to clear customs for you on your behalf (you usually need to indemnify the airline to do this for you), and courier the bag to a specific address, within reason. Make sure you understand what the airline will do in your situation, but also think about when and where you can receive the bag - it might be arriving in the middle of the night, and the courier might need to see you, your passport or your luggage tag before they hand over the bag.