Lowly Silver member. I flew out from LHR to ORY for a cheap 5 day climbing holiday. Unfortunately, my bag did not make it (I suspect not enough time to load, because in the pilots words, "we did an unusually early boarding"), and this contained all my climbing equipment.

I'm now 2 days in, stuck in a hotel not able to do anything without my gear. My insurance (Boots) has said climbing gear wont count as "essential items" so they won't do anything for me. They also only give £100 which wouldn't even cover replacement shoes.

No idea when the bag will turn up. Was told yesterday, today, now tomorrow, so I've given up there. I'm sure it will turn up at some point, and I'm sure it will be after most my trip is over. If I purchase some reasonable gear (I can get the bare mininum I need for the climbing holiday on about £250), are BA likely to pay for it? They might not be "essential" to live, but they are essential to me for my trip. Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere, with no reason to be here as I can't do what I came for. Wasting money on a hotel to do nothing.

When I call BA here in France, they are not committing to anything, and if I call the UK baggage team, they say they can't help me and I should call the French one.

(Apologies if this has been covered. I found a few delay threads, but not for items that were needed but deemed "non essential". I saw a few for ski's being rented and compensated, but there isn't an option to rent climbing gear).