Originally Posted by mikimedic

Thanks for a constructive comment, although must admit that I am still puzzled/don't quite understand your rent-a-car analogy. Just to clarify - I don't remember saying rental car analogy does not apply (albeit in an opposite direction). As far as TCs go, Austrian themselves say you can claim within seven days 'if you can prove it'. Well, I can't. Other than sending them photos taken very next morning. Similarly, as you mentioned, reporting it at the airport would not have provided any proof either. The only way to prove it if you wish to go to that detail, would be to take photos before and after each trip. So whatever they say in their TCs, it is a total BS (how do you prove something that is unprovenable; the same would apply to each piece of luggage on every flight - how can passengers ever prove it happened on their particular flights, unless there were CCTVs in cargo holds, and airlines willingly gave that footage to passengers? Or let's use even better imagination - shall we now equip each and every piece of luggage with cameras and all sorts of other sensors?

So, TCs saying 'prove that this happened on our flight' is just plain BS.