My wife and I flew ABZ-AMS-BUD 3 weeks ago, out on the Saturday and back on the Tuesday. On arrival in Budapest, our one suitcase was not there. I have an apple tag in it and checked on its location and it was still at Schiphol. Reported it at the desk and nice lady said to me to inform the hotel that it would be delivered after last AMS flight landed in the evening.

It did not arrive on the Saturday, Sunday, Monday or even the Tuesday (before we left to go to airport). Checking the Apple tag, I could see it finally left AMS on Monday. Coincidentally, after leaving Budapest on the Tuesday with my good lady, I flew back out on the Wednesday morning with my friends to attend a football match in Belgrade (long story why we went to Budapest but we Scot’s like our football). When I arrived back in Budapest I went in past the hotel we were staying at during weekend and our suitcase had arrived on the Tuesday night so I finally got it back.

Anyway, when my wife and I had no suitcase we obviously had no clothes to change with so we had to go shopping. We got toiletries, underwear as well as new tops for each of us. I also bought a new pair of Levi’s 501. We had all receipts and when I returned from our football trip I put in the claim. I did expect some argument from them but absolutely none and we had the full amount (over €250) deposited in our account within a week.

As others have said, you really need to keep all your receipts. Not sure if we got treated any differently because of our status (both platinum).