Originally Posted by
Patrickschmidt
LH will reimburse 50% of the cost of any clothes only. 100% is for toiletries.
On the side note; When on some occasion my bag didn’t arrive I went shopping straight from the airport.
While LH delivered it on the next flight, destination airport bag office lied that my bag is on the way, while it was sitting at the parking spot for a few hrs. And then magically start moving after reaching them via phone and express my opinion about their services.
Location device (any) in a bag proof to be really handy in the situation like that.
LH wants to only reimburse 50% but as others have said they technically do have to reimburse you 100%. And of course they can question what is "essential", 5 swim suits for 10 days per person would hardly qualify or one expensive designer swimsuit.
If they want to only pay 50% since you can now "keep" these items on them, offer to send them to their office, if you don't need/want them once reunited with the bags.
Or take the 50% and call it a day. Of course, note that the path to keep pressing them for 100% may take somewhere between 6-24 months (AF took 13 months to send me 107 euros...).
I just spoke to my next door neighbor who has been a pilot for Delta for 30 years, he has never heard of a plane leaving without the checked luggage. It would not pass his balance checks.
In which case they would re-arrange some cargo (including passengers) and see if they can re-calc and take off that way. Plenty of times that passengers were asked to move around on flights that I've been on for take off and landing, mostly in the E145 era. If the luggage compartment door is stuck and cannot be opened that may very well be another reason why nothing gets loaded.