Originally Posted by divyaag
I have sent an email to Christopher Elliot with my story. I have not heard back from his as yet though. I'll keep you posted if I get to hear from him.
I am surprised how you can tell me that the airline is not liable to compensate us for the delay and inconvenience when other airlines, like NW do pay their customers. I know for sure as a friend of mine was getting $100/day for each bag and he had 2 checked in bags. He ended up getting alot of money from NW. With me, if you make the calculation, $100*5(bags)* 14(days) = $7000. I should be getting this much from BA.
Looks like BA is the worst of all the airlines and they just don't care about their customers.
I really think you are barking up the wrong tree here expecting BA to pay compensation.
When you travel, the airlines do not accept liability for:
1. Mental anguish associated with missed connections, even with a baby in tow
2. Items placed in your luggage of special value
In this case it appears BA went out of their way to book you onto another carrier to expedite your journey to the best of their ability. If all had gone well with your baggage, at this stage BA should have been praised for good customer service.
Air India then undertook to carry you to Calcutta. You agreed to this, as you agreed to Jet Airways continuing the journey to your nearest local airport in India.
While the items may indeed have been stolen from your bags while under the care of BA at Heathrow, this is unlikely (though not impossible).
You really need to take this up with AI and Jet Airways, and the courier who brought the bags to your house.
Either way, liabilities are limited under the Montreal Convention (or Warsaw Convention it appears in this case, as India does not sign up to the Montreal Convention).
Either way, BA or any airline has no responsibility to
PAY UP or as I prefer compensate you for your loss.
You should travel with travel insurance, or have household insurance or pay with a credit card which has some protection for such events. You also need to make a police report at the time of the loss. You unfortunately did none of these things.
You may be lucky and get some repsonse from BA, but as it says on the website the e-form can take up to 8 weeks to be dealt with, so be patient.
Personally, I think AI and Jet Airways are the people you need to take this up with.
BA have a system in place to deal with baggage issues; they do try their best but to keep costs low for everyone they cannot expend huge resources answering every query immediately; most people take personal responsibility firstly by carrying valuable and necessary items in hand baggage, and secondly by providing themselves adequate private insurance as should have been advised to your by your travel agent.
In this case I am sorry to say your case does not look good, although I understand this will have been a distressing situation for you.
Thieves abound, BA is not omnipotent, and although they tried their best it appears that was not good enough, and they were (perhaps) let down by either AI, Jet or the courier. My advice is to take your claim up with them concurrently as with BA, in writing, and to expect modest compensation rather than a pay out.
Moral of the story: buy travel insurance. That would have avoided the problems with getting compensation for lost items.
For others reading this, rather edited summary, my apologetic tone on behalf of BA is the result of knowing more and more of the facts of this case:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=24296