Originally Posted by
Ex Amex Card
A bit like how you join a union for collective barganing. By yourself you would probably get nothing like the deal that the Union could negotiate with the power of a large number of people behind it.
I can't say I like the analogy. This case (like many legal actions) is about remedying a wrong. The point is that BA would simply like to ignore the problem and a single individual cannot make them take notice. Bargaining over a contract relating to future obligations is very different.
Yes, if a union had negotiated a deal for me it would be "nothing like" the one I actually have, which was negotiated solely by me: I'd probably get paid about a quarter of what I do.
I think it's unlikely they would overturn the airlines obligations under the Montreal convention though - surely this would set an international precedent with a massive knock on effect.
Unfortunately, I agree it is difficult to see that they are likely to do this unless it could be established that BA have behaved in a reckless or extraordinary manner; this is quite a hard test.
The Montreal Convention cap is far from the only problem with the way BA (and some other airlines) handle missing baggage complaints. It's the hoops they make people jump through in order to get any compensation or even information. Whilst a Gold may get a quick telephone response and some monetary compensation, it seems the most customers just get the runaround and have to satisfy all sorts of unreasonable criteria - such as producing receipts for the contents of their suitcase - before they get anything. This is all clearly designed by BA as a means of evading its responsibilities to customers. They arrange things so that 90% of customers just give up asking for anything. They are happy to pay out a little to the small minority who can be bothered to pursye the matter to the end but - just like the UK clearing banks and the issues of unfair charges - the last thing they want is for a case to end up in court and for a precedent to be set.
For this kind of behaviour BA frankly deserve to be hammered very hard indeed by the courts. I'd be only too pleased to see them forced to pay exemplary damages to everyone whose luggage has been lost.