rjw242

Was just curious because I had the opposite reaction - if my bag was packed for a weeklong business conference or backpacking trip (or both, as has happened before ), the lost clothes/gear plus the time and effort spent replacing it all could easily exceed $3500.

3Cforme

I don't think AA is in a rush to give away an extra $2K for every bag claim for good PR. Maybe the claimant had receipts for new items. That destruction was quite thorough can't be argued.

jordyn

They didn't. "Some of it" means "not all of it", so I'm not sure why you think this was a relevant response.

Based on what we can see, $3500 seems surprisingly high to me too. Not that no one carries $3500 of stuff in a bag, but it's not a particularly big bag and none of the stuff we can see looks particularly expensive. Especially given the hard time that AA has given other passengers in the past about producing receipts before reimbursing for anything, it's surprising that they simply wrote a check for the max value.

enviroian

Antarius

I agree. I do not expect this to be a regular occurrence. But this bag got so truly destroyed (far beyond standard damage or wear and tear) so this was likely a gesture of goodwill to nip it in the bud. The damage was so bad that this could easily become a clickbait sensation, so it seems the larger than normal compensation was to avoid this.

It could also very well be, as you said, the claimant had new or expensive items and had receipts.

Gino Troian

When my bag (Rimowa Topas) arrived at JFK earlier this year completely smashed and broken, I went to file a claim and was met with a "Pshhh, you lying - how much does it really cost?" when the baggage service agent asked for the value of the bag. She also created a report for a "late bag" instead of a damaged bag (which I found out later by calling AA with my incident #).

JDiver

That’s really bad. JFK baggage personnel have a truly terrible reputation, at least from reports in this forum.

emma69

BA offered me Ł20 for my mangled bag (albeit no items missing) earlier this year. Fortunately I had other avenues of redress. Maybe they could learn a thing or two from AA. Or maybe I should just take it to the Twittisphere next time!

normcpa

Bravo, American!! (Two days in a row. Yesterday was AA bending rules to refund money to very ill passenger who could not take trip.)

kmzandrew

The JFK bag people suck. AA dented the hell out of one of my Rimowa bags a couple years ago (to the point that it could no longer be opened/closed properly). It was on a flight to Paris and when I reported it there they offered to replace it immediately, but couldn't get the exact model. They said they'd order a new one and send it to my hotel, but I was only staying in Paris for one night and it would take at least 2 days. They offered to ship the new bag to me in Bucharest (my next stop) or mentioned I could also handle it in the US (and that they'd send me a new bag), and of course being the idiot I am I said I'll handle it stateside. Once I got to JFK a nightmare ensued. They didn't want to replace it. Started claiming it could have been damaged after my flight to Paris, etc. Finally they decided to get it "repaired" which took 3 months.

Kamalaasaa

nrr

Yes, but the missing items (expensive camera equipment(?)--with receipts) could be $3500.

ashill

I had a rollaboard totally shredded by the machinery on a Virgin Australia flight several years ago; looked a lot like this one. The contents were OK or mostly OK, I think. They immediately admitted fault and gave us a voucher to purchase a replacement rollaboard. However, nothing more than that, and the luggage store they contracted with didn't have a rollaboard I liked nearly as much as the one that they destroyed (which I think had been discontinued). I pushed back a little but wish I had pushed back more. I'm still bitter about that; for a trip last week, I used my partner's bag, which is identical to the one that was destroyed. It's so much nicer than my replacement one (although I think the replacement one has a higher cost/"objective" value).

For what it's worth, my partner had mid-tier (Gold) status with VA and I had third-tier (Platinum) status with VA joint venture partner DL at the time.

ijgordon

There wasn't a picture of ANY of the lost items. Your statement made no sense, hence that response. It also makes no sense to make ANY judgment on value lost based on a picture of a torn suitcase, a hair dryer, a pair of sandals and two articles of clothing.

Was it possibly less than $3,500. Good chance.
Was it possibly significantly less than $3,500? No idea.

jordyn

Sure. There was a picture of several damaged items, which presumably were part of what the compensation was for.

Why not? If there was a picture of a garbage bag full of garbage that was ripped open with some of the garbage falling out, I would feel quite confident saying AA had overpaid. Similarly, if there was a picture of a damaged Rimowa bag with a pair of Loubitins, a Dyson's hairdryer and two Dolce and Gabana dresses I'd imagine the person would be quite sad about the $3,500 compensation max. As it is, the stuff looks the same or a little cheaper than what I might pack in my own bag, and that's generally south of $1,000. Obviously it's possible there is more expensive stuff that we're not seeing, but that doesn't make it unreasonable to extrapolate from what is visible.