troyb

Last night my bag missed a connection in ORD. While talking to the Lost Baggage department over the phone, I asked if they reimburse for emergency items like toiletries. They said yes and actually said they will reimburse for clothes as well.

I am traveling on business and said I would need pants, shirt, shoes, belt, tie, etc. (not a suit) and without me providing an amount, authorized $400 of expenditures with appropriate receipts. I incurred almost that amonut this morning and was able to make it to my meetings, albeit late.

Now, reading about the experience of others here, I am now concerned that they may try to deny me the reimbursement. Especially since they have now delivered my bag to my hotel, approximately 22 hours after I landed.

Any thoughts on this? Should I be concerned?

serfty

How was this authorized?

(Hopefully in writing ...)

dmitriy1

I'm pretty sure you will be reimbursed, but you will have to spend some serious time on the phone getting this through.

troyb

Verbally, unfortunately. But I did confirm every time I called to check on my bag status. I will try to get something in writing now and also when I catch my next flight.

Hopefully.

zeedub

Hey guys, been a member for a bit but this is my first post. Exciting!

Anyway:

Travel from DFW to ORD with a quick layover in STL (8/21.) Gold FF on AA, three seg away from Plat. When I arrived in Chicago, my bag was missing. Filed a claim with the desk at ORD and went on my way.

On 8/22, received a phone call, on my cell, at 12:30PM telling me that the bag was picked up for delivery at 11AM and will be delivered in 6 hours, per usual. 5PM, 6PM, 7PM, 8PM - Nothing. No calls, no contact. I finally call the baggage line, ask for an update and get put on hold while she contacts the driver. I get a phone call on the other line thirty seconds later from the driver telling me he will be arriving at my house within 4 hours. So 6 hours has now become 13 (and I live 15 minutes from the airport and would have picked up the bag.)

The driver arrives at about 9:30, rings the bell, gives me the bag and tells me, "I would have been here at 2:00 if you would have picked up the phone. I called several times." I asked him to show me the number he called and, sure enough, it's my cell, which is on me 24 hours a day. I asked what time he called and he said "Earlier today." We went through my call log and his number never appeared. His next comment, "Well, my printout probably changed, so whatever. Here's your bag."

I take the bag inside and the zipper, which was supposed to be in a housing, is completely ripped off and the bag half way open. My cordless drill (which travels with me for work) and my GPS are both gone. My TSA lock was unopened and there were no TSA papers inside saying my bag was inspected, so I'm fairly sure it was not them.

at 9:40, I call the ORD baggage claim and tell them the problem with both the bag being rendered useless and the items inside being gone. The ORD rep tells me, "I'd file a claim, but it'll be denied on all counts, so just forget it." I tell her that, regardless of the theft, the bag is destroyed and unusable, and she says, "I heard you, but I'm not filing the claim." She then hangs up the phone.

I call the main AA baggage line where the lady, who is extremely polite, tells me the only thing I can do is contact customer service through AA.com and tell them what happened and give them the timeline, etc.

I do this last night at about 10PM and receive an answer this morning telling me that it's too bad my thing were damaged and my stuff is gone, but they are not responsible and will not take action, but here's a $100 evoucher to make everything better. It seemed as though he simply skimmed my email and took out keywords, sending me an almost prewritten response.

I call AA back and tell them that I'm not mad about each action individually, but the comedy of errors, as well as the indifference and attitude from every person I've spoken to, has been pretty angering and something needs to be done to remedy the situation.

The person on the phone tells me the only thing I can do is go ahead and write AA customer service again but, "Don't expect anything. It's not our fault."

Where do I turn now? What should I expect, if anything? It's like AA has washed their hands of the situation and given me a $100 voucher to pacify me and go away.

gemac

Well, AA did tell you (on AA.com) "Carry valuable items such as electronic equipment, cameras, film, cash and jewelry with you on board the aircraft". Since you chose to ignore this, and since there is no way to tell whether your stuff was taken by an AA employee or someone else, the $100 voucher seems pretty generous to me.

I would mark it up to lesson learned (as life lessons go, this one wasn't terribly expensive) and move on.

zeedub

Forget the electronics, as those can be replaced through work, but they won't even look at the bag. To intimate that I should just deal with it (the luggage destruction) is ridiculous.

To emphasize the point, when I was waiting in line at ORD to get the bag, someone who put a Louis Vitton HAND BAG under the plane had the handles ripped. The desk agent agreed to replace the bag within 4 weeks. According to you, and following AA.com's rule, that shouldn't have even been considered, because those handles can easily be ripped, but the agent didn't even argue. Just gave them a plastic bag for the contents, took the bag, and said "We'll replace it."

So rules are rules until they aren't rules and are then rules again?

oklAAhoma

If the bag was torn while AA had it, they should compensate you. Did you say anything to the driver about the damage or did you not notice the bag was halfway open until you had it inside?

zeedub

To follow up, not only did I get compensated for the bag, but I am also being sent compensation for the drill and GPS.

So, mark THAT up to a lesson learned.

gemac

You were lucky. The bag compensation is normally cost less depreciation. The electronics is normally not done. In the future, I would advise putting the electronics into your carryon.

Redakai

Deleting old posts

MLINER

Fellow travelers-

On a recent trip on American Airlines from Puerto Rico to Detroit (by way of Dallas), expensive items were stolen from my suitcase somewhere in transit. However, I did not discover that the items had been stolen for a week because it took me that long to open my suitcase for the first time to unpack. When I called the airline, I was informed that they had "pillage" rules which meant any claim I had had to have been made within 24 hours of my flights.

Does anyone know of any options I might have or people I can contact at the airline who could help me? The only feeling worse than having my property taken from me is feeling that the airline doesn't care at all.

Thanks,

Michael

alanR

This should be on the AA forum, but at a guess you are <done for> - you won't be able to claim from AA as you took too long to claim and your insurance company won't touch the claim either on the grounds that you put expensive items in checked luggage

obscure2k

Welcome to Flyertalk, MLINER.
Please continue to follow this thread in the AA Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

videomaker

Welcome to FT!

I don't think talking to anyone at AA will do you much good. They told you correctly. This is from their Conditions of Carrage: "Items missing from checked baggage must be reported to American before leaving the airport or within 24 hours of the receipt of the bag."

If you charged the ticket to a credit card, check to see if any additional baggage coverage is included.

If the items were that valuable, I'm a bit surprised you didn't check until a week later. This could be one of those (costly) lessons learned.