BLG

Last week we flew CE to TXL. When I unpacked my garment bag (a fine Briggs and Riley) at the Hilton, I found that water had soaked through, and all five of my shirts were soaked (fortunately the slacks and jackets escaped behind the plastic covers from the dry cleaners that they were packed in). The Hilton charged a mere 8 Euros/shirt to solve the problem. So my first question is -- Should I file a complaint/claim for the 40 Euros with BA?

Upon our return to LHR yesterday, the bags came off soaked again! Fortunately, nothing was damaged. But this raises the question: Is there a continuing problem with the baggage handlers or system at TXL which produces wet luggage whenever it rains (hardly a once-in-a-while event) in Berlin? Have others had problems with this, or were we just particularly unlucky?

Given our experience, I might suggest taking some extra precautions when flying into TXL in the winter.

adrianjc32

In reality hard shell cases are the better option. Most of the process at LHR is undercover (but not quite all), I am not sure about Germany though. When there is heavy rain cases can sometimes get wet, however to be that soaked is not really good enough. May I suggest you contact customer relations and explain what happened, if nothing else it will at least allow BA to look at why and where it happened.

BLG

FWIW in neither case was it hard rain. Just the normal continuing drizzle that leaves the tarmac wet, but not particularly bad in either case.

johnny5a

I had a similar situation with a case from Boston but only discovered when I got home.

Not sure whether you can claim, but worth trying. I guess ideally reporting it in TXL to the handlers would have been ideal. But I know the outer case does dry very quickly, so you don't know until you get to you destination.

I agree it's bad that the suitcase is sat in the rain ;-(

Gumbieben

I'd certainly write in and send the receipts (keeping copies for yourself).
Its certainly something Customer Relations will have dealt with many times before.

Unfortunately in some airports, particularly those which are either very old, very congested or in countries with monsoon like conditions it does sometimes happen that the baggage carts get left for too long outside.

For this reason I used to always ensure my suits were inside those plastic bags from the dry cleaners, or ideally use a hard case.

BA will record the complaints statistics for things like this and can then take action with a ground handler if the problem seems prevalent in one particular airport.

Flying Lawyer

Well, I fly into TXL twice or three times a week and never experienced any problems. When your plane finds itself at a passenger bridge a luggage takes a 30 meter journey at the utmost, half of this undercover.

Certainly the airline is responsible for your luggage, but it will be a bit difficult for you to make your case because you did not report it at the airport. There are plenty of possible reasons why your shirts got soaked after leaving the airport and most of them are not only theoretical....

Phil the Flyer

That's a bit drastic.

BLG

As a previous poster noted is often the case, we didn't discover what had happened until unpacking at the hotel so there was no way to report it at the airport. Given your much greater experience with TXL, it sounds like we were just unlucky, but I will report it, especially in light of the fact that the same thing happened twice. And in the future I will make it my policy to always leave the clothes in the plastic wrappers from the cleaners. Funny how in more than 1M air miles I've never had this one before. Guess I've been quite lucky.

HIDDY

It's sensible to try and use waterproof cases or to wrap items in poly bags although probably not so much needed now as it used to be before they used containers.
I've watched open baggage carts being driven about the apron in pouring rain at several airports. On one occasion even saw several bags fall off on to the puddled tarmac without the driver even knowing.

Worth sending in a claim I would have thought.

KenJohn

You need to show your clothes were wet/damaged as soon as it comes off the carousel. Otherwise, there is no proof that the airline was at fault.

Most pax would happily send their regular laundry bill to the airlines while travelling.

We had an issue was this happened with delayed luggage that was delivered to the hotel in a wet state. Our issue was that the clothes were soaked in jet fuel not water. AA asked us to take the bag with full contents back to the airport which was miles away in order to prove the claim! It would have cost us a fortune in taxi fares just to prove the claim.

gms

If it really was just "drizzle" I struggle to see how the contents of a bag could be "soaked". Was there a long delay in receiving your bag for some reason? Most modern, good quality bags are pretty waterproof these days. So I struggle to see how this could happen. I would be talking to the manufacturer of the luggage rather than the airline.

If I received a claim for €40 in such circumstances I would probably reject this. I don't see that blame can be clearly allocated here. Incidentally, could the OP not simply hang them up to dry, or if urgent use the hotel hair-dryer and iron to press them dry? Why was it necessary to pay €8 a shirt to get this done?

awestphal

TXL is my home airport (2-3 weekly). I'm very very familiar with BA 98X flights.

BA uses jetbridges & distance from luggage hold to covered terminal is 30 meters max. Nose of aircraft within 10 meters of terminal building. Even is multiple luggage carts are necessary to empty aircraft hold, an exposure of > 10min to the outside elements appears unlikely.

I'd still try to make the claim w/ BA, but would not expect much.

In all of my, mrs. awestphal's and the travels of our staff through TXL, I have neither had nor heard of a soaked-garment-bag issue. Damp-on-the-outside and exposed to slight drizzle, yes, but soaked - no.

Occasionally, during AB's evening rush at TXL, loaded containers might remain outside the terminal until space frees up, but that does not apply to BA's TXL arrivals as it is a different terminal.

OT: Would never trade my garment back for a hardshell. My garment bag usually qualifies as a carryon. Plus, a garment bag allows you to take a second suit in a somewhat unwrinkled state.

awestphal

One word: Convenience.

Maybe gms is able to return a soaked dresshirt into a presentable condition by means of hotel hairdryer and hotel iron, but that's beyond my abilities.

OT: For extended trips, i.e. TXL-NYC-SIN-TXL 7 nights with intermediate stops, I would not take 9 shirts & 3 suits with me, but rather use the hotel drycleaning facilities.

gms

Please tell me you are not being serious. I really don't know how anyone could find it difficult to dry and iron a shirt!

Claiming "convenience" is fair enough, but surely the OP would have had to have pressed his shirts anyway, so I still see no reason why the €40 would be paid by any airline.

Non-NonRev

My preventative measure is to use the travel version of "space bags", whick serve the dual purpose of a) protecting the clothing from moisture; and b) compressing the contents to maximize the amount that will fit into the case:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/prod...1&sku=14509801


Not specifically at TXL, but I have observed luggage being unloaded and sitting on uncovered luggage carts in raily weather. Even at only a few meters away from cover, if the bags sit outdoors for a significant time, they can get quite wet.