Cancelling OUTBOUND due to lost baggage on INBOUND - help!
 

I arrived back on BA112 this morning ahead of schedule. Sadly my large suitcase is somewhat behind schedule - although no one knows how far. All they can be certain of is that is never reached London.

Ordinarily, arriving home, I'd be reasonably relaxed about waiting a day or two knowing there's a high probability it will arrive with 48 hours. And for exactly this reason I ignore the pleas of many on here to take only what I require on board. My most valued and urgent items are in my hand baggage.

However, I'm due to go to Madrid tomorrow lunchtime (on a BA flight). If my bag doesn't show up at my home today (even midnight would do) then I don't think I can go. There's too many things I need to replace from the missing case and I'd have to spend all the rest of today doing it. With all the laundry I have to do, not to mention some and personal and delicate family matters than I have to make some time and sensitivity for during my one day back, I just can't do it.

Do typical insurance policies cover this situation and pay for the cancellation costs? Would BA at least refund my ticket price? - "Computer says no" but in the circumstances I think that's a pretty sh*tty response.

Any ideas?

If your insurance would pay up, is really down to the T&Cs of your policy and how co-operative your insurer is.

If BA would refund your MAD ticket, assuming it is on a different PNR, I'd guess is not covered by their policy rules, but they may if you phone them and explain the situation.

bjorns

There is a very simple solution to this. Have BA send the suitcase to MAD. I know BA will do this because I had been offered the option of delivering my delayed suitcase to my next destination (and they weren't on a single ticket).

No, I have not heard of a policy like this. But you need to check YOUR policy, not a 'typical' one.

Cancelling your trip due to luggage issue is your choice rather than something forced upon you, so I do not think it would be reasonable to expect BA to refund the fare, although BA might do so out of goodwill.

You could do what you need to do today at home and just get to MAD and buy what you need once you are there.

If BA can't get the Case to you in time then purchase reasonable replacement Items and send in the receipts... if they can get the case to you in MAD then get the hotel to launder and keep receipts for BA.

It is a little bit more complicated. Since LeisureFirst is officially 'home' BA does not have to pay for replacements (unless the bags are truly lost). Travel insurance will not pay for anything either (again, unless the bags are truly lost) because the trip has ended.

Chalk it up to experience and if you travel with stuff that is so important you will cancel trips for it, bring it on board.

By the way, not one of the best of trips now, is it? :)

I'd also go for asking them to forward your luggage to MAD.

I was in a similar situation: YYZ-JFK-LHR on AA and then LHR-ZRH-BEG on LX; two separate tickets. When I got to LHR, my luggage didn't. And even though that was the "end" of my journey [on that ticket], I asked them to forward it to BEG and they just did [via FRA on LH].

My policy pays out a set amount for delayed baggage where-ever I am, whether it happened on my way home or not. This policy keeps life simple, although I forgot to claim a few times out of being dopey.

Fell asleep standing up again, did you? :)

Sound advice, but there is a limit to the amount I can take onboard. The most important things were already in my decent-sized carry-on holdall. But there were a few more, including important bulky clothes and a lot of toiletries which are need and given the time frame would be impossible to replace.

Not sure I quite get what you're saying here.

Wasn't this the same flight as the one with the crappy preflight dining?

Edit: still trying to paint a picture how you can have toiletries that you cannot easily replace at any airport and/or why you need bulky clothes in > 30C temperatures without both of which you cannot even travel...

BA Departments: the scores
 

So I used all the avenues I can think of to get information. Here's how they're faring so far.

• www.ba.com/baggage typing in the code you got at tha airport. Information is heavily delayed and very limited in its detail. Was showing no new information at until about midday, two hours after the bag appeared at LHR. 3/10
• BA Silver Line Not very much to say other than the obvious comment there are lots of flights JFK-LHR and they probably put it on another one. They trasnfer me to the baggage department 0844 4930785 for more information. 1/10
• The baggage department by phone. On hold for half an hour with no indication of how long the wait will be. Give up. 0/10
• You First. These guys are awesome. Happy to deal with it for me even though my trip to New York was F outbound, CW back, which I stated right at the outset of the first call to them. They have instant access (no transferring of call, or on hold) to far more detailed information than any other BA system. It was easy to keep talking to the same guy over multiple phone calls and he could tell me exactly when my bag came in (about four hours after I did) and where it was - and get its delivery to me prioritized. Miles ahead of ba.com's information both in timeliness and level of detail. Bag allegedly now being delivered to my home by 17.30. 10/10 (Pending- subject to no cock-up and the bag's actually disappearing).

Surely the delay of one suitcase can't have such a drastic knock-on effect for a trip to MAD that you have to cancel it?

Now I am free to speculate on what exactly these 'important bulky clothes' are. :p Possibilities include:
* fancy dress?
* masonic regalia, decorations and knights templar equipment?
* leather and whips?

If it were anything else it would be easy to replace or do without. So which is it? :D

Surely you only need a toothbrush and toothpaste, and these should be easy to acquire at the airport. Unless of course they are:
* make up for the fancy dress?
* part of the masonic regalia and knights templar equipment?
* associated with the leather and whips?

:p :)

I cannot understand which toiletries cannot be purchased in 10 minutes at Boots or Tesco.....

Indeed ... it seems a bit DYKWIA to moan about how important your baggage is. Or in this case (boom boom!) DYKHIMBI.