Stolen items from luggage: Any advice other than 'let it go'?
 

Mrs Up In The Air has taken me to Rome for my birthday.

We flew MAN-LHR-FCO on BA.

Her checked-in bag was delayed and according to the message from BA, was due to arrive at FCO on the next flight.

Her bag was finally delivered to our apartment some 21 hours after we touched down, during which time she purchased toiletries, underwear, a dress and a pair of shoes–for which she is about to open a claim with BA for reimbursement.

When her bag was delivered it had been sealed with the tag pictured in the attachment. At least one item had been stolen: A reasonably decent bottle of wine (valued at around £30). Mrs Up In The Air was very disappointed–not least because the first day of our holiday was ruined and we had to bin tickets to the Galleria Borghese waiting for the courier to arrive–and wishes to take this further. (NB Her bag was not locked and our travel insurance has a £75 excess for stolen items.) Is there any point in doing anything at all? Should she mention it to BA when claiming the reimbursement for the 'emergency' items? Should she file a report, and if so should this be with the Carabinieri at FCO on the return journey; with the BA baggage handling agents at FCO (Aviapartner); with the Transport Police at LHR (or MAN) ... or anywhere else?

I guess that the advice would be to 'let it go', but we'd thought that we'd ask members of our FT community.

Many thanks,

Up In The Air

PS The Aviapartner baggage handling agents' customer service was appalling. Some 20 hours after we landed and my wife's bag still hadn't turned up, I decided to 'phone them up to expedite. The telephone number they gave us was permanently engaged (left off the hook?), but I managed to find another number and go through to them. They really didn't want to know and hung up on me twice. (I speak very good Italian and have no problem at all making myself understood on the 'phone–so they were just being appallingly rude.) In the end I managed to get in touch with the courier (through their Milan office). Both the Milan and Rome offices of the courier were very polite, and within an hour or so the bag had been delivered.

Attachment 3367

Yes, follow it up. I had £150 worth of aftershaves stolen from my suitcase on a journey TXL-LHR-GLA (where also my bag ended up in NCE for some reason... :rolleyes:). I complained to BA about the stolen items and I was reimbursed for the cash cost to repurchase the 2 bottles.

You trust your luggage to BA to (a) keep it safe and secure and (b) deliver it on time at your airport of arrival. In your case (and mine) BA failed on both of these points.

Yes I agree you should claim. Though it won't come to this I'm sure, you could presumably prove the wine's purchase via a credit card transaction or some such. I would not, on the other hand, try to contact BA after delayed baggage, it's just not worth the effort. As often, very often, reported here, you just need to keep WorldTracer up to date, get on with your life and then "they" will contact you eventually. On the other hand, there are strict time limits on claiming for lost items, but you can do that online.

Yes absolutely claim. 3 years ago, travelling SFO-LHR in F, BA managed to leave SFO minus my bag. It took them 3 days to return it, and when it came back it had clearly been opened, the contents unpacked and repacked badly. One item had been stolen. The usual TSA card was missing and yet all of the other luggage did go through TSA so it wasn't unreasonable to assume that my bag also was checked. BA weren't interested and blamed the TSA.

In this case, I called the TSA in SFO (didn't even know you could do this) and spoke to them and they video every bag search and log whose bags they've searched. They were prepared to provide me with footage of the search. Once BA knew this they rolled and coughed up the full claim.

This doesn't help you in your case but the moral is don't let it go, be prepared to stand your ground and fight. As stated up thread, they have a duty to you to get your bags to your destination in one piece and on time.

And if you ever have problems at SFO, the TSA are lovely and will do what they can to help.

Sadly (considering the number of other airports in the US), the TSA don't operate at SFO - it's a separate company (Covenant) that seem to get far better feedback than the TSA proper.

Hmm...

Carrying wine to Italy seems a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle.

Perhaps better stolen than broken and ruining clothing worth a lot more. Sorry to hear of your misfortune, but I'd be surprised if you get reimbursed. We're always told not to check in anything expensive.

I would make a timely claim for the items purchased (include receipts even if not asked for them) and for the wine (include a receipt or CC receipt even if not asked).

I would forget about the rest of the issues as a sideshow which will only confuse and delay what is essentially a clerical task of totaling the reimbursement and making a determination as to whether BA will pay for the wine.

Yes, it does a bit ;) – but she wanted to surprise me with a cheeky NZ Hawke's Bay Pinot Noir–and the Lazio region is not widely renowned for its red wines.

Many thanks for the advice.

Many thanks for this advice: We've already opened a claim for the reimbursements of expenses for the essential items (and have provided all the receipts)–and will forward a copy of the invoice for the wine when we get back to the UK.

Indeed time limits for making the complaint are to be observed, and here they are:

http://www.jus.uio.no/lm/air.carriag...l.1999/31.html

Make the claim. If the airline or security people don't know someone is prowling the baggage going through a particular airport, they won't know to put someone on it to investigate.

Definitely at least make BA aware; Mrs CKBA and I flew BWI-LHR-FCO last October and had items removed. Our bags 'got lost' at LHR and didn't make the LHR-FCO flight (despite a 4 hour connection) - I suspect that someone had pulled them aside to sort through at their leisure/out of sight. The more people who report these instances the better the chance of the culprits being caught.

Make sure you process a claim within 7 days of receiving your bag. Outside of this, your claim won't be considered.

http://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/lost-and-damaged-baggage

"All posts are my own and not on behalf of my employer"

Mix the packing next time so not all her (or your) stuff is in one bag.