marlborobell

I put my laptop in my checked baggage for a flight GLA-LHR-JFK as I wouldn’t need it on the flight. I’ve done that before and I didn’t think much of it.

My bag appears to have made a magical mystery tour GLA-LHR-GLA-LHR-JFK (it was notated ‘NOT OFFLOADED LHR’ by Glasgow baggage agents) and in the process my laptop (and charger and mouse) disappeared from it.

Started a claim with BA Customer Relations, sent them receipts, and they have come back with ‘too bad, you should have put it in your hand luggage, you get nothing, good day sir’.

The current value of the laptop (although not the original purchase price) is well below the Montreal Convention limits, and I’m amazed they could do that.

Obviously I’m going to talk to my credit card travel insurance, but they have a maximum payout of $500 for electronics. (Grr.)

Anything else I can do? Is this normal for BA? Is there any point in yelling at them?

corporate-wage-slave

I'm sure you are aware that BA's Conditions of Carriage specifically states that electronic devices shouldn't be in checked luggage, and for safety reasons I'd also prefer them not to end up there. But I think you have some options. The Montréal Convention doesn't give airlines this get-out clause, it's of the airline's choice, almost all of them have some such clause. You could nevertheless try the CRA 2015 (see Dashboard) on the basis of failure to show "reasonable care and skill" in the handling of your bag, and/or the unbalanced nature of the Conditions of Carriage versus the Montreal Convention. I've no clue how successful that would be, other than that if I worked for BA Legal I'm not sure this is a door I would wish to see pushed.

MSPeconomist

The OP's HPN location makes me suspect that he/she is a USA resident. Many good homeowner or combined insurance policies in the USA would provide some coverage even without an explicit rider on the policy for electronics or a particular piece of equipment.

marlborobell

I checked. It would be covered but apparently my insurance has a $7,000 deductible It might be time to change that the next time we renew...

mikeyfly

What about coming through LHR and onto USA from countries where the electronics ban takes place ?

corporate-wage-slave

Personally I think that makes the CRA case more-or-less overwhelming: you have no choice but to check in the item from those airports affected.

Often1

OP has a much harder road. He did have the option to carry his laptop and chose not to despite BA's clear contractual warning.

It will not hurt him to try and the reality is that electronics depreciate so quickly in fair market value that a $500 laptop is generally worth less than $100 at six months. This can be lower than a pair of trousers, so perhaps there will not be too much of a fuss when someone more3 senior looks at this should he pursue it.

The better practice by BA would be to simply prohibit these valuables from checked luggage (other than on the CAI route), unless declared and a significant fee paid. The Convention certainly does not regulate what a carrier must transport, only that when it does transport, it accepts responsibility.

A last suggestion. Often baggage riders on homeowners policies are not subject to the ordinary deductible, Figuring this out means reading the specifics of the policy word-for-word. On the reverse side of this, the same provisions may deny coverage for valuables in the same checked luggage. So perhaps no deductible, but also no valid claim. All depends on the wording.

TomMM

I'd be more concerned with the data on the laptop. Hopefully you full disk encryption and authentication enabled.

Andriyko

But is not it the case now anyway? I was under the impression that an item must be declared in order for the owner to be able to make a claim if it goes missing. I mean, how does one prove that the item was actually in the bag?

livebetter_travelmore

Having suffered the complete loss of a bag years ago (on a different carrier) and discovered quickly that the max payout fell woefully short of the bag+contents, I try whenever possible to carry-on only. Ultimately I was made "near whole" with other insurance instruments, but it was a royal pain, taking months and months to receive a payout. Subsequently, I recall on one occasion where I needed to check a large bag and upon doing so made formal request of the agent at the ticket office that I was "declaring excess value" and hence sought to purchase the additional insurance to cover my luggage. Evidently, so few people know of this, that the ticket agent, herself, was unfamiliar with how to key this into the system, fill out the appropriate forms, etc. even after consulting a handbook. After less than a minute of "trying", she just flatly refused to do it and when I insisted to speak with a supervisor, she adamantly told me to either proceed without the additional coverage or get out of her line. I asked her name and she intentionally turned and hid her badge. I've made a concerted effort to avoid flying that airline ever since.

LondonElite

Once I read the first eight words of your post I knew this was not going to end well. Mea culpa is probably all you can say for yourself. You should try pushing BA on it but I doubt you will get very far, not least because it seems to tempting to claim that a laptop, rather than a pair of trousers, was in there, despite the limited value differential.

Often1

Declaring and paying for excess baggage still does exist and is designed to be prohibitively expensive. Given that it is so rare, best to call ahead and have PNR notes made as to what exactly one will need.

But, that is not OP's problem. He has a laptop which he admits is well within Montreal Convention limits (and may well be worth even less than he hopes). His problem is not excess value, simply that BA won't pay anything.

None of this deals with the fraud problem. By no means suggesting that OP has done so, but it is easy enough to assert that one's laptop was in the suitcase, produce documentation of ownership and the like, and not in fact have packed the thing at all.

thebigben

Sure, but then shouldn't one have a reasonable audit trail when it comes to luggage? There should be enough cameras to trace it (to an extent). And if there is not, the lack of audit trail wouldn't play in BA's favor.

Often1

I presume that it is the claimant's burden. I am not certain that I want BA or any carrier to spend at the level likely required to track bags and match them to CCTV images. The technology is certainly there and would only require an RFID chip in every bag tag as well as camera coverage from the hold to the carousel.

But, the reality is that relatively few bags go missing and even fewer of those suffer thefts of anything one would consider valuable.

Everything costs something and the better question is how many people want to pay appreciably higher ticket prices in order to make this happen. Far better to let passengers who want to store valuables in their checked luggage pay a special fee which would have the bag off-loaded and accountably handled to a location where it would be signed for by the passenger on arrival. This might well cost a lot of money, but for those who insist on checking a laptop, so be it.

Takiteasy

Are we saying that if in the exact same situation the OP had claimed for some Blahniks instead of a laptop the claim would have been paid by BA?