Dave Noble

I had a case damaged en route to UK which I discovered at Heathrow T5 tube station. ( cost of bag was AUD700 - approx GBP412 )

I reported it online and received a case reference that day
after a couple of days, I tried calling BA multiple times but kept getting a "we are too busy to take the call" - after a week, I managed to get through and found that nothing had been done and the agent created a case with K2

I contacted K2 and agent asked me to send an email with a photo of damage and he would call me right back
No call back that day - called K2 next day and was told be agent that someone would call
same issue the next day

Next day I called and insisted on speaking to the person at which point was told that they couldn't fix it , couldn't replace with the same type of bag and tried offering me the choice of one of their bags or GBP100

I obviously rejected this rubbish offer When told I wanted the replacement value of my case (GBP412) person was insostant that GBP100 was most that BA would pay - I pointed out that the airline was liable under the Montreal Convention to XDR1131 and that GBP100 was unacceptable. He still tried to insist that this was all that were the choices

After I referred it back to BA, initially the agent offered to pay up $350.

In the end it did agree to honour its liability once I was able to show that the case was fairly new and pay up for a replacement of the same type of case

In the end , today, the airline did agree to meet its obligations, but the overall service level was very poor compared to my experience with other airlines

Indeed, finally things have been resolved, but is this type of attempt to get out of obligations, the standard approach of BA/K2 with baggage issues?

T8191

Bad news, Dave Noble, but unsurprising.

Only had one claim for a damaged Jeep case (on its 2nd round trip) and there was no question of like for like. It was take a cheap Antler or nothing, despite numerous calls/emails. As the damaged case was the outer one of a ‘nesting pair’, it rendered both cases pointless for our ‘retail’ needs. We just gave up and, post delivery, bought the nesting pair to the Antler ... which was fortuitously on sale here!! (You can see the process ... get rid of end of range by BA). Curiously, the Antlers have survived remarkably well!

We just regard luggage as a disposable item. It doesn’t matter how much you pay for it, they will never survive some of the extreme mechanical risks they’re exposed to.

Dave Noble

Actually, I have started to think that the baggage handlers have a hobby to see what damage they can do to Pelicases, This is the 3rd year in a row I have had to replace due to damage by airlines - which is why I had no issue proving the age of the case. At least, after the montreal convention provisions were mentioned and the issue been referred back to BA rather than K2, there has been a lot more agreement to actually pay up - I wonder if many people would just fold when told by K2 that their only choices are GBP100 or one of its cases that it offers

Just annoying now that I have to travel back with the damaged case and get it replaced when I return due to there not being time to purchase one here

LTN Phobia

I would have been surprised to be given a replacement value unless the bag was brand new and I had a receipt for it and could prove that it was brand new. I'd say you were offered a very reasonable deal in getting the full replacement value covered, regardless of how slow or frustrating the process may have been.

In the last 12 months, I had three suitcases broken by airlines (not BA). None of it was handled particularly well. I suspect broken baggage is probably generally handled pretty poorly by a lot of airlines.

In one of them all liability was denied because they 'stated they do not cover handles and wheels' - one of the wheels was clean missing when it came out on the carousel. I did not even have the energy to argue at that point. I just threw out the case and bought another one (it was a rubbish case and I didn't even like it anyway - it was an unimpressive Delsey case).

With another, it took me about 8 weeks to have the issue resolved.

In fact when BA broke my case about 2 years ago, I was pretty impressed with how quickly they settled it (less than about a week) without any argument at all. Having said that, I asked for 50% of the replacement value as the case was about a year old and rather well-used, and they offered more than that, from memory.

But generally speaking, I do not think airlines tend to handle baggage damage issues very well, but I have found BA to be better than most.

LondonElite

I had a mnearly identical issue with BA which I posted about on here maybe two years ago. A lot of 'we can't, we won't, our policy is...' BS until I replied citing Montreal Convention, at which point repairing my 20-year-old Samsonite's handle was absolutely no problem at all.

Dave Noble

The airline may try to state that it doesn't cover wheels or handles, but there is no provision in the Montreal Convention for such an exclusion. US carriers can get away with it a lot due to its high amount of domestic passengers, but BA generally cannot get away with such exclusions

Given that the age of the case could be proven ( I contacted Pelican and it sent me a copy of the invoice ) , I don't see any luck invoived. Apparantly the policy - if pushed back to BA rather than be scammed by K2 - is a 10% deprecation value per whole year up to a max of 50%
so < 1 year old = full value , 1 year to < 2 years = 90% etc up to 5+ years at 50%

As a comparison, prevous issues with MH and QR have both been professionally handled and both had no issue ordering me an identical case from the manufacturer once it was indicated to them by their respective repairers that the case could not be repaired. The only minor issue I had with those was dropping the case off at the repairers

JFX1764

BA broke the little tag off of one of the zips on my rolling hand baggage (had checked it in), tweeted them when noticed, new case sent within the week at about the same value.

JayeJ

BA skewered a duffle bag last fall but I had the receipt to show it had just been bought the previous June. They would not just issue a check for the amount (around £150) or replace with the same bag but I was told to look at various different brands and pick something for $300 or less. We got a Hartman tweed tote bag that retails at almost $400. Everything was resolved fairly quickly once I got around to actually submitting the claim 6 months after the fact and we're satisfied with the result.



Formerly a Barbour duffle, perhaps not the best choice for checking through.