cziwkga

I'm hoping some more experience minds here can offer some advice on how to undo a problematic situation my wife & I have got into regarding a mislaid bag, primarily to do with which airline owns the problem. A short summary: we travelled from London to Gaborone via Johannesburg (LHR-JNB-GBE) the first leg with BA, the second scheduled with SA Airlink. On arrival in GBE, my wife's bag had not arrived. I did what I thought one should do - reporting it at the airport of arrival. When we arrived at our hotel later that day, I also called You First, since our outbound journey had been in 1st, to see what they could do. In particular, I hoped they could tell us if the bag had even left London. Their response was that, since I had reported the problem to SAA & got a tracking number from them, the problem was now SAA's and BA could do nothing about it. I'm not 100% happy with this for a number of reasons, and wonder if anyone knows if there is a way to get BA to take the problem from SAA so that we can interact with them.

If there isn't, then I guess the warning to others is not to do what I did and report your lost bag at the airport in situations like these, but to call BA afterwards.

Some more details which add to my reasons for wanting BA to own this: a late arrival in JNB meant we missed our scheduled connection on SA Express. Getting rebooked wasn't straightforward and during the process we lost our baggage claim tags which were on our original boarding passes, which were retained by the transfer desk when they issued us with new ones. I should have checked but I didn't, although I did ask for reassurance at the time that our bags were also being moved to the new flight. Although my wife & I flew together, we were on separate bookings and I think this may have been part of the problem at this point. Finally, SAA are saying that they will only get the bag to the final airport and it's our responsibility to get it from there. BA say they would have got the bag to us at our hotel if they owned the tracking number, but since they don't, they won't.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

caz312

It is common that the last carrier takes the report and does the tracking. - this avoids passengers being potentially messed about with..."wasn't us, we never received the bag from X airline"
The system that is used, WorldTracer, is used by majority of airlines. I assume you have a SAGBE PIR reference number and as BA do not have airport staff at GBE I cannot see any benefit of having a BA reference
I would remind SAA of what they have on their website - "will do our best to trace your lost baggage and deliver it to you as soon as possible."

travelsweets

Delayed baggage should always be reported to the last carrier. If you’d not reported it at the airport and tried to call BA to report it, there’s about a 99% chance they would refer you to your last carrier. Any claim for essentials will also need to be filed with the last carrier as well. BA will only handle claims for you where they aren’t the last carrier if it as on behalf of a oneworld member airline.

BA do tend to deliver bags for you, except where local regulations mean the passenger needs to collect it themselves. As BA don’t fly to Botswana, it’s not possible to say whether SAA’s process is comparable or not.

Andriyko

This is a very bad advice as one should always report any issues with their luggage to the last carrier. If you don't report it but instead call the carrier you'd rather communicate with you will make it much more difficult to get your bags back.

You did the right thing by reporting the missing bag to SAA.

cziwkga

Thanks caz132 - yes we do have am SAGBE PIR reference, although it seems pretty useless compared to references I've had from other airlines in the past. For instance, I can't find any way to update contact details in worldtracer's systems via this reference.

I'm also unclear whose policy applies here, as the flights are operated by SA Express (the one we arrived on) or SA Airlink (which we were scheduled on) on SAA's behalf, and each of those airlines appears to have their own mislaid baggage policy.

cziwkga

Thanks to andriyko and travelsweets also for your replies. I'm happy to defer to the unanimous guidance so far that reporting to the last operating carrier is the right thing to do. BA themselves when I called did not give me that impression, implying that by my actions I had taken it out of their hands.

And to pick up on Andriyko's remark - it's not so much the "carrier I would rather communicate with", although that is a concern. It's also about whose compensation policies apply for buying essentials whilst waiting since they are very very different. If the bag is eventually deemed lost I realise it's international convention rules and that's the same no matter who we're dealing with. I'm hoping we don't get there, obviously! But in the meantime my wife has had to get some basic clothes that I know are well within what BA would compensate for but well outside SA Airlink's limits (about £35/day after the first 24 hours.)

simons1

SA Airlink is privately owned and does not operate on behalf of SAA. As you did not travel with them it really is nothing to do with them anyway.

if you travelled on Express then it is up to them to resolve. If their limits are small then perhaps your travel insurers can assist?

skywardhunter

Privately owned and very much operate on behalf of SAA

Andriyko

Everything is handled by the last carrier. If your PIR names SA as the carrier than SA's policy will apply. Regardless what the actual policy says I would still keep all the receipts and submit them to the airline - more likely than not you'll be compensated in full if the amount is within the Convention's limit.


No, you can't choose a more convenient carrier. Had you called BA to report a missing bag without filing a PIR at the airport they would still have referred you to SA.

LTN Phobia

A passenger can't pick and choose the more convenient/generous carrier, as the agreement between airlines is that the last carrier deals with it (and if needed, they'll get the costs back from the 'offending' carrier).

Keep purchase to a reasonable, minimum level and keep the original receipts though, and file a claim with the carrier under whose name the PIR has been issued. You may be able to get them back, although there is no guarantee.

This is where the travel insurance comes into play, in any case, because their coverage doesn't depend on what airlines set as a limit etc.

cameramaker

skywardhunter

Just to add a data point, I once arrived in BOM when SA (mainline, obviously) still operated to there from JNB, no bag as I'd had a short connection in JNB. Filed PIR and continued on to HYD, bag was delivered next day to my address in HYD on the outskirts of town quite far from anywhere.

So they do (and shiush) deliver, and in this case did so in a city they don't operate to at all (HYD).

Andriyko

That is a very incorrect statement. BA does deliver to one's final address where local regulations allow that.

FrancisA

Bear in mind that some of this can be to do with customs clearance. If you walk out of LHR without reporting a bag missing and filling in a customs declaration, BA will not deliver your bag to you and you will have to collect it at LHR and clear customs.

In this case I am not sure what Botswana does in this instance. But JNB to GBE is an international flight and as the bag was routed LHR-GBE (and didn't clear customs at JNB presumably), this is not even coming off a regional flight.

Jeffevans

I agree with FrancisA. If you haven't reported your lose, it will be difficult to get a solution in your case. Finding a lost baggage is not that much of a problem in Air Cargo nowadays. Surely it will take time. But, everything is well documented. I hope, there were no valuable articles involved in the lost baggage. But, if there was, you had to report it in the first place by the way.