As a data point BA settled my claim today (23 June), complaint submitted 8 April.

To their credit they have paid up and proactively made a goodwill Avios top up. Overall happy, in the end.

Thanks for coming back, not everyone does. I must admit your claim was a puzzle, normally lost, delayed, damaged baggage is settled more quickly than any other claims apart from hotels / Right to Care. So why something fairly straightforward took so long is a mystery.

I flew from LHR to GLA on Wednesday night after a 2 hour delay we landed and we were told at the baggage carousel that no bags had been loaded onto the plane.

I had a wedding to attend the next day and my suit was in my checked. I had to buy another suit first thing along with other essential items. I tried to keep costs down as much as possible on this and I’ve probably spent around £300 total. I’m really hoping BA will compensate me for these as the trip has already been very expensive. I booked a one way flight with them LHR-GLA and plan to return to London on the train this Sunday. The bag is still lost after 48 hours now.

Some questions I’m not sure if anyone will know the answer to:

1. My girlfriend and I shared a checked luggage but it was in my name. We are both on the same booking. Are BA likely to pay out for her replacement items.
2. I pay separately to add the luggage at last minute. Am I entitled to a refund for the luggage fee as the services have not been provided for this?
3. Does it matter that my booking is one way and I will not be travelling with BA back?
4. Will holding status (Silver) increase their likelihood of paying out or to paying quicker here? Is it worth trying to contact them at all?
5. I have travel insurance which will pay out up to £400 for essential items replacement (there is an excess on the policy however) should I claim on the insurance and try and claim with BA in addition or should I try and get BA to pay out first and only use the insurance as a back up if they don’t pay?

It’s very frustrating that BA are vague on what constitutes an essential item.

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum Peter9, I hope we will see more of you here.

1) The items being essential then I don't think it matters, BA should pay for both of you. However there is a maximum cap of about £1400 per passenger, and if only one of you paid for luggage then I suspect only one passenger would be in scope for this, if only one bag was checked.
2) Interesting question. Normally no, but it would be interesting to pursue that since you paid for something you didn't get. It may be BA will give some Avios for this.
3) One way make no difference
4) Silver may slightly speed up the process. No point calling, just fill in the online form.
5) Many insurance policies state that you have to pursue the airline first, and the airlines don't have an excess, but clearly it depend on your policy wording.

In terms of essential, I think in effect you have answered it. I often use the test "what would you do if you knew for certain that BA would not pay?". In this case, due to the wedding you had to buy a suit. So clearly it's essental. And by the looks of it you tried to keep the costs down too.

Thanks for the information corporate-wage-slave

Reporting back to provide a data point. The bag was lost on 13th and returned to my home address yesterday by DHL so around a week delay.

I mentioned my travel insurance had an excess of £50. I noticed that on my credit card - BA Amex Premium Plus there is better cover. No excess and up to £1000 limit for this delay I contacted Amex and they noted the claim (must be reported within 30 days to them) and told me to file the online form with BA and if BA don’t pay out then they will look at the claim. Aware that many other users here might have the same card. Two important things to note here - the flights must be purchased on the card to get the cover and the essential items must be bought on the card to get repaid under the £1000 limit. The card will cover items from your family (living at same address) and additional cardholders assuming they are also affected by the delay.

I have filed the claim with BA - around £475 of expenses and I’ve asked for the bag fee back. Will let you know how I get on!

Hi corporate-wage-slave,

Thanks for the advice on this back in July! Just posting the outcome here in case others have similar claims outstanding.

BA emailed me today agreeing to pay the £475 of expenses in full. They are not going to refund the baggage fee but they've issued 10,000 avios compensation for this. I feel this is a good outcome and I am pleased this is resolved.

So the processing time on this was just short of two months.

It seems like BA and HAL are slowly getting their act back together. LHR has been a much more calm and pleasant experience recently.

Spent 20 mins filling out the 'missing luggage' form - got the error message below. Tried again (this time I was slightly faster, 15 mins..) - happened again.
Anyone else had this issue / know what it could be?

It's not in this thread, but it's in plenty of others, in other words it's a frequent occurence. Either try it first time around not logged in to your BAEC account, then go in later to add the number. Or use Incognito - it's a cookie issue.

I was in a similar situation, around 18 months ago i.e. bags delayed on final leg. I do indeed have spare clothes, spare toothbrush etc. at home but those delayed bags contained my GCC working clothes. I'm female so this included abayas etc (which I wear in some parts of the region), none of which I wear at home, so I didn't have spares. My next trip, back to the region, was a few days later, there was no guarantee that the delayed bags would reach me before I departed on the next trip. Thus I bought new working clothes immediately. Those items are relatively expensive. The full claim was reimbursed (albeit after a delay of around 2 months) without question - and the delayed bags reached my home around 10 days later, a week after I had headed back to the region.

Tried both these ways, tried a different browser...tried at different times of the day. Still same issue. Is this a BA ploy to delay paying out? :D
Not sure where to raise it...

This isnt a fair test. If my luggage goes missing and i need to buy shirt/underwear/jeans. Im forced to pay the pricing of whatever retail store is nearby to my hotel.

If im at home, i'd order online or wait for a sale so would never pay non sale price.

Out of curiosity as this might be me in a few days
as I have a very tight conection.

My question: I am flying back “home” but immediately departing on a different airline for holidays, if my bags don’t make it, could I ask for them to be forwarded to my holiday hotel? Can I buy the essentials ?

best,

bil

Yes, to both. For best results, though, make sure you properly register this at the time, including getting a PIR, Missing Baggage Report, AHL or similar number, beginning LHRBA. If they are in a meltdown scenario they tend to send everyone home and expect them to work via the Contact Centres, but hopefully you will avoid that. And obviously pack carefully.

Thanks CWS!

Delayed baggage on staff travel
 

Hello all, I would need the help of someone working for the airline who has been in this kind of situation.

I have just landed in BUD travelling on staff travel standby ticket, but my luggage including all my clothes and Christmas gifts have not.

Can I claim from BA?
Or can I claim from AMEX Platinum?
What are the limitations?

I need to buy a few things like tshirt jumper and a pair of jeans and pants, toothbrush etc.