Delayed/lost luggage rights
 

Good morning flyertalkers and apologies if this thread already exists.

I have a lot of upcoming flights with BA in the next few months and I'm hearing lots of horror stories happening with BA and baggage. In fact, three of my friends in the last month alone had their baggage delayed a couple of days and 1 had it lost completely.

As I usually like to be prepared for the worst I would like to know what the rights are for delayed and lost luggage. If it's delayed for a certain amount of time do I get a spend allowance? How long does that delay have to be? If it's lost is there a limit of how much I can claim? Or do I itemise everything in the case and hope for the best? I'm asking as there seems to be lots of conflicting information online but nothing solid.

I have travel insurance for a few of these upcoming flights but not all so I would very much appreciate it if someone could provide some advice to the questions above. Also, any additional related information would be very helpful. Many thanks

One more things to add: some of my upcoming flights are on AA but booked through BA on the same PNR as other BA flights (although multicity, none connections). In case of a problem with baggage who would be liable? Booking airline (BA) or operating airline (AA). Thanks

Always the operating airline. And if you did have a flight with connections, it's the airline who operated the last leg who is responsible.

Only a very low percentage of bags get delayed, mostly for 3-6 days. It is doubly amplified here (a) because if your bags arrive on time you're not going to post about it and (b) FTers tend to book more complex trips than most travellers and so there is more scope for things to go wrong. So I certainly wouldn't assume you are going to have a problem. The more usual problem in this space is that baggage return at the destination takes longer than you would like.

This is governed by the Montréal and Warsaw Conventions. There is limitaiton of SDR 1288 (around £1400) total per passenger, the limit of the airlines' liability. Airlines can offer a higher level for a premium but it's frankly easier to get insurance. If something gets delayed - and it doesn't matter what the timelines are - you can claim for essentials. So let's say your bag is only delayed briefly and gets delivered to your hotel the same day. Rare but it has happened. You can claim for cosmetics, teethcare items, perhaps a phone charger cable. If it's several days and the weather turns bad, then you can buy things like coats and shoes necessary for what you are doing. At the other extreme, someone recently went somewhere to give a presentation and his video equipment was held up. Since that was essential and connected for the reason to travel, then buying or hiring equipment is in scope. BA would pay this, other airlines may be more reticent (AA isn't renown for generosity) but you can invoke dispute and small claims procedures if that event. You are not covered for "what ifs", so buying a coat because it may turn cold is a "what if". BA sometimes gives a cash card to help with this, but in a way that's an extra complication compared to just buying and claiming. The thing to note here is that if you get a hefty payment for coats, shoes etc and then the bag is lost, you are still capped at SDR 1288. THe usual advice I give is "pretend you won't get the money back from BA, what would you do?". If it's buy a coat, then you have your answer.

There isn't compensation for delayed bags, unless some other factor comes into play. One example was when BA's courier incorrectly returned a bag to the wrong person, and the wrong person subsequently refused to hand back the bag (presumably because BA hadn't returned their original bag). This included personal items, such as notebooks, and the real bag owner found this incredibly distressing.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated

Do the conventions mentioned above offer anything for when baggage is demanded and BA do not respond to your claim for compensation?

I am getting tired of waiting now and would like to force the issue.

Out of curiosity, does SDR 1288 apply to the last leg of a trip where you are effectively returning 'home'? What can you realistically claim for if you suffer a 2-3 day baggage delay then?

It does, but you are still on the essential items test, and there is a view you have items at home you can use, or borrow from other family members. It's not an absolute, people have claimed for PC chargers stuck in a bag, for example. Again you can apply the same test: if it was 101% certain BA would not refund the item, what would you do?

It's effectively contractural, so naturally you can use MCOL if you feel you have waited long enough. You can also use CEDR after 8 weeks from submission. Best practice for MCOL is 15 working days (3 weeks) but you can go lower than that, come car parking companies think it's a week for example.

It would be great to get an opinion as to which route would us beat? It doesn’t feel right just to accept they haven’t even looked at my case.

Baby stroller was damaged (unusable) on a flight early April. On arrival they said someone would come to our home to assess the claim within 7 days. Expecting the worst, and needing to use it for obvious reasons, I ordered replacement parts for ~£200 immediately and sent a claim in.

Other than the automated reply I have received nothing and have tried several times (calls, Twitter etc) but unable to get anyone willing or able to help.

This was a Club World ticket so gee a little shafted and would like the cash to be honest.

Feel free to DM if better.

If it's over 8 weeks from your first complaint then just submit a claim to CEDR, you don't appear to have anything to lose, and it's a straightforward process, just a modest amount of paperwork. MCOL is better if you want a fast result, but you do have some costs potentially at stake.

Just got 2 notifications. 1 was an email update to this thread. The other: https://news.sky.com/story/amp/enorm...ystem-12635856

And that is terrifying. I know it's not BA's fault but still appalling at an airport as busy and important as Heathrow

Terrifying? It's cartainly a nuisance for the people affected but very few if any would be BA customers, since it was at T2 and only affected travellers in a fairly short time window. Most T2 passengers would not have been affected.

Your other option would be to either go hand baggage only (which is what I do) or to carefully segregate checked luggage so that it consists of items that can go AWOL for a few days, such as items destined for laundry.

As CWS says the best and least stressful way of dealing with it is to assume you won't get reimbursed by BA. Buy what you need and all should be well.

Much appreciated. Submitted a claim this morning so will see how it plays out.

Shame as I feel this could be dealt with pretty easily and I have not tried to claim an excess amount (£180) when others may have tried to recoup the cost of a full replacement.

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.

You can certainly buy and claim the immediate and reasonable items you need and all the items you mention look OK to me. BA will reimburse those (eventually). Keep receipts and make a spreadsheet. Most likely your luggage will arrive on a flight later or tomorrow and will be delivered to you, so long as you filled out the form at BUD. I was in the same position in February and BA paid everything including purchase of some ski related items and then delivered our missing bag to Slovakia.

Sorry can I just check you were also on staff travel standby ticket?
This is a crucial information.

24-26th NO LUGGAGE DELIVERES
I am flying back on the 27th so not even sure where should I get it delivered…..

I was on a revenue ticket, sorry I did not read that bit in your message. I do not know what difference that will make though. I think it is still likely you will be reunited with your bag very soon. BUD typically has 3 flights per day. You might find it arriving on BA864 this afternoon.

As posted on your thread it’s ok to claim for essentials with missing baggage on staff travel.

Hi. On the 26th of December we flew SFO-LHR-BCN with three checked bags. The other two didn't make it. Apple air tags showed they were still in LHR. The two bags were flow to BCN last night. One was delivered to the hotel today. The other is still sitting in it's same spot in terminal 1 at BCN and it's now 2pm. Is there any way to contact someone at BCN or message BA on What's app or other social media?

At smaller airports, just turning up would perhaps be effective. But at somewhere like BCN it's a bit like turning up at your post office sorting office and asking them to retrieve a letter from the hundreds of postal crates lined up there. It's a batch process system, which isn't that fast but will eventually get processed. You could give it a go, given the airtags may allow you to get near to the bags in question, but there isn't a process for this other than making sure your WorldTracer screen has the right contact information for you.

Unrelated to this airport, but HAL did send out some reminders to airlines yesterday asking them to ensure couriers were handled quickly, since delays to luggage is clogging up their systems too.

Thanks CWS. Our other bag hasn't moved an inch since last night. I'm going to ask our hotel to try and call. Failing that, just go extra early on Saturday for our return flight to London. I'm not confident that I will be able to get it back easily there as you said.

Apologies in advance for a bit of a saga.

Had a very frustrating situation on a recent trip to Rome with BA. We were traveling from LAX to FCO via LHR in Club, and checked 3 bags between the 2 of us. Two of them arrived on the carrousel in FCO, but the 3rd never came. After waiting for ~1 hour, I wandered over to the lost and found counter for BA, and she looked the tag up in her system, and said it was on the next flight to Rome that night, which should arrive in about an hour. Calculating the time it took for us to even get our bags after our flight arrived, we were easily looking at another 2 hours sitting in a rather unpleasant environment (and it was already about 9pm at this point). We still had to pickup our rental car, and then had a 2 hour drive north ahead of us, and were to meet someone who would handoff the keys to a vacation rental. So, it wasn't an option to ask them to meet us at 1am for house keys (and we were already over an hour behind schedule).

So, we really had no choice but to put in a claim for the delayed/lost bag to be delivered to us where we would be staying until the following week. She said it would probably take 3 days for delivery given the distance outside Rome. I filled out the paperwork with the address where we would stay, and my US phone number and email for contact. She said the courier would contact us prior to delivery.

The following morning (Friday), I checked the website they provided on the claim paperwork, and noticed some of the information I provided was incorrectly entered, including my phone number with the last digit missing. I corrected it, and hoped we would hear something in the next couple of days.

Monday came around, and checked the status on the website again. The status was updated to "preparing for delivery." So, we made sure to remain within 1 hour distance of our rental address. No call ever came. So, we called the number of the baggage agency that afternoon, since their open hours are 1500-2100 only. They said the bag was just picked up earlier that day, and they confirmed that yes the courier would call at least an hour before delivery.

Tuesday, essentially the same. No status change, no phone call. Called again once the desk opened, and they confirmed the same thing.

Wednesday was supposed to be a day in Florence, but we couldn't be further away than an hour from our rental address. So, we canceled those plans. Same thing, no call. So, finally that evening I asked to escalate this case, and they said they would have someone call me back. I received a call from a location in Milan a bit later, and a gentleman informed me that the bag should have been delivered by now. I indicated that we needed it the following day, as we were returning to the US on Friday morning. He said he would call me right back, and we never heard anything.

Then Thursday morning, I tried calling the number from the Caller ID from the night before (in Milan). It went to a call center, but a recording indicated all agents were busy and hung up. 5 minutes later a call came in from a number in Rome, and the gentleman provided the phone number and case # (different from what we had been working with), of the delivery service, which turned out to be DHL. I called DHL, and was informed that the company had attempted delivery the previous day, and was not able to locate the address... they confirmed the address information over the phone, and it was correct, so who knows why the courier couldn't find it. So they said perhaps we could come pickup the bag in Terni, over an hour away from where we were staying. I asked if it would be possible for them to just forward the bag back to Los Angeles, because at this point the items in the bag were of little use to us for this trip, and the prospect of spending an additional 2 hours going to and from Terni did not sound appealing. We were told that was impossible, as it could not be authorized. So, we relented as there were some valuable video equipment and other items in the bag. A winery tour that afternoon had to be canceled.

So, very long story, but as you can probably imagine, a long and stressful effort to retrieve our bag, which significantly impacted our ability to do the things we had planned to do on this visit because we were chained to remaining within an hour of the rental address, and nobody seemed able to willing to assist. And not once did we receive a phone call from the delivery courier.

In my line of business, time is money, and there was no respect for that in this situation. We wasted precious time waiting for a bag to come in Rome that wasn't even on our flight. Could BA have informed us of this proactively? Of course they could have. Just like they did the morning before our flight, that it would depart over an hour late.

I doubt there is any recourse for us for enduring this saga, and thankfully our clothes or other necessities weren't in this lost bag. However, I'm curious whether there shouldn't be some sort of compensation for all the effort and time spent trying to just get our bag delivered, not to mention time and fuel spent to pickup the bag far from where we were staying?

Thanks for listening/reading.

The first thing to do when this happens is to get in touch with this forum, since you would get some more realistic advice about when the delivery would be made. We would also have advised you that the bag would be returned to LAX, the reason the couriers hate that option is that they don't get paid for the failed delivery. But from here, I would make a claim for the various costs that you incurred here, though I suspect BA will initially be reluctant to pay for consequential losses. Any direct replacement losses, upto about $1600, would be paid, but there doesn't seem to be much in this area. For consequential losses, that's under Article 19 of Montréal, and airlines are notorious for ducking and weaving around that one. But BA refuses then you have a mechanism to claim that the airline treated you unfairly here, and CEDR is a mechanism to look into this. See the EC261 thread for some information on how CEDR, a dispute resolution service, works. However for any complaint and billing for costs you should try and shorten your complaint, summarising it somewhat. Apart from that, you can claim for some Avios or a credit voucher from BA for the customer service aspect, but that may not be very helpful.

Thank you so much for the guidance on this. Greatly appreciated!