LeisureFirst

There have been quite a few posts on here, particularly a couple of years ago at the height of BA's baggage problems, from pax whose luggage has been damaged or irretrievably lost by BA. Replies have often been to the effect that pax can't expect much compensation and are fools if they don't have travel insurance.

On my most recent trip to MAD I was travelling without insurance for the first time in probably around ten years. I'd not renewed by Amex Plat, and hadn't got round to taking out a new annual policy. And, for the first time ever, when my suitcase arrives on the carousel it is clearly had its last ever journey. The main handle had been completely ripped off, and with it the address label, Silver card tag and so forth were all missing. The sticky bar-code tag had clearly been retrieved by whomever had destroyed the handle, and plastered to the body of the case, but it is still a wonder that it made it at all.

The sturdy Samsonite case had been in good condition when I departed with no apparent weaknesses. My best guess was that it had been swung hammer-like by its handle. If I were more musical, I'd compose a song about it.

The flight had been IB-operated on a BA code. I reported the issue to BA as soon as I returned to the UK, with quite a bit of detail and offering to send photos of the damaged case (which I had thrown away in Madrid). They passed the matter onto IB, who after a few days sent a stock reply firmly claiming that the damage was "normal wear and tear" - based on no evidence and they hadn't even asked to see the photos. They also claimed they could do nothing more as I didn't have a reference number obtained at the airport on arrival. This communication came via an email with no reply address, and gave the only point of contact as a Spanish number which I could call but only for the purposed of reporting a reference number if I had one after all - which seems rather pointless anyway if they'd already concluded it was normal wear and tear.


Anyway, I double-checked my EU baggage rights and wrote back to BA pointing out that

1. I am entitled to pursue the claim through either the operating airline or the ticket-issuing airline, and I was electing to do the latter so could they please deal with the matter directly.
2. The regulations require only that I report damaged bags within seven days and state quite explcitily that it is not necessary to report them on arrival.

It seem that the firmness paid off. I got a call from BA in which initially they told me to claim against my travel insurance. When I pointed out that at that time I didn't have any, but it was clearly their responsibility in any case, they then offered to send me a replacement case and said they have a company that does this. I said that was a nice offer, but I'd had no choice but to buy a replacement in Madrid so the refunding the cost of that would be a lot more helpful. A quick check with a supervisor confirmed they would do this provided I sent in the receipt. A week later a cheque arrived for £240.

So, all in all, a happy tale of BA's doing the right thing ^^, provided you can clearly tell them (twice) what they are obliged to do.

Note I'm not particularly recommending travel without insurance, and obviously wouldn't dream of it outside the EU where medical costs become a big issue. But I do think some of the unsympathetic responses that Americans in particular have received on this forum when they've revealed they didn't have insurance have been rather unfair and betray a distinct lack of understanding of cultural differences.

pcflyer213

LeisureFirst, I think I ought to join your praise - last month, I had two major luggage incidents on BA. First, on a CW flight from BOS coming home from Uni, a trunk with my books papers etc was completely shredded (side panel ripped out, luckily not too much lost); I was told to head out and buy a new trunk, which BA paid for near instantly (money in my account 3 days after I'd faxed the receipt). Second, a CE flight from SZG, this time a trolley didn't make it (bottom bit ripped out), and I lost a new pair of shoes (one chap at LGW commented how it appeared as if someone in charge of the luggage had decided to pick on me...). Receipt for those faxed to BA, reimbursed in no time; the suitcase itself was replaced by Antler and delivered within a week or so.
In summary: Great service from ground and call centre staff all around - I'll be back!

Shona

[QUOTE

Anyway, I double-checked my EU baggage rights and wrote back to BA pointing out that
[/QUOTE]

I was wondering how you did double-check your rights-was this the legislation itself? Wasn't the outcome you obtained dependent upon that action?

Should it have been necessary to double-check in the circumstances?
How many people do double-check?

kryten22uk

I thought it was BAA problem not BA?

Last time we had a damaged suitcase on the carousel, I just took it straight to the luggage services booth, who gave me a brand new one there and then. No hassle.

LeisureFirst

There are leaflets readily available at airports and online. They gave enough information for my purposes, although it was frustratingly difficult to get any further details, e.g. the letter of the legislation itself.

You are right that BA tried to fob me off a couple of times before coughing up. But they didn't try very hard really. Nevertheless, it might have been enough to deter the majority of passengers from purusing the matter, thinking they wouldn't get anywhere.

LeisureFirst

Definitely not what the rules say. From the customer's perspective, it is up to the airline to sort it out. Whether they can reclaim the costs from BAA, or the authorities at MAD, or indeed from IB in this case, I do not know.

I'm surprised it was that easy. Do they always give you one as good as the one you lost? That's quite a range of spare cases they must have. Is that the experience of everyone else too? - just show them your broken £15000 Henk suitcase and they give you a new one? (Yes, I really know that there is a limit on airlines' liability, and it is some way below that.)

Ordinarily I would have reported it at the airport. But in this case that was clearly going to take a while and I had an important appointment in the centre of Madrid which I would have been in danger of missing. I suspected that reporting it there and then would not have made much difference (and had a vague recollection that's what the rules said) and that turned out to be right - but again not a course of action I would recommend unless unavoidable.

HIDDY

LeisureFirst - Good outcome in the end. BA replaced a "damaged" case of ours after it got stranded in MAD for a month.

I take it you filed a damaged bag report in MAD? Your post suggests that you didn't for some reason.

Funilly enough the same case that BA gave us was damaged recently on a TG HKG-BKK flight. Same handle problem as yours. I could have filed a report but couldn't be bothered.

LeisureFirst

Nope. It was late at night, there was a long queue at the baggage enquiry desk, I was in a hurry, and frankly I thought it would only slightly increase my chances of getting any compensation. And, like I said, the rules only say that you need to report the damage within seven days, which I did.

I am sure you regard me as careless and foolish, but there it is.

That does rather suggest that the BA-issued cases are not very lovely, if you couldn't find a few minutes in the next seven days to fill out an online claim form .

Shona

The liability limit under the Montreal Convention can be broken-just as a guitar can be broken-given sufficient culpability of the carrier. Maybe not all leaflets go to such depth.

Perhaps your own particular case was particularly and obviously "open and shut" (although now damaged) on its merits and related to damage to the luggage itself rather than its loss-or indeed the contents it contained.

HIDDY

The BA replacement case was actually a decent brand. As I hadn't paid for it I wasn't all that bothered about seeking compensation from TG - I was enjoying the holiday too much to let it worry me.

obs

I have to agree with the above. Over the last 10 years I have had 2 cases damaged. On return I went straight to the BA baggage desk in arrivals. Without any argument they looked at the bag and then pulled out a brochure, and then asked me to choose a bag. The bags are made by Antler, and are of a good quality. On both occasions the replacement bag arrived at my home address within 3 days. I think BA seem to cater quite well for this sort of occurrence.

LeisureFirst

That's surprisingly good, but it wouldn't have helped me much, though: there was no BA baggage desk at MAD (only the IB one) and I needed a new case for travelling home, so having one delivered three days to my home address wouldn't really have helped anyway. Not to mention that I don't think Antler is of the same standard as Samsonite, so getting BA to pay for a new Samsonite case was definitely a better option.

Incidentally on the way home, BA managed to lose the brand new case - the only time they've lost my luggage. I must say that reporting it as lost was very easy (I was out of T3 within 25 minutes of landing), they kept me well-informed and even with a bit of a cock-up on their part about whether to deliver it to my work or home address, got it back to me 24 hours later.

globalste

My bike went missing on a NCE-LGW flight last year, it was my carbon race bike as well.

When it eventually turned up later, it was a bloke who rang our bell at 23:30 and didnt speak a word of english and got all a*ey when i stated I wanted to check it before I signed anything.

Good job I did, as some blithering idiot had managed to break the carbon steerer tube so the fork legs were a write-off.

I wrote to BA about it and received a cheque for £170 a few days later.

SAS have been great too, when someone broke into my bike box and stole my saddle and seatpost worth nearly £200, I got a cheque sent straight away and then for some reason, they sent me another cheque as well i sent this one back to them though, didnt want to take the pss.

However, on our OSL-LHR-SFO-LAS flight 2years ago, we flew BA and then got a USAir connecting flight from SFO. We had to claim and recheck our luggage at SFO. When we got to LAS the bag was practically totally destroyed (think the old hamlet advert where everything is on the carousel). USAir luggage handling response? "We dont cover zippers". I went totally mental at them, the zipper being broken was purely collateral damage when the rest of the bag looked like it had been dragged all the way from the other side of the tarmac to the belt. I wrote 3 letters to USAir but they wouldnt fork out