Flailey

I know this is probably a lost cause, both as a thread and in the abstract, but since FT has always been such a wealth of info I figured I'd try. Have mercy.

My GF and I just returned from a trip on a CUN>EWR direct flight and upon arrival and unpacking (at home) discovered that her jewelry was stolen from checked luggage. She's a total mess, one of the pieces was given to her by her grandmother. Of course she shouldn't have had it in mexico, but she had come straight from her grandmother's funeral, where she had wanted to have it. Of course it shouldn't have been checked, but, well, I don't make mistakes like that -- she apparently does. Sucks. The same box had about $1000-2000 worth of jewelry in it, some silver and gold earrings, etc. Most of it we wouldn't have a reciept for, thought at least one piece was a gift from me (an expensive one) and I do have the receipt somewhere.

I basically just told her that we were probably totally out of luck, I don't know how you could even try to claim for something like this. I've done my furious googling and searching this site and all that to try to triple check, etc, and spent 30 minutes on hold with Continental (still going on speakerphone as of this writing) as I might as well ask here, since y'all probably know more than just about anyone else.

Are there any real options for something like this besides just getting mad? Anything that can be done about this, any way to claim, any customer service tip that could help in any way.

Any advice appreciated, thanks in advance.

mia

Suggest you speak with your homeowner's insurance agent.

dennis

Xyzzy

I can tell you from experience that you're pretty much out of luck claiming compensation for valuables of any kind from the airline when checked lugage is concerned. You probably know this by now, but never check anything you can't afford to never see again.

Flailey

Yeah, that's why I sent back a fedex box to my office from Chicago with all my Christmas presents and some other random stuff before going straight on to mexico.

The woman, eh... not so prescient. Sucks for her. Even she realizes her mistake. 20/20 hindsight of course.

Anyone had any luck with non-cash compensation? If there were some kind of voucher or something it might ease the pain. I have to figure CO is going to tell us to go to hell though, we can't really prove a damm things.

Steve M

Proof of the loss, having receipts to establish value, and so on are all irrelevant. Even if you have absolute proof that they were stolen from checked baggage, and can establish their value, the Contract of Carriage is very clear: there is no liability for valuable items such as jewelry. You don't even get up to the $1250 or whatever the limit is for regular items. I'm very sorry to hear about what happened - it's an expensive and heartbreaking way to learn what not to put in checked baggage.

Russell745

In any event you most certainly should report the loss - to anybody and everybody that you can.

Never say never - even though the odds are against you if the jewelry is found you might get it back and at the very least reporting it to the proper authorities - namely CO in EWR, CUN and possibly to the airport authority in CUN might serve to alert them to this type of activity and save someone this type of anguish in the future.

Sorry for your loss and good luck.

Duhey2

This rings in my mind everytime I pack a bag I know I'm checking. I even have a hard time putting my irreplaceable Hartford Whalers hat in the suitcase (no comments from Bruins' fans, please).

Lemurs

I admire you for admitting that in public. Is it a foam trucker hat? If so, I will have unending envy of you, even as a Devils fan.

On the checked baggage note, I've had enough bad experiences out of CUN that I shudder at the thought of checking anything there. I'm very sorry for her loss, but it is just not a safe place for valuables.

Duhey2

Dude, I said irreplaceable.

Flailey

This is good advice, and thanks. I think what we're going to do is both report to both airport authorities and the DOT line that deals with this stuff also have my GF call (more than once until she gets a male person on the line) and have her break down crying about this in hopes of total charity. It's basically the only shot.

They also lost her luggage on the way down and we had to wait around for 2 hours at the airport for it to show up on another flight, which they will presumably have a record of as well. It's basically an appeal to total pity.

She also just signed up this month for the first time as a Onepass member and they didn't credit her for the outbound flight, so that's an opening to get that taken care of and mention that we're AA PLT but she had just taken a new job in lower manhattan closer to EWR and had expected to be doing a lot more flying on CO. Which is true.

It basically depends on a customer service rep taking some pity, but I figure it's worth a shot, and karma is on our side, this is rough and the story is 100% accurate. Though I'm aware CO is not always "responsible" at least legally speaking, the last person to accept the bag was a CO employee and it was returned short $1000+ in valuables and an heirloom. Lesson learned, but it seems to me that they probably have the discretion to at least try to make some amends and it's not OK that in 2005 we still can't transport some baggage without getting ripped off. It's bizzare that even though a plane ticket is basically worthless unless you can bring along baggage, people still treat baggage like it's some kind of side annoyance to the business of running an airline, not a fundamental part of the business just as important as getting the people there on time and in one piece.

Oh well, I digress. I have low hopes, but on the flip side if they make this right they may well earn a lot of goodwill from a pair of frequent fliers with a lot of flying left to do.

Bernoulli 777

You'd be surprised at what turns up at the far end of the lost luggage rainbow in Scottsboro, AL.

chasbondy

It goes to show you that nothing is really yours. It's theirs. They deserve your property more than you do. You really only paid for it. So why would you even think that just because you paid for it, that it should belong to you???

Flailey

I was just reading her some of the responses in this thread... her comment, which I like a lot -- if some large percentage of people flying on the airline were gettting mugged in the jetway do you think they'd do something about it, quick? Damm right. But when the same thing happens over and over again with checked bags it's like we're putting them out just to get mad about it.

You pay $1000 for tickets to transport you and your bags. You give them your stuff, they don't give it back to you. Sorry, we're not liable, whatever, eat it.

When you step back for a second it's pretty damm out of control isn't it. Just because it's common doesn't mean it's not f--ked up severely.

obscure2k

Few rules I learned as a kid:
1. Don't accept rides or candy from strangers.
2. Don't pack jewelry in checked baggage.

Flailey

And one I learned as an adult:

3. Women are highly emotional and enthralled by bright, shiny, expensive objects.