Haaienvoer

last week, my baggage was delayed and I filed a form at the airport, for which I was given a PIR.
Now I was asked (via a text message !) to fax a baggage inventory form.

I called Emirates in Hong Kong asking for the form, sent an Email with the text message and sent an Email with a reminder, but obviously they are clueless and broke their promise to get back to me with more details on the form.

Any ideas where I can obtain such a form ?

australflyer

BIFs can be filled in in person at the airport or mailed or emailed to pax to fill in and send back.

If your emails are not being ack'd, I would suggest another method of communicaton.

Perhaps try calling them (see contact your local EK office and select baggage services) or if you are passing the airport, pop in.

Haaienvoer

That is exactly what I did, I phoned both Emirates in Hong Kong & Amsterdam but no one seems to know what a baggage inventory form is or where to get it. The Emirates website: https://www.emirates.com/hk/english/...d-baggage.aspx is not really helpful either when it comes to delayed baggage:

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If your bag hasn’t been returned to you in three days

We do everything we can to reunite you with your baggage. But if you haven’t received your baggage within three days, you will need to fill in a Baggage Inventory form. We’ll give you this form when you report your delayed bags, or if you've already left the airport, please contact us and we’ll email the form to you.

Send the completed inventory to the email address on the form, along with these documents:
•your completed Baggage Inventory form
•a copy of your passport or other photo ID
•copies of receipts for any clothes you’ve bought as a result of your baggage being delayed, if you have them. Or the receipts for any items in the bag (such as a receipt for a wedding dress)
•your excess baggage receipt, if you carried extra baggage outside of our standard allowance

At this stage we recommend you register a claim on your travel insurance to cover the loss of your bags.

Once we’ve found your bags and they’ve been approved by customs, we’ll be in touch immediately to arrange a delivery time.

-----

So this is where I'm stuck: I did not got handed a baggage inventory form on the airport and phoned (and Emailed) the Emirates desks in both Hong Kong & Amsterdam. Both clueless about the baggage inventory form.

A little frustrating, to put it mildly

ioto1902

Quite strange. I had a delayed baggage a couple of times with EK and I never had to tell them what was inside ...
The baggage was not lost, and they just need to know what I bought for urgent replacement (for compensation and refund).
When the baggage is lost (never happened to me though), they need the inventory to assess the compensation amount, which is anyway limited by weight. But again, that's for lost baggage, not delayed baggage.
(I don't mind being corrected)

australflyer

If a bag is not found within 24 hours (most bags are) a BIF is needed to commenced more in depth tracing.

If the labels have come off the bag, the only way to trace a bag's owner is via the contents.

The BIF provides a detailed inventory that can be placed in WorldTracer to help the system identify potential OHD matches (IE, similar bags with same contents held at airports around the world that match).

ioto1902

Then, it is no more a delayed baggage, but a lost baggage, no ? What is the definition of the two situations ? (serious question)

australflyer

A bag is only declared lost when the airline admits defeat and declares it as lost and then hopefully compensates you.

This is typically after 60 to 100 days. Until then it is missing bag. You must remember not all stations are as good as as they should be at updating WorldTracer with OHDs. And bags get pulled by customs, inadvertently picked up and taken by other pax, etc so it sometimes takes time to find them...

Quite often airlines will already know where your bag is if it did not make your flight. They can therefore open a file for you before you arrive at your destination and will be able to tell you where your bag is and on which flight it will arrive. In this case it is clearly a delayed bag!

I think people including airline staff often interchange the words lost, missing and delayed quite freely!

Dave Noble

Luggage is normally lost when not found for 21 days - not 60-100

australflyer

Dave Noble is quite correct.

I work in a country not signatory to all of the major conventions and one that has certainly not successfully, even in the cases where it has accepted, aceded, approved or ratified the contents of the relevant convention, not made any move to implement them effectively.

Hong Kong has signed these important conventions and protocols so you are covered by these (albeit under HK law, and potentially by your airport of departure).

21 days is the limit as first set out in the Warsaw Convention of 1929. This is backed up by the Hague Protocol and the Montreal Protocol and then the Montreal Convention of 1999.

But, before I can be accused of derailing this thread any further, let me please advise the OP on the following contact details for EK Baggage Services at HKG:

To the OP, please try:

+852 2216 1022
+852 2216 1025
+852 2216 1026
+852 2216 1027

If still no luck, I suggest you try, https://www.emirates.com/hk/english/...tact-emirates/

ioto1902

FYI
Once I had my checked baggage taken by another pax by mistake. I understood the situation when I saw the same bag still orphan on the carousel. I was all the more sure as this model is quite rare in the Middle East and it was pretty obvious that the other pax also couldn't realize that there could be two same on the same flight ... Anyway, I reported the missing baggage to EK as well as my high suspicion, but EK did nothing else than looking for my luggage ... which they couldn't trace unsurprisingly.
I took note of the pax info on his luggage, contacted him directly and settled the situation by myself. Thanks EK for the very helpful support.
(I was really pissed as I had presents to hand out to important persons, not to mention all the clothes I only recovered 30h after... )

Haaienvoer

I feel quite let down by the Emirates service re "delayed" baggage.
My baggage has been "delayed" now since 27 July and i have not heard anything (no information / updates) from Emirates. Obviously their policy is that the action is with the "customer" rather than with them for "delayed" luggage.

Haaienvoer

Just an update, 2 Emails and a call later, my luggage is still not delivered, nor any compensation offered. This is getting a quite unsatisfactory experience. In my last Email i gave a 30 days deadline.

eternaltransit

Given it's so long, the baggage is now officially lost: I would write to EK claiming your compensation of up to 1131 IMF Special Drawing Rights (~1400 EUR) depending on the value of luggage and costs in pursuing.

After EK ignore this, take them to court in The Netherlands for the amount.

Dave Noble

If you gave it a deadline, then just start action against EK - it is liable under the Montreal convention for the value of the luggage loss up to the limit mentioned above