Hello everyone! I was hoping someone in this forum would know how to approach the problem of a lost(!) bag in Asia..? We traveled with Royal Brunei Airlines from Manila to Bangkok on the 28th of November (12 days ago). The bag obviously didn't get all the way to Bangkok and we filed a missing bag report at once with Air Asia, who is evidently taking care of Royal Bruneis business in Bangkok. At the missing bag counter we received a form to fill in, regarding the total value of the bag and all it's contents. We were told to fax this form to Royal Brunei after five days if the bag was still missing. We didn't get any offer of compensation at all in Bangkok, all they said was that if the bag status would change from "missing" to "lost" we would get a compensation. Eventually.

After five days of no-show, we faxed the filled in papers to Royal Brunei. We also tried to contact them several(!) times via email, but with no success... It's now been more then 10 days and the bag is now declared lost. So far, so good.

Now to my BIG problem; We recieved an email from Royal Brunei today. It came with an attached file with information of what compensation we would get. They offerd 7840THB (260USD). The form we filled in so thoroughly was apparantly useless, since we claimed the bags value was around 78000THB...
It's ridiculous!! They claimed that the compensation they offer is not based on the value of the bag and it's content, but on the bags total weight! So why the hell (sorry) did we have to fill in the form in the first place? Why didn't they just ask us for the weight of the bag?

Okey... the bags weight was about 30Lbs. How much did it have to weigh for us to get a normal compensation?? Are they trying to fool us?

Does anyone know our rights in this matter? We are devistated. Our vacation was short to ruined and this is what they offer in compensation. It doesn't even cover the purchase of a new bag!!

I hope YOU can help us!
Sincerely
Maggie and Jesper

Most airlines are under one of two conventions. Montreal or Warsaw. The maximum amount they will cover depends on what their limits are is. Some are based on weight, so a light weight bag will not yield much of a claim, as in your case.

If you are taking expensive items, you should make sure that you have some sort of travel insurance that will cover these items. Some credit cards, or even a personal home insurance policy may cover this as well.

One thing that frequent travelers have learned, is never check anything you can't afford to lose. Always bring 3-4 days of clothes with you, and of course, any valuables, in your hand carry luggage.

Filling out the contents information isn't meaningless--what's happening is that their compensation is capped based on an insanely low value per pound that's what has been internationally agreed to.