The airline will only pay the bare minimum based on the checked in weight.

Additional recompense may be sought from your insurance company.

Read the T's and C's of it though - new for old doesn't usually apply.

Mark

Thank you for your comments.
Are they entitled even if the baggage eventually turns up?

Depends on the policy. Better make sure that the respective form has been completed (IPR I think it is called).

Mark

Thanks Mark, I'll try seeing if they can receive a text. Apparently there are 100 lots of luggage missing on the cruise. Have spent hours on BA's website, they don't say very much and I think the tracking system has crashed. Nothing else I can do from here.

Regards

They have bought a phone charger, but have no signal most of the time

This is because they'll only get a signal when close to a coast line - mobile phones will only work as long as they are within distance of a transmitting mast for that network. Hence why there's little point in taking a mobile with you on a cruise and expecting it to work - and why cruise liners can have you over a barrel with charges for using their satellite phone systems.

SM

Travel Insurance and the carrier - not a nice combination.

If you check the fine print on the travel insurance your luggage is covered when it is your control and only then, ie it is not covered when the carrier/TO has control so when you check your bags in the liability transfers to the carrier/TO. When you pick up your luggage at the other end it is back to you. When you put it in the transfer coach it is back to the carrier/TO etc..

Because of this and because my house insurance covered personal possessions we didn't bother to take up the baggage option on the insurance.
Sure enough, the bag was left at Gatwick and not reunited with us until after noon on the last full day of the holiday.
I had to push the TO who also operated the plane as they denied all responsibility several times, eventually I managed to get up the chain and was told that their insurance would cover it and was put onto their claims chap.
From what I gathered, if I had had travel insurance, I would have claimed off of that and then they would have claimed it all and possibly more back from the carriers insurance company.

So the carriers are liable even for delayed baggage, but you have to be pushy and specific about what you claim. We had to claim for full sets of clothes and snorkelling equipment, not made easy by the fact that we didn't have any receipts.

With T5, the claims are going to snow them under and so they may minutely inspect each one or may just push them through with a cursory glance just to get rid of the backlog.

Of course if you have Travel insurance which covers delayed baggage, there is usually a figure of how much you can claim, and you just claim from them letting them fight the carrier to get it back.

The really annoying thing is it trashes your holiday and no one gives a monkey's.

Thank you for the information, I shall certainly pass it on to my sister on her return, I'm sure she will find it helpful. It helps to know that if you put pressure on and don't just accept being fobbed off, then you can achieve a positive outcome.

Don't forget to tell them to check their small print and also to collect as many receipts as they can.

Fiona the HT Mod is in a very similar situation at the moment. She is in Goa on holiday and her luggage is in T5.
She may have some feedback that might help when she returns.

Kath HT Admin

Very sorry to hear about Fiona.

Do you think that BA should offer free 'pick up your luggage' flights to Milan to help clear the backlog if one could prove by the tags that your luggage is 'lost' between your origin (T5) and your original destination?

Whilst I am NOT in favour of chasing compensation, I think BAA and BA should be publicly held to account for business mismanagement in this case.

They'd probably send you to Malpensa and the bags would be at Linate!!

Maybe you could claim airmiles for the journey the luggage is making.................

Or even persuaded Ryanair to drop them off at Bergamo and charge the owner for excess baggage over 15 kg when s/he tries to retrieve them .............

Re the luggage, my daughter was due to fly to new york, and because of delayed flights with ba, she missed her flight to new york.

BA put them on the next available flight, which was with kuwait airlines the next day, problem was that 3 out of the 8 passengers didnt' get there bags. Daughter was one of them.

I spent a full morning on the phone trying to find out where the case was, i found out it was at kuwait airlines, who were due to send it out on there next flight, tuesday, this was a saturday morning.

Problem now was daughter was due to fly back with ba on the tuesday evening.

I begged and pleaded with kuwait airlines to release the suitcases on the sat morning, and send them out on one of the 3 flights that ba had going out on the saturday afternoon.

But no, the bags were now in the posession of kuwait airlines, and they by law don't have to release them.

End result daughter had no suitcase whilst in new york, she missed a day of her holiday.

I've contacted BA and have sent in receipts for clothes that she kept, she threw most of them away, as she was told that, if she was stopped at customs she could be charged extra for the clothes she bought, but she had to buy the clothes to wear anyway.

BA have also offered to send her some vouchers as a good will jesture. At the moment i'm awaiting a reply from BA

wickedchris wrote:

BA have also offered to send her some vouchers as a good will jesture

That famous trick. Ask for the cash equivalent instead.

Mark

she threw most of them away, as she was told that, if she was stopped at customs she could be charged extra for the clothes she bought,

Why? Should she have been charged duty then it would have formed part of her claim.

fwh

Because she is young and didnt' realise.

And i couldn't contact her because her phone charger was in the case, and her battery died.

Can you ask for cash equivalent instead?

As she said she wouldn't fly with ba ever again.

I started this topic and can update it. My sister and family (5 of them) not only had no suitcases for all their weeks holiday cruising round the Carribean, but on board ship they didn't get much help. They were given 3 emergency packs which consisted of a toothbrush, comb and very small tube of toothpaste. They were advised that they might not get any compensation if they claimed and so were reluctant to spend much money. My sister wore the same white blouse every day, washing it at night, along with underclothes and staying in the cabins until they had been dried by hairdrier. The onboard ship only had one shop that sold designer clothes and somewhere that sold a few medications. They were not allowed into three of the restaraunts as they were not dressed correctly and couldn't be photographed with the Captain. Nowhere sold suntan lotion, so they are all sunburnt although they did manage to buy two tee shirts and a hat for cover. They kept being told that their cases would arrive by Fed Ex any time. I managed to get the luggage on BA tracking system, although it had been reported in detail at Miami airport straight away, but that record appeared to go missing. The day before they came home I received a phone call from Miami airport to say that the cases were there. I managed to inform my sister on a mobile phone as they were now in dock and had a signal.They were reunited with the cases on Saturday morning at the airport, two of them damaged. The flight home was delayed by two and a half hours, when they eventually arrived at Heathrow, they had to stay on the plane for three and a quarter hours before being allowed off, something to do with no stairs, then being faulty and needing an engineer! By this time they had missed the connecting flight to Manchester. There was chaos at Heathrow, huge queues of tired and angry people trying to rebook flights. After standing for an hour and a quarter, my sister managed to get a flight but the family was split up, THEN all the flights were cancelled! there were no more that they could go on for 24hrs and all possible accommodation was full AND their suitcases had gone missing again. Eventually they hired a car, drove from Heathrow to Manchester to pick up their own car and then drive another hour home. At about 2am this morning they arrived home! Minus cases. My sister kept all paperwork and doesn't even begin to know who to contact first. My 13 yr old nephew said he'd held an alligator, kissed a dolphin and had a brilliant time! - ahhh! the innocence of youth!

Hi Dibley
What a nightmare for your sister and family.
It sounds like their missing baggage really ruined the cruise.
I guess if they'd been in a resort it would have been easier to get hold of suncream and reasonably priced clothing.

I don't know if it will do any good but it may be worth contacting Ros Fernihough who provides free impartial legal advice.
Her contact details are on this forum, as a sticky (currently immediately above your thread).

Do let us know how your sister gets on.
Glad your nephew had a good time.

Polly

Dibely

Sorry to hear about your sisters experience and what a nightmare.

We did a Costa cruise in February around Dubai and flew to Dubai via BA, Aberdeen to Heathrow and Heathrow to Dubai and this was before T5!! Well hubby's case did not arrive with us. I must say Costa were absolutely FANTASTIC re this and when we went to the Customer Service desk the next morning the Customer Service Manager interevened and took us straight into his office to complete the paperwork. He said my husband could borrow a suit (yes they had a few different size suits) for evening and could also get his laundry done as often as he wanted and free of charge and he would personally let our cabin steward know. He recommended we buy some clothes, but again being on a ship you a very limited. We bought one shirt at a cost of 69 euros (we did get this back from BA when we returned)

Fortunately hubby's case came on the next flight so about half an hour after we bought the shirt, the case turned up. We were so very lucky.

But wow what a difference in the way the cruise lines handles these type of incidents. Costa were brilliant, and I am very surprised as usually their Customer Service can be pretty dire!

Good luck and I can totally understand your sisters frustration. The big difference now is they will be swamped with complaints. Maybe a good idea to contact Ros as someone has already suggested.

We are flying again on the 20th, unforunately with BA and even more unfortunately through terminal 5! This time a walking holiday in Germany...... I wonder if our cases will arrive??