Luggage Theft (Airlines in general)

Member Name: oscarek

Product:	Airlines in general
Date:	21/10/00 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Abuse of trust between airline and passenger, inevitable financial loss due to poor method or compensation, invasion of privacy and inconvenience

Whilst travelling recently I had my luggage tampered with and several items stolen.

My first gripe with the flight operators handling of this situation is that I was expected to report this there and then at the airport. However, as it was only the padlock and zip on my holdall which had been tampered with it was not immediatley obvious and I didn't realise anything was wrong until I reached my hotel. Furthermore, after a 20 hour+ journey I would have been in no mood to stand about filling out forms and trying to cope with language barriers. In addition I had transfers to get.

When reporting this the next day by phone I was in no uncertain terms told that they would just presume I was making this up as I had not reported it at the airport on arrival. Infuriated I decided to wait until my return to the UK before taking it up there - I was not going to spoil my holiday trying to argue my case.

On my return my complaints were eventually passed on and I had to fill out a very lengthy form detailing the items stolen, values etc etc. I was also asked to enclose receipts. In response to all this I received a letter detailing how they were only obliged to compensate in terms of the weight of the items stolen. This is absolutely ridiculous! How can they justify this when the value of items are obviously not going to correlate to their weight. And why on earth did they get me to fill out the lengthy form.

In addition, to receive the measely compensation offered I need to sign a form which states that the operator has no liability for what happened!

When we go on holiday we pay airfares that are by no means cheap. We then entrust our baggage to airlines without a second thought. It seems positively bizarre that their staff can damage and pilfer our possessions without us being properly compensated for this.

Furthermore it appears that no further action is being taken to trace what exactly happened to my
baggage and who was responsible. The thought of anybody invading my privacy in this way is infuriating, let alone the thought that they are actually being paid to look after my interests at the same time. I want to know that actions are being taken to stop this happening.

Summary: