This is the Compensation Clinic-series about problems and compensation received during travels. You can email me your story; basically what happened, how did the claims/resolution process went (success/failure) and what did they give you. I will have a new case every Sunday.
LoyaltyLobby reader from Canada sent me an email about the experience he had had with United earlier this year. The passenger was flying from Toronto to San Juan via Houston in business class, but the checked in bag didn’t arrive with the same flight. United had sent it to Newark. When the bag finally arrived, the pull handle had been torn off and the bag basically destroyed.
The passenger had called United to inquire about this, but was told that he should have filed a report about the damage at the airport. How could you file a report about a damage, when you haven’t even seen the damaged bag?
At the day of departure, he had decided go to the airport early and to find his way to the arrivals area, where he had met United baggage employee that had agreed that the damage was claimable and had given him the file number.
United had paid him $150 for the checked in bag (no receipt) and $150 for incidentals that required receipts. It took about a month for United to pay for these after the reader had tweeted United with the picture above. It took his coworker more than two months to get reimbursement from United (didn’t go public).
Conclusion
If you bag is delayed, you always need to get a file reference (PIR – Property Irregularity Report) number from the baggage handling agent that is not always the airline. Most airlines use IATA’s WorldTracer (you can read more about the WorldTraver here), but the old United had their internal system and I am not sure, what Continental United uses.
You should always report any damage on the spot, but that is impossible in case of delayed bag that is directly delivered to your hotel. LoyaltyLobby reader did the right thing and went to the airport early on the day of departure and then filed the claim for the damage.
Airlines usually pay for reasonable expenses that are due to delayed bag. If you are going for a beach holiday and all your beach gear is in the checked bag, just go and buy what you need and later go through the claim process with the airline. They may suggest that they only pay $50 per day for delays, but that is only a guideline. Just save all the receipts and file them with the claim.
It doesn’t hurt to contact the airline via Twitter or Facebook to check the status of the claim. Airlines tend to have dedicated and more empowered customer service reps working these public channels.
![Airfare of the Day [Business Class] VIRGIN AUSTRALIA Sydney to Bali from $998/A$1,356](https://cdn4.loyaltylobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/xbali-g495bf9857_1280-120x86.jpg.pagespeed.ic.pPEZaFLUj6.jpg)
![Airfare of the Day [Business Class] FINNAIR London to Bangkok from £1,023](https://cdn2.loyaltylobby.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/xthailand-g47f9e38b8_1280-bangkok-120x86.jpg.pagespeed.ic.-uLWZzCsNh.jpg)
recently flew with Air France and had damaged baggage
i sent out the original receipts for all missing belongings according to a declaration i made to the police (declaration that had to be sent along with the receipts)
they acknowledged my claim within a week and will send me a compensation within a month
but concerning the damaged baggage, they are asking for a retailer or repair shop to declare how much it would cost to repair it or if it could be repaired, in order to accept my claim for compensating the baggage itself
I had problem with the damage by Air France and they had dedicated shop that repaired it in Montreal and charged Air France directly. http://loyaltylobby.com/2013/06/08/compensation-clinic-checked-bag-damage-by-air-france/
yes, they also did that for me 3 years ago in Vancouver, i guess they have partners all across Canada
but back to Europe, they don’t have any, so we can only send receipts after a repair (we have to find our own repair shops) or for a new purchase
Just take them to small claims court. Airlines just dont show its too expensive for them to send an attorney i have done it 3 times over the last 15 yrs and won and collected with no issues
Nice
I recently had a very positive experience with UA. We had gate checked our car seat and base coming back from Kauai to LAX. Upon arrival home we noticed that the settings knob on the base had been shattered. This is a pretty expensive unit and it must have been hit really hard to break that piece as it is a hard polycarbonate dial.
I went back to LAX the next day and showed them the damage and filled out a claim form at the UA baggage service desk. Unfortunately the person who handled claims would not be back until the next week but they promised to help me file everything for reimbursement.
Not one week after the person had returned we received a check in the mail for the full amount we claimed and a very sincere letter apologizing for the damage. I really thought it was going to take much longer and was anticipating at best a partial refund.
I was extremely pleased and impressed with how quickly they took care of this and wrote a follow-up thank you letter to the staff. I am a UA platinum and of course I have had occurrences where the service was not quite up to expectation but in this case they really came through 100% for my family and I and I am glad to share this story.
Seems that they handled your case very well.
Positive experience with delayed bag reimbursement–I recently had a bag delayed for 36 hours. I kept copies of all communication with UA and the IATA World Tracer, the reservation confirmation number (my boarding pass was electronic), as well as receipts for the replacement clothing (I had toiletries and smalls in my carryon). I mailed copies of these in with a lost baggage form. It seems UA doesn’t have a form for delayed baggage; after talking to a representative, I filled in the necessary information–you don’t need to list everything in the bag for a delayed bag). I received a check for the full amount (just over $200) in about 6 weeks. I am pleasantly surprised–I really didn’t expect to get any money, and if I did, I didn’t think it would be for the total amount! I highly encourage anyone to try–totally worth the effort.