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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect some flight vouchers or recompense after family holiday ruined by Big famous airline?

66 replies

ErnesttheBavarian · 22/10/2015 17:35

I flew to UK with 3 of my dc to visit family. None of our 4 cases arrived. We were told they were at belt X and to wait 30 minutes. repeat x 3. Eventually left our temporary address in UK and left airport after saying I couldn't wait any longer. I was told they would be delivered the next day.

Next day I get a phonetical from Germany asking if anyone was in - airline delivered the cases to my home address in Germany not temporary address in UK, despite having it all clearly in writing.

Long story short, after 3 days of being told they would come, wouldn't, would, wouldn't, the cases were in London, sorry Germany, no london etc etc, we finally get 2 cases.

The day before we leave we get a 3rd case.

the day we leave they try to deliver the 4th case to uk.

Our 1 week visit to family was ruined as I had to go shopping 3 times for essential for the kids & me, constantly on the phone, being told 1 thing then another.

I got an email telling me my 4th case had been delivered to some random in UK. I thought I'd never see it again. It was my son's case and he was really upset, nephew's birthday present not arrive on time etc.

So they finally tell me they will reimburse the cost of the essential, but no gesture of goodwill, noting to account for the stress, hassle and ruined family visit.

AIBU to hope for some gesture. I am astonished at how unbelievably shit the service has been.

OP posts:
ihatethecold · 22/10/2015 17:44

That's terrible.
I would be seriously complaining.
What a hassle.

PosterEh · 22/10/2015 17:46

Name and shame OP. My guess is BA.

AllChangeLife · 22/10/2015 17:51

Yep. I'd guess BA too.

DonkeyOaty · 22/10/2015 17:52

Awful.

Yes do name and shame. I'll eat my hat if no one can come up with the Chief Exec's personal email for you to contact directly.

Qwebec · 22/10/2015 17:53

Travel insurances usually pay a fair amount for lost luggages (500$?), I would not expect anything from the airline. It happened to me once on the way back from a trip and finally it was the other airline sharing the desk (KLM) that helped us out. I did not expect financial compensation, but I never flew again with said company and now use KLM as often as possible because of their amazing service (not just by shipping luggages that was not even on their planes but generally speaking they are great and so are their pilots).

HeySoulSister · 22/10/2015 18:07

What difference are a few vouchers going to make now?

GreenSand · 22/10/2015 18:07

Some info here suggesting essentials is all youll get.

iirc, DH and DS claimed for tooth brushes, toothpaste, disposable razors, shaving foam, moisturiser (eczema prone skin), a multi pack of pants each, 2 pairs shorts and 2 tee-shirts for DS, trousers and top for DH. They were staying with family, so washed every night. KLM didn't bat an eyelid.

The ground staff at Heathrow T5 were excellent with me when my stuff didn't arive. So much so I emailed to pass on my thanks.

We've had a shit year with luggage, but have had excellent assistance. Hope you get a resolution soon.

Groovee · 22/10/2015 18:08

I claimed on my travel insurance!

YellowOfficeBlock · 22/10/2015 18:23

Agree with pp

Airline will only pay for essentials as your luggage wasn't lost, just delayed.

The rest you should claim on your travel insurance. If you don't have travel insurance you effectively "self-insured" so will have to bear the costs yourself

Ememem84 · 22/10/2015 18:24

If BA fill in the online complaint form. Give them all details. Copy receipts and send to them. They will refund everything. (Happened to me - 3 days in Rome without spare clothes - had thought to pack spare underwear etc but still. 3 days. This is why I always pack a couple of days clothes in my hand luggage now)

Toffeelatteplease · 22/10/2015 18:25

That is what travel insurance is for.

Marynary · 22/10/2015 18:30

They should be more liable for the inconvenience but unfortunately they are not. Even if they lose your baggage and never find it they don't have to give much compensation. Years ago an airline lost my baggage for ever and although I claimed on travel insurance I didn't receive any money for months and even then it didn't cover what I had lost.

maitaimojito · 22/10/2015 18:32

My DSis had this with BA and she was on a cruise so not easy to go any buy new clothes! The suitcases turned up 5 days into their holiday.

Mistigri · 22/10/2015 18:32

This is why I never, ever check luggage when travelling with BA :-/

Have seen too many colleagues arrive at the hotel minus their case, with an important business meeting first thing the next morning and no time to shop.

They may not be obliged to pay compensation, but any company that valued their customers would do so (or sort out their useless baggage handling - even Ryanair does this better ffs!)

Original poster
ErnesttheBavarian · 22/10/2015 18:36

The travel insurance wouldn't pay anything. Yes. It's BA.
I usually fly easyjet and have never once had a problem. This time we flew BA and I was impressed at the relative xofort of the plane and was seriously wondering about converting. Then this happened.

They have agreed to pay for the essentials but our 1 week holiday was seriously ruined. Constantly on the phone. Having to take 3 kids shoe shopping. Sitting in waiting. The stress. Not having 2 people's luggage for the entire visit. My nephews birthday present missing. We were only there for 6 days. And had 2 cases after 3 days one case the penultimate day and the final case after we returned.

It also meant I paid for a case in the hold which was money wasted and it also meant I struggled to squeeze our things into 3 cases rather than 4 and had to space to bring back my usual UK treats like tea bags and Branston pickle etc.

In the email I sent Tey finally replied saying they were sorry.for the inconvenience of the 1st couple of days. And for.my bank details,which also shows they didn't even read my email as I sent my bank details and made it clear the fiasco went on for the ENTIRE holiday and several days after.Angry I had hoped they would in some way offer us vouchers or armies or reduced price tickets so we could go to the UK and actually have an enjoyable week there. Which they completely and utterly ducked up with their incompetence and misinformation

OP posts:
Strawberryfield12 · 22/10/2015 18:38

If you have twitter account, go there and post about your experience mentioning the airline account, so that they see you are making public their shit attitude. Haven't tried with airlines yet, but with every other business not delivering service and not being too phased about sorting it out has worked immediately. The same Tesco after trying to deliver online order to wrong address and leaving without even calling me, didn't want to do anything about it, only offered to redeliver next morning and charge the much higher delivery cost than for my initial time slot. After a post on Twitter everyone got very quick to sort it out and I ended up having £20 voucher as a goodwill and endless apologies. Good luck! And do name and shame the airline also on here. Bad service is their shame not yours.

RaskolnikovsGarret · 22/10/2015 18:43

BA ruined our holiday to LA by this, long story, they paid for toothpaste and one set of h&m clothes, no more. Appalling communication, blaming us, as we did not have a baggage reference number (we were not given one at heathrow, how is that our fault??), telling us to speak to LAX, who didn't have a clue. Rude and difficult. Email to BA CEO got redirected to customer services, no reply from either to our complaint.

Have consciously not booked BA since, they are terrible and take no responsibility for their actions. And the flight attendants were phenomenally rude, and our plane was 5 hours late (they were legally obliged to cough up for that, and the pilot told us to claim).

Hate them. Will now always pay more just not to have to fly with them.

Original poster
ErnesttheBavarian · 22/10/2015 18:44

No twitter account sadly. I meant to say I had NO space to bring home any UK treats as a result. None of these things are a financial loss (apart from the cost of the 4th hold case which wasn't used but prepaid for nonetheless ).

OP posts:
bakingdiva · 22/10/2015 18:45

BA lost my luggage when I was flying back to the UK for job interviews (I can't really blame them it was the day after the liquid bomb came to light and everything was chaos). I bought new suits, makeup as well as underwear, toiletries. They paid up in full for everything, so from my treatment I can't really fault them.

RaskolnikovsGarret · 22/10/2015 18:45

They ignored my tweets. We spent a fortune on the phone so we were out of pocket too. Can't really forgive them for their attitude.

Namechangenell · 22/10/2015 18:46

I'm quite surprised at this. We went to Switzerland for a long weekend with BA, DH's stuff didn't turn up and we bought a few changes of outfits (and a warm winter/ski type jacket as it was bloody freezing and he'd checked his in). They didn't quibble about a thing and paid up quickly. Suitcase met us at home the week later.

Incidentally, between that incident and now, I worked for BA. It's actually a lot more unusual than it once was for bags to go missing and you can track them anywhere in the world (as in, any member of terminal staff can see eg 5:01, LHR, 8:46, CDG and so on) using the barcode tag you get when you check in your bags.

If I were you OP, I'd claim both on my travel insurance and from BA. Rightly or wrongly, everyone I came across through work did this.

Anastasie · 22/10/2015 18:51

Honestly I'm not sure you would have fared any better if Easyjet had lost your luggage.

I'm surprised at BA though.

I think yes email the CEO and ask them to sort it out.

Sorry you had a crappy holiday because of it.

ThePug · 22/10/2015 18:53

Ernest Why won't your travel insurance pay?

bakingdiva · 22/10/2015 18:54

I did get my luggage back too, but not until I had gone back to my original destination.