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

[ErnesttheBavarian]

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.

No, I'm not surprised. The airlines do the bare minimum. On the way home from Italy recently Vueling refused to carry a third of the passengers because 'it was a bit windy and the runway was short.' They took me but dumped my friend despite my being disabled.

I got home to find they had also not brought any baggage back. My case took 9 days to get back to me without a single word of apology. When flying home there is no compensation for delayed baggage at all.

My poor friend was, after ten hours, flown to Barcelona and then, several exhausting hours later back to the UK. Again, no luggage, of course.

I'm afraid the only answer is to each carry enough hand luggage to last a few days and regard seeing checked in baggage as a bonus.

Cynical, moi?

Why wouldn't the travel insurance pay?

Yep, travel insurance will cover this, so the airline won't. It's your insurances remit.

Matilda,

in the case of metars issues then it isn't really the airline's fault there is a delay, or that they can only carry a proportion of the booked SLF (passengers)

Not to apologise however is bad and 9 days is excessive.

Also I think if you needed your friend for assistance they obviously should have let her travel too.

I think if they had let you all fly and the plane had been unstable as a result it would have been the wrong decision. iyswim.

sorry weather issues

have got my pprune brain on

sorry to be unclear. I mean, the travel insurance wouldn't pay for inconvenience caused by an airline.

Namechangenell, BA have offered to pay for my expenses, so this would be in line with your experience. The problem is, our luggage was sent to the wrong country, then possibly back again, and possibly back to Germany twice. Every time I called I was told something different, usually totally incorrect. e.g. the courier won't deliver today as it's a bank holiday. I call the courier myself and they tell me they will deliver on a bank holiday. They tell me my cases are in London and will be with me within 5 hours. Next call they tell me they are in Germany.

While my expenses are being reimbursed, my stress, loss of time, literally hours spent on the phone, several shopping trips, cos first I'm told I#ll have the cases the next day, so I only get stuff for 1 night, then I'm told I won't get them for a couple of days, so I need to shop again etc etc. Traipsing backwards and forwards, hanging not he phone, sitting in for deliveries for stuff that is in fact in the wrong country etc etc.

And the fact our infrequent and therefore precious family visit to the UK was knackered up through their mind-blowing incompetence. This is what I feel they should also take steps to cover. On the phone message they say how sorry they are for inconvenience and how they want their customers to feel happy and listened to and want to fly with them again. Yeah right.

So you didn't buy insurance that included lost luggage?

How is that the airlines fault?

Before everyone jumps on the airline, these issues are very often down to the airport ground staff, not them. Airlines have no say in who the airport contracts to shift their luggage around and no recompense themselves for any compensation they have to pay out.

Toffee latte, I have no idea at all what you're on about or where you're dreaming up your information or why you come on here just to be argumentative.

I never said I don't have travel I insurance. I do. I haven't claimed because my literal financial costs are being reimbursed by shitty British Airways. As such my travel insurance wouldn't pay and I think it would be fraudulent to try and claim twice for the same thing. And as far as I am aware, travel insurance doesn't cover inconvenience.

So please stop being confrontational, especially when you are jumping to entirely incorrect assumptions.

My original question was, and remains to do with disappointment at being messed around, misinformed by the airline and my family visit ruined and I think BA should at least offer something as a gesture of goodwill. Christ my National Express coach was delayed by 4 hours once and they offered me half price tickets on my next journey. If they can offer this I don't see why BA can't or similar.

Travel insurance will not pay out for luggage delayed on your return flight. So even if, for example, you have to go out and buy replacements because you have to work the next day and all your toiletries and cosmetics are in the missing case, you aren't covered. I recently found this out the hard way. I thought it was just the shit insurance I got with my bank account (Co-op), but I had a look at the ts and cs of the most comprehensive policies on a comparison site, and they were all the same. Minimal amounts covered (I think around £25) for delayed luggage flying out, and nothing at all flying back. It will make me think very carefully about what I pack in future. I certainly won't ever, ever pack jewellery in hold luggage again.

Did you have old luggage tags on your bags from a previous flight, why would they send them items to Germany?

Oh, and I got absolutely jack all from EasyJet in compensation for the delay, even though they had actually removed my case from the plane, and then failed to return it the next day and very nearly held onto it for an entire weekend. I sympathise, OP. I think it's a fucking disgrace that you pay to have your luggage arrive in the same place, at the same time as you, and if it doesn't happen airlines seem to think you'll say, oh well, never mind, I'm sure you did your best.

I never gave them my German address only my UK one so I can only assume they ignored my Form which they got me to fill in at the airport and looked up my German address with the booking information.

the Form was a lost luggage form, I guess?
What do you mean looked up the German one, as your home address or with your credit card details, maybe?

How did they get your German address?

Not blaming you, but might help others to understand how this happened.

You risk inconvenience when you travel. They tried to sort it, it took a while

I am genuinely struggling to work out what the airline did so wrong that they should be dishing out 100s of pounds of compensation though. You are not out of pocket how you choose to shop for the essentials is up to you.

I mean best of luck to you if you get it. But as far as I can see yabvu to expect it.

Similar happened to my DD. Her luggage got misplaced enroute from USA to UK. She was only going to be home in the UK for only 8 days before flying out again (to take up a new job in Europe). Rucksack finally turned up after 6 days and many, many Skype calls to the middle of the US, to someone who only worked part-time. Travel insurance wouldn't pay out anything, because she was at home, and they assume you have access to other clothes, toiletries etc. In fact the rucksack contained nearly everything she owned!
When her rucksack arrived on day 6 the final insult was having to pay a charge to Fedex for them delivering it!

Toffee, the inconvenience is unbelievable and I find it astounding that they don't pay customers an amount to reflect this. They lose your luggage and ruin your holiday and just pay for your toothpaste. Our clothes were not reimbursed. All the time and effort it required to get our bags back, rather than us relaxing or sightseeing. All their fault. Why shouldn't they pay?

Because sometimes you have to just accept something has inherent risks and you take on those risks when you embark on the activity.

You can minimise the risk by travelling hand luggage only (or remove it by not travelling at all) and you can minimise the impact by having decent travel insurance.

But the risks are there; They aren't hidden or unpredictable. It's your choice whether the convenience with hold luggage is worth the risk for you.

sorry, you don't get money back on insurance for inconvenience. You get money back for material loss.

Yes their customer device is shit.

But let this be a lesson in prevention. Put essentials in hand luggage. Mix up different peoples things in different cases. Wear clothes/shoes on the plane you can wear at your destination for a few days. Etc

I never gave my German address. I only wrote on the lost baggage form my UK address.

We get in you want to be compensated for spending your holidays on the phone. It's really a shame, but to me it's like the poster who expected to have compensation bc a drink was spilled on her DH by the waitress and he could/would not go to the movies afterwards.

Accidents and mistakes happen. Would you expect you GP to compensate you if you went on a trip and ended up sick?

Sure if would be a nice gesture if they offered you a compensation but I don't think it is something to be expected. I find it in fact quite nice that they covered your expenses due to the delay, travel insurances are there for that. If they had to compensate every costomer when issues arise plain tickets would cost more to cover the loss.

I agree with Toffee.

I guess I might have thought like that before our once in a lifetime holiday was ruined. And yes it was, I haven't bored people with the details here. BA staff telling us they could not locate our bags anywhere in the world without a reference number, but not having provided a reference number to us in the first place was not particularly fun. Neither was being told something different every time we rang. The drink falling in the lap is a totally different scenario. We were left out of pocket by BA actions and the inconvenience, incompetence and rudeness were out of this world. The bag losing I can accept, it was what happened afterwards that was disgraceful.

If you go on to the BA section on flyer talk they've got sections for claiming on this type of thing with lots of information.

Baggage handling depends on a whole sequence of different people departments and companies. By definition a bag being lost means that something has gone wrong and the bag is not where BA is expecting it to be. Just like everything in life once one thing goes wrong it is harder to get things back on track.

BA have refunded your essentials which is what they are obliged to do. I do think calling them shitty BA is a bit unnecessary.

As I say best of luck but to mean it just seems like a symptom of blame culture. Sometimes shit happens.

And no I don't work for the company