Lost Luggage - its a month on - what do I do?

[CalendulaAndRoses]

Hi all - hoping for some help as the lost luggage team at the airport are useless. Suitcase never arrived off a flight from Barcelona to Dublin back in February. Was told they'd find it and ring me next day to arrange delivery to me. No one contacted me. I rang the number they'd given me a couple of times over the following week but couldn't get through. Then emailed them. About 2 weeks later got email saying they couldn't find it and asking what was in it. I actually can't rightly remember as we had a few suitcases and I just randomly chucked stuff into each of them. There would have been ski gear, toiletries, a handknit hat I made for my 13 year old :-( etc etc etc (the hat is the only specific thing I REALLY wish we hadn't lost, but that's a sentimental item rather than of massive monetary value). Now I've still not heard back from airport desk what to do next but got in touch with my travel insurance and they've sent out a form looking for itemised list and prices and receipts etc. Jeez I've none of that. How do I proceed? Obviously I want compensation both for what I've lost and increasingly for the inconvenience and annoyance of having to chase it down and the fairly blatant disregard of the authorities, though I know I can't actually request that! Has anyone been through this and what did you do?

The insurance have done the next step - you have to itemise what was in the suitcase and send receipts. They'll then make you an offer based on expected wear and tear and things; or replace them; depending on your insurance level.

You can make a separate complaint about the slow process to the airport baggage handlers but I don't think they pay compensation often; they just point you towards your travel insurance. Still worth a go though.

It is crap, but you'll get nothing if you don't follow the process.

Could you unpack everything you did bring home and try and identify what's missing? Then receipt hunt once you've got a list.

thanks - I'll prob just deal with the insurance then. What if I honestly can't find any receipts though? No idea what to do then (lucky me I've never lost a bag before in all my years of travel!)

I'd try really hard to get proof of purchase...credit card statements or anything. I don't think you'll be fully reimbursed without those. It was a few years since I had to claim and thankfully I'd bought most things online using my debit card so used bank statements and online order confirmations, but my friend didn't really hunt out any receipts. I got a full refund, she got £200.

I'm not sure how far you'd get if you couldn't prove that you'd owned it somehow. You could maybe use photos of you wearing things, and links to the cheapest place to buy it now, but they may reject that on the basis that it doesn't prove that you owned it.

It's a complete hassle, I'm sorry that you're going through it!

I am astounded that the insurance companies ask for clothing receipts?! Do people really keep clothing receipts once they've tried things on and decided to keep them?

I have no idea how I would evidence ownership of my clothes. I wouldn't know where to begin with linking card payments to individual items of clothes. I might be able to find online order confirmations that would list things, but that's about it.

What have others done who have successfully claimed for lost luggage?

If you don't have receipts they should accept other proof of ownership, which could be holiday pics showing you wearing items, packaging etc.