cochin321

Well im back from Vietnam and Burma.What a great trip. I will add to any questions as they are asked. My problem is i checked in a round canister with two paintings worth about 2200$. They were checked in at the Rangoon airport via Thai air en route to Bangkok. When i got to Bangkok a went to the transfer desk to catch my next two flight eventually ending at JFK aboard Korean air. When i got to JFK the canister was missing. Since Korean air is the last airline they are in charge of looking for it. They have been helpful. They say that the canister never made it to them in Bangkok.So it looks like Thai airs fault and who i will file a claim against.I didnt take out any extra insurance and yes should od either carried them or had them sent. Hindsight.My question is the airlines usually go by the weight of the item which is only 5 lbs which will not give me much money.Has anyone been successful in dealing with the airline with this situation.Korean air is helping and knows the importance as i even offered the man in charge 1000 to find them. Good news is i have contacted the gallery and they are having the artist make another which i will pay for.Your insight will be appreciated.

rkkwan

My guess is that you didn't "pay off" some officials or ground personnel at Rangoon. No, Korean Airlines will never find them for you, nor will Thai. I guess you can consider this a lesson learned.

Kathie

Ouch! I'm sorry to hear about your experience. My guess is similar to rkkwan. I suspect the paintings never made it aboard the plane in Rangoon.

The chances that you will get anything approaching your cost back from an airline is very small. I believe that on international flights reimbursement is limited to the maximum allowed by law which is a few hundred dollars. Check your travel documents for the exact amount. Also, consider whether you have any other insurance that will cover some part of it. For instance, some credit cards offer extra baggage insurance if you purchased your air tickets with them. Also, some gold visa cards offer one year replacement insurance for an item you buy with the card. However, since the international economic boycott of Burma, it's unlikely you purchased the paintings with a credit card.

Good luck.

rhkkmk

can you look to your household insurance or to your credit card if the purchase was covered by insurance??

aside from this we hope you will give us all a review of your trip...

i had a friend who mailed things at the main post office in bangkok to usa and several things were removed from the parcels on their way...makes you appreciate the usps...thought i would never say that...

Spygirl

Cochin-I'm going to advise you to do, as I do others who have had problems with lost luggage, bereavement fares, and other air travel problems who reside in the States, and who have flown a foreign carrier that flies US routes, and is therefore regulated by the US DOT. And that is this:

Send an email detailing your problem and your complaint about Thai Airways to the Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer Protection Division at [email protected]. Include as much detail as you can. You can call and register your complaint, but obviously, you will need to provide written documentation, and will be asked to provide a copy of your ticket as well. When appropriate, DOT officials will forward a copy of your complaint to the appropriate airline officials for a response.

Even if DOT does not query the carrier as to your complaint, the complaint WILL be recorded and "charged" to the carrier in the DOT's monthly Air Travel Consumer Report, which it makes available to the news media, the public, and the industry.

For more information go to the DOT's website: airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/problems.htm

Having seen the DOT send out many, many letters to carriers on various matters involving discrimination, luggage issues, etc., I can assure you that your complaint will be taken seriously and dealt with expeditiously. It is important that you register, if for no other reason that your complaint will put the public on notice-and the air carriers are quite responsive to such unwelcome and negative P.R. Plus, DOT may be able to provide you with other, helpful information concerning the issues in your case.

Subway_Scoundrel

If I may offer some info that may help you. I lost a bag on a flight from Beijing to Shanghai. I had been shopping for assorted stuff and had an average side bag full of Christmas presents, including a handmade silk rug. When I got to Shanghai, it did not show up. I thought I had been scammed. I filled out the paperwork thinking I would never see it again. I did have the help of a woman in my office in Shanghai who talked to China Air. I cam back to the US and about 5 weeks after I lost it, I got a call from my office friend to say they had found my bags and were sending it to my home airport (RDU). The bag had been sent to another city in China and it had been tracked down and sent back to Shanghai or Beijing. Sure enough, 3 days later, with a red tag marked Urgent, it arrived at my local airport, had everything I had bought and was just in time for Christmas. So, I would definitely write the airlines, maybe get some local language support if you can and there is hope. I had to take back everything I said about being scammed in Beijing.