Lost bags and ignored complaint (another airline post)
Feb 6th, 2006, 04:25 AM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Lost bags and ignored complaint (another airline post)
My husband flew back to the US in early to get his VISA...quick trip- fly to Atl on Wed and leave on Friday. His mom and fiance decided to have their small wedding at home while he was there.
The airline lost his bag and he had no choice but to go out and purchase clothing for his mother's wedding. The wedding was the morning after he arrived so there was no time to get a suit...he had to settle on ill fitted jacket with pants. The airline really jerked him around...they were supposed to bring the bag Wednesday night and they never showed...DH waited up until 1 am. They even called on Thursday to tell him it was at the Bham airport and when he went to get it no one had a clue where it was. He finally picked it up Friday morning at the Birmingham airport as he was driving to Atl to catch a plane back...the bag was never even opened. Should also mention it was full of Christmas gifts that we ended up having to ship from Brussels ($$$$).
We sent an online complaint to the airline a month ago and NOTHING. I think at the very least they should reimburse him for the clothing he bought. Should I leave it alone or send another complaint? Are we wrong to expect some action here??
Won't mention the airline, bc I know that's not what this forum is for. But we certainly will not be flying with them again!
The airline lost his bag and he had no choice but to go out and purchase clothing for his mother's wedding. The wedding was the morning after he arrived so there was no time to get a suit...he had to settle on ill fitted jacket with pants. The airline really jerked him around...they were supposed to bring the bag Wednesday night and they never showed...DH waited up until 1 am. They even called on Thursday to tell him it was at the Bham airport and when he went to get it no one had a clue where it was. He finally picked it up Friday morning at the Birmingham airport as he was driving to Atl to catch a plane back...the bag was never even opened. Should also mention it was full of Christmas gifts that we ended up having to ship from Brussels ($$$$).
We sent an online complaint to the airline a month ago and NOTHING. I think at the very least they should reimburse him for the clothing he bought. Should I leave it alone or send another complaint? Are we wrong to expect some action here??
Won't mention the airline, bc I know that's not what this forum is for. But we certainly will not be flying with them again!
Feb 6th, 2006, 04:43 AM
#2
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,260
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I honestly don not understand why you aren't going to mention the airline, or did you mean Delta???? You've gone on and on with the details of the incident so what's wrong with telling us which airline we are, by implication, supposed to avoid????
Feb 6th, 2006, 04:52 AM
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I really don't have a problem with naming the airline, I just didn't want it to appear that I was using this forum to rant about a vendor.
I went "on and on" so the reader could see how poorly my husband was treated and what a hassle it was- they went above and beyond losing the luggage he was inconvenienced THREE times (waiting up once for a no show and driving to the bham airport not once, but twice).
Thanks!
I went "on and on" so the reader could see how poorly my husband was treated and what a hassle it was- they went above and beyond losing the luggage he was inconvenienced THREE times (waiting up once for a no show and driving to the bham airport not once, but twice).
Thanks!
Feb 6th, 2006, 09:00 AM
#5
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 74,699
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi LG,
I take it that you live outside the US and are trying to get KLM to make up for something it did in the US.
You have my sympathy, but I don't expect that you will get much satisfaction.
Try writing the Ombudsman at Conde'-Nast Traveler magazine.
I take it that you live outside the US and are trying to get KLM to make up for something it did in the US.
You have my sympathy, but I don't expect that you will get much satisfaction.
Try writing the Ombudsman at Conde'-Nast Traveler magazine.
Feb 6th, 2006, 09:09 AM
#6
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,748
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I for one certainly think the airline owes you something for the inconvenience, expense, and the fact that, as I understand it, your DH was given a lot of bad information.
Reimbursement in some form would seem to be your due. I would want what I spent. That would be fair.
Certainly any airline should try to get your bags to you. They obviously screwed up.
Now what would I do? One letter wouldn't be enough for me. I would call several offices, and I usually get the best response when I write to the company's headquarters and address my letter to the CEO. Don't give up is my advice.
If they can defeat you by ignoring one online complaint, I think they will. Letters, phone calls, and more letters and phone calls are in order, IMO.
Reimbursement in some form would seem to be your due. I would want what I spent. That would be fair.
Certainly any airline should try to get your bags to you. They obviously screwed up.
Now what would I do? One letter wouldn't be enough for me. I would call several offices, and I usually get the best response when I write to the company's headquarters and address my letter to the CEO. Don't give up is my advice.
If they can defeat you by ignoring one online complaint, I think they will. Letters, phone calls, and more letters and phone calls are in order, IMO.
Feb 6th, 2006, 10:03 AM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 10,391
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Well, the good news is that I've been proven on previous occasions to be unduly pessimistic about these things. You might well get more compensation that I would expect.
Okay, now for my pessimism, i.e. the 'bad' news. Your husband didn't, strictly speaking, lose the value of the clothes as a durable good - i.e., the airline presumably didn't damage the bag or lose it permanently. You lost the service value of the bag contents for the time they were missing, in this case, such value as they could have been expected to provide for the duration of the wedding day. This amounts to a claim for partial reimbursement, but maybe not the full value of the clothing (which technically speaking still has some residual value.) Further bad news is that airlines are limited as to how much they are liable for in the way of baggage contents - if your husband's outfit was a designer original costing many thousands of dollars, the airline might balk at paying even a modest percentage of this amount. On the other hand, the standard rental for a wedding tux at destination, might be deemed within the usual amount compensated.
The Christmas gifts are an interesting problem. My guess is, unless your husband labelled the bag as being cargo destined for your family's home, and contracted for this delivery separately as part of the airline's cargo service, the airline might claim that they fulfilled their end of the contract, which was to deliver the goods to the destination airport in conjunction with the passenger's arrival, and, failing that, to get the goods to the passenger as soon as possible. Your husband's family weren't parties to the contract - whether they actually received one or more items in the bag shipped by the airline might be considered to lie beyond the terms of the contract. That said, your husband certainly endured some inconvenience as a result of incorrect information given to him about the bag whereabouts. The hard part is putting a dollar value on this inconvenience. I'd ask, at the least, for a nominal sum to cover his expenses for the fruitless trip to the airport.
A suggestion: avoid stressing to the airline that you have no plans to fly with them again. If they've already lost you as a customer, they might also lose their incentive to resolve the matter speedily.
Okay, now for my pessimism, i.e. the 'bad' news. Your husband didn't, strictly speaking, lose the value of the clothes as a durable good - i.e., the airline presumably didn't damage the bag or lose it permanently. You lost the service value of the bag contents for the time they were missing, in this case, such value as they could have been expected to provide for the duration of the wedding day. This amounts to a claim for partial reimbursement, but maybe not the full value of the clothing (which technically speaking still has some residual value.) Further bad news is that airlines are limited as to how much they are liable for in the way of baggage contents - if your husband's outfit was a designer original costing many thousands of dollars, the airline might balk at paying even a modest percentage of this amount. On the other hand, the standard rental for a wedding tux at destination, might be deemed within the usual amount compensated.
The Christmas gifts are an interesting problem. My guess is, unless your husband labelled the bag as being cargo destined for your family's home, and contracted for this delivery separately as part of the airline's cargo service, the airline might claim that they fulfilled their end of the contract, which was to deliver the goods to the destination airport in conjunction with the passenger's arrival, and, failing that, to get the goods to the passenger as soon as possible. Your husband's family weren't parties to the contract - whether they actually received one or more items in the bag shipped by the airline might be considered to lie beyond the terms of the contract. That said, your husband certainly endured some inconvenience as a result of incorrect information given to him about the bag whereabouts. The hard part is putting a dollar value on this inconvenience. I'd ask, at the least, for a nominal sum to cover his expenses for the fruitless trip to the airport.
A suggestion: avoid stressing to the airline that you have no plans to fly with them again. If they've already lost you as a customer, they might also lose their incentive to resolve the matter speedily.
