Iberia lost my luggage for 5 days when flying J - what compensation?

[adelee]

Hi all

Recently I flew JFK-MAD-BCN with Iberia on a J award before embarking on a cruise in Barcelona. One large rucksack was lost for 5 days before eventually being delivered to my cruise ship in Sicily. Given the cold weather, I had to go out and buy a stack of clothes. I received no compensation or communication from Iberia during that time (the cruise ship liaised with Iberia to recover the luggage).

I've since returned home and have contacted my travel insurance company who have stated I must first approach IB for compensation before they can look at my claim. I am trying to file a lost baggage claim with Iberia, but it's doing my head in. The emails I sent have all prompted an automated message stating that they only answer messages if the Iberia frequent flyer number is in the subject line, and the facebook rep says the only way I can seek compensation is to Mail or Fax all my documentation to a Madrid address / fax number.

Questions:
1. Does anyone have a direct contact I might be able to phone or email, or any suggestions about how I proceed? The phone numbers that appear on google are all disconnected, and there is no Australian Office listed on the iberia website. Given the run around I've had, I'm loath to bundle up all this precious documentation and mail it to Madrid.

2. Is anyone able to advise what compensation I'm entitled to, and if there are a certain number of days I need to claim within?

3. Are there any special provisions for J class / One world sapphire? And would the fact that the trip was booked as part of a One World classic J award be likely to have any adverse impact on compensation?

Thanks for your help.

 

[samh004]

While I never went through with my claim, I had a somewhat similar experience with BA flying FLR-LCY. They left our bags behind and didn't end up delivering them to us for a few days, and by then we were at JTR. My route to someone who took me seriously and compensation was finding the name of someone senior and emailing them. I discussed how I was a frequent flyer with a partner (at the time P1), how I'd chosen them over a budget airline because they were a partner and how disappointed I was. That email was passed on to someone who said if I sent through my receipts they'd cover what was spent (to some presumable limit), but by then I'd had enough.

My advice would be to seek our a loyalty head and fire them a nice email about why you chose them over the competition because of OneWorld etc. Helps that you flew in a premium cabin. More often than not emails that land at the top get sent to the right spot quicker than those sent through the bottom, IME at least.

 

[Danger]

Iberia's customer service, at least outside of the aircraft, is in my opinion as low as it gets.

First, I think I can help with contacts.

IB does have an Australian office (or at least it did in 2013 when I was going through the RGN alleged mistake fare debacle).

Level M 403 George Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: 1300 304 493
Fax: +61 2 8229 4984
Email: [email protected]
​

The other email address I have is [email protected]. If you get no response from any of those post her and I'll you provide you with the names of the agents I spoke with. It shouldn't be hard to work out their email addresses, assuming they're still there.

Now my story, just briefly, because I share your pain. In God knows how many flights I've taken over the years IB is the only airline to ever have lost my bags. Sure, QF occasionally mis-connected my bags in Australia but they always arrived three or four hours later. Nine years ago I flew DUB-xMAD-ATH, Aer Lingus then IB. It took IB five days to get my bags to me in ATH and that was after I'd spent four days on a Greek Island. When the bags arrived there were five electronic/printed bag tags on them MAD-ATH including two for the same day.

And just this week I got offloaded from an IB flight. Short story: inbound delayed (on IB) reduced my connection to minutes. I ran and ran to the connecting gate. Gate agent said 'okay, you can board but your bags will arrive later and there is no catering for you (wow)' and asked me to sign in agreement. Did so. I asked for her name. She wrote it down. I couldn't read it. I asked her to pronounce it. She started to but then decided against it. I took out my phone and took a photo of her for ID given I couldn't read her name. She tells me no photos, hurry up and board. I board. I'm held at the door by the CSM. Five minutes later I'm offloaded and airport police called because I was "violent" by taking a photo. Seven hour delay until the next flight. I took my revenge on their complimentary lounge alcohol (and not by drinking it).

Keep on IB. They're awful.

 

[k_sheep]

Hmm I'd just be saying all that to your travel insurance company and then they can deal with it.

 

[adelee]

Hi all. Sorry it's taken such a long time to report back on this. It's been slow going, but I've finally made some progress.

Following my original post, I tried the Iberia Australian contacts above, as well as contacting an individual Danger had dealt with at Iberia (thanks Danger) - unfortunately all of the phone numbers and emails turned out to be disconnected / bounce backs - typical of Iberia.

I then moved on to a couple of loyalty heads I found on Linkedin. No bounces here (hooray!), but did receive a snide email back from one of them telling me I was wrong to contact them. I was also, however, told to submit my complaint to a dedicated Iberia web form for complaints, which doesn't seem to be published anywhere but is pretty handy. It can be found here: Centros de atencion al cliente - Iberia

3 weeks after I submitted my complaint via the webform, I received an email advising that they would be sending a cheque for 661 euros to me. I'm yet to receive it, but hopefully it's on the way...

Thanks to all who provided assistance. I'm going to publish the Iberia webform address on selected forums, so that it hopefully helps others who are in the same boat.

 

[BruceBris]

Hi All,
I don't actually have a complaint (yet) but have a problem with seating on a NY - Mad - PAR trip in January. We're travelling to NY on Qantas in business but decided to do a side trip to Paris (to ski in France) using points for business. Given AA and BA charge an arm and two legs to fly through London, we decided to go with Iberia at around a fifth of the "taxes". All looks good so far but Iberia in their wisdom have given my wife and me very good seats but on different sides and forward-back from each other.

I tried to change it on Qantas but a message advised that I can only change seats through Iberia. Like the posters here, I am having some difficulty contacting them. This is the first time I've tried this approach so I'm a bit nervous about Iberia.

I'd appreciate any advice on how to get us seated together. I realise this is not an earth-shattering issue but it would be nice to resolve it.

On a side note, we will have 4 days in NY before flying with Iberia so can probably find an office there but it would still be nice to sort it online.

Please let me know if this is the wrong thread.

 

[SandyS]

Hi All,
I don't actually have a complaint (yet) but have a problem with seating on a NY - Mad - PAR trip in January. We're travelling to NY on Qantas in business but decided to do a side trip to Paris (to ski in France) using points for business. Given AA and BA charge an arm and two legs to fly through London, we decided to go with Iberia at around a fifth of the "taxes". All looks good so far but Iberia in their wisdom have given my wife and me very good seats but on different sides and forward-back from each other.

I tried to change it on Qantas but a message advised that I can only change seats through Iberia. Like the posters here, I am having some difficulty contacting them. This is the first time I've tried this approach so I'm a bit nervous about Iberia.

I'd appreciate any advice on how to get us seated together. I realise this is not an earth-shattering issue but it would be nice to resolve it.

On a side note, we will have 4 days in NY before flying with Iberia so can probably find an office there but it would still be nice to sort it online.

Please let me know if this is the wrong thread.

I phoned their reservations call centre on a phone number from their website (I'm sorry I can't remember which number) gave them my Qantas reservation number and they sorted my seats out no problem. Their English was fine.

 

[BruceBris]

Thanks SandyS, I'll give it a try tomorrow. Good to know they can be contacted.

 

[adelee]

Thanks SandyS, I'll give it a try tomorrow. Good to know they can be contacted.

Good luck getting it sorted. As mentioned in my original post, I was able to get a reply using the contact form (and did eventually receive the cheque), so that's a back up option for you if you have trouble with the call centre.

 

[SandyS]

From memory, I think it was their Spanish number I called (it was about 3 months ago). I had tried contacting them online and got nowhere.

But this number was only for reservations and so she was able to let me choose my seats. Perhaps I was just lucky and got someone helpful.

 

[BruceBris]

Wow, so simple, I still can't believe it happened! Sorry it took me so long to respond but I had a chest infection that affected my voice and I didn't want to insult them with a foreign accent that was barely understandable. Anyway, finally called the help line (open from 8:00am to midnight Spanish time, 18007724642) - press 2 for English and wait for the call to go through, in my case, no indication of progress but finally a very helpful person answered and carefully worked me through the seating changes. He even offered advice for those of us who still like to sit with our partners. So, long story short, an excellent service with an immediate email confirmation. Thanks again for your help.

Thanks to this site and the people willing to offer advice.