Reimbursement of Expenses for Delayed Baggage on Qantas Flight

[Paul_PER]

Recently on a Qantas flight my baggage was delayed for a day and a half. As I had no idea if or when the luggage would turn up I spent about $50 on emergency clothing and toiletries.

I have lodged a faxed request for re-imbursement with Qantas Customer Care but haven't heard back.

Can anyone post what their experiences have been?

The $$$ are immaterial - it's more the principle I'm interested in.

(I rang their baggage hotline twice and both times they just said it was being "traced". When the bag was eventually found Qantas never contacted me - it just showed up in my hotel room the next night).

 

[samh004]

A number of years ago I visited Fraser Island with my mum, I forget which airport that is, but QF managed to route my mums bag from BNE to ADL. It took them a day or two to get the bag back to us and in the meantime she was told to collect receipts for replacement clothes.

They never gave her the money back and she gave up chasing them after a while. Haven't lost a bag again luckily, touch wood!

Good luck in getting your money back!

 

[serfty]

At what airport did the baggage fail to make a timely appearance? Domestic or International travel?

Did you not ask nicely for an emergency pack/$$ before leaving the airport? Qantas should have been able to provide you with some level of assistance; they have the means to do so at the airport (they avoid doing so if at all possible). One has to know how to pleasantly demand such assistance.

AFAIK, you have a time limit 21 days to put in a claim.

I do not believe a FAX is sufficient (although it may be).

Personally, I would use registered mail; although that's a bit of a bite out of the $50 you are after.

However, you are going to have to be persistent.

• http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/baggage-delays-etc-only-travel-13021.html

Now, in regard to actually making such claims successfully, that's another matter. Maybe a good idea for an AFF KB (Knowledge Base )

 

[Paul_PER]

Perth to Sydney on the red-eye, changed aircraft to Brisbane.

Due to the east coast dust storms my flight leaving Perth was 90 minutes late so rather than having 2 hours to change planes we had only 35 minutes.

At Brisbane Domestic terminal the Qantas Baggage Desk suggested I wait 30 minutes to see if the bag made the next flight but it never came out. They took my details, etc but didn't offer an emergency pack or $$$ (and I was too tired to think to ask!).

All the Qantas staff I dealt with were very nice and polite - they just couldn't tell me where my bag was and if/when it would turn up.

If anything the experience has taught me one thing - to hand carry my laptop and phone charger cables!

 

[Dave Noble]

If you phone baggage services number or perhaps customer care and they will almost certainly have no issue reimbursing $50 . I take it this was not on arriving back home; if returning home I would not expect such reimbursement

Dave

 

[NM]

Generally, you need to have pre-approval to spend the money for they will commit to reimbursing costs. This is because they will first try to provide you with things like an emergency pack of toiletries etc and will set guidelines for what expenses can be claimed and how to go about making such a claim. This is normally done at the time of lodging the paperwork for the delayed/missing bags.

 

[Brisbane Flyer]

I've had two experiences recently....

a) 2008 was one of of the first arrivals into T5 at LHR, luggage lost for six (6) weeks, but get this, came in on a DONE4, but had a side ticket to Munich on BA on separate PNR, so BA blamed QF, QF blamed BA, me, I went to Munich, then Cairo then India (holiday for a month). Spent $200 in Cairo on clothes, didnt miss my bags at all in India. Compensation, bags showed up on my doorstep one day...no cash from QF or BA...

b) early in 2009, bags lost in SIN, arrived on QF from BNE on a cheap fare, QF gave me S$100 in compensation in cash at SIN airport, bags arrived that night on SQ flight, sent to my hotel...

But I still always check in bags, find it too funny watching people carrying their life on board with them...

 

[russianrob]

I arrived into Brisbane International on Qantas from LAX minus my checked in bag last year. The airport baggage staff tried to tell me I wasn't eligible for compensation/emergency money as I was "home". As my Australian home is in WA, I stood my ground and demanded the cash before I left.
They ended up coughing up more over the following days, as the bag didn't turn up for 5 just as I was about to fly out to NZ.

BA have also left my bag behind while flying London to Cairo. Arrival at 0100 Friday morning didn't help as airport staff claimed language difficulties and just shut up shop, and during the day Friday all offices closed for "Weekend" . Forced to travel back out to the airport to claim funds Monday, but did it for the principle

Neither time did the staff offer funds. On both occasions I had to insist, but was successful.

 

[bobsi18]

I lost my bag last year on a Qantas flight and got $300 compensation...

I had a flight MEL to KIX via Sydney booked through Jetstar. The MEL to SYD flight was on Qantas, and it was delayed, so much so that I missed the connecting flight to Japan. None of our bags turned up at Sydney airport (none of the bags from the entire flight turned up). They said the bag would turn up in the next two hours and checked those continuing to Japan into an airport hotel. Bag never turned up (hotel and dinner/breakfast were paid for by Qantas).

Checked in at Sydney without my bags - staff suggested I go to the "luggage room" to see if I could find my bag. Sure enough, I found my bag, but because I had already checked in, they told me they would route it to Japan for me. Should have insisted on hand carrying it onto the plane...

Bag didn't show in Japan. Took another 7 days until it finally reached me (I was on holiday, so I was moving around a fair amount, but they didn't know where it was until day 6). My mum was on the ground in Melbourne ringing Qantas every day demanding to know where the bag was... Eventually they got sick of her (go mum!) and said they would give me $100 compensation, it was eventually upped to $300. Kicker was that I had to collect it from a Qantas office, which, in Japan, is only in Tokyo - I had already traveled through Tokyo and wasn't going back there on my trip.

When I returned to Australia I went to the Qantas office to collect the money - they told me that I needed the copies of the original boarding passes, and the luggage tags etc, which I couldn't find. As soon as they heard my last name though they silently gave me the cash, once again go mum!

 

[plrarm]

Interesting stories re lost luggage. I travel a fair bit mostly with Qantas and BA and have (fortunately) had little problem.

Occasionally bags will be delayed but I have found staff helpful and forthcoming with "emergency packs" - but never cash.

To avoid probems with lost luggage I pick up bags and then re-send them, so, for example, if I am flying to London and then on to Paris, I book bags MEL to LHR and then collect them and book them LHR to CDG.

Extra stuffing around but I have bags when I arrive !

 

[roego]

I have had trouble with my baggage being broken into and stuff stolen, whilst in the care of Malaysian Airlins.
They said valuables of any sort not covered.
Yet when you fly , I think all of the major airlins, are covered by the Warsaw Convention now updated to the Montreal Covention.
This lays down airline responsibility.see who has signed it.
I wrote to MAS and said but u were a member and you have responsibilty. As usual they do not reply. Sent it registered.
They owe me 118RM for 4 years have written to quite a few, again including registered and get ignored.
One of my friends carries the Montreal Convention in his hnd baggage, and if a problem arises, produces it with the most common things higlighted and asks for a Supervisor

 

[jbrf]

My wife travelled on Jetstar Jan 08 from Singapore to Adelaide stopping for a couple of days in Darwin for a 4oth birthday dinner on that night.

After waiting 20 minutes a number of passengers were told the bags were off-loaded in Singapore...I guess to take on freight which pays better.

My wife was given a "chit" to claim $40.00. My wife arrived in light holiday gear expecting to change for the dinner that night. She had to buy clothes, make up,etc,etc.

We submitted the claim along with a letter requesting an addittional $100 as this was part of the expenditure.

No reply...I began to ring...there is no Admin Ph no,only the normal contact number. The call centre will not put you through to "customer relations"...I was told not their problem as they contracted out the baggage handling to Hallmark and here is an 1800 no to ring.

Guess where the call centre was!

I made several calls to no avail.

4 months later we received a letter from "Customer relations" in Melbourne, no cheque but ph nos for several Hallmark depots aroeund the world. As you could understand this didn't help things...another letter back to Melbourne. We received a reply with a new claim form so they could pay the $$$ into our account. Finally in August money was deposited.

Jetstar never again....

 

[whippet]

its worth remembering that some travel insurance allows reasonably generous payments for emergency shopping. I know that A/X is one. Think it was $300 US when singapore airlines lost my bags for 2 days

 

[haydensydney]

Last year my partner and I travelled AC HAV-YYZ-CDG... needless to say, the bags didn't show at CDG. Bloody Cuba.

Anyway AC were fantastic - they gave us each 200 Euro (each) so that equated to about $800. Then, the travel insurance we have with our Amex kicked in if our bags didn't show after 6 hours of arrival, so we got an additional $700 ea.

Bags showed up the next day - what a great experience I thought. Mind you, Paris aint a cheap place to buy replacement clothing and essentials. Still - wasn't too bad a deal!

 

[rooboy68]

My three recent experiences,

1. March 2009 BA flight LHR-AMS. One bag delayed 12 hours. No compo.

2. In July 2009, QF flight LHR-SIN. One bag (out of two) didn't make it on. S$100 cash provided at Changi. Ground staff were very pro-active and I didn't have to ask. Bag arrived 12 hours later.

3. Sept 2009, BA flight LHR-SEA. One bag missed the plane. This time I asked about compensation and was given a US$200 debit visa. Very happy with this considering my bag arrived at the hotel 5 hours later!

Almost all my 'lost bag' stories involve LHR.

 

[Dave Noble]

My experiences of bags getting delayed ( other than arriving home ). If > 6 hours, buy things needed and claim off of travel insurance. My travel insurance ( like many ) pays out for expenses on delayed luggage. the amount paid on mine is
0-6 hours $0
>6-12 hours $125
>12-18 hours $250
>18-24 hours $375
>24 hours $500

When delayed , it has normally been >24 hours and the $500 to go spending has been good. Just keep a copy of the PIR and get a letter from airline confirming the lenght of the delay

Dave

 

[serfty]

My three recent experiences,

1. March 2009 BA flight LHR-AMS. One bag delayed 12 hours. No compo.
...

AMS?

BA should have been able to ante-up for expenses necessitated by the non-arrival of your bag -even in AMS?

You should always pleasantly tell them to provide you with same - before leaving the airport.

 

[serfty]

My experiences of bags getting delayed ( other than arriving home ). If > 6 hours, buy things needed and claim off of travel insurance. My travel insurance ( like many ) pays out for expenses on delayed luggage. ...Dave

Of, course, the insurance company will then get the amount you successfully claimed reimbursed by the airline; often pocketing any applicable excess they may charge you.

 

[ronone69]

Earlier this year, Qantas forgot to put my bag on the plane on a flight from MEL->SYD->MNL. I arrived in Manila to find the bag was missing. I was flying business.

First, Qantas organised my bag to go on the next flight to Manila which was with Philippine airlines. It still did not arrive until the next day. Qantas gave me (I was travelling business) A$150 to buy some clothes, etc. Most of the other stuff was provided by the hotel. Luckily it was a Saturday and the bag arrived Sunday night so I did not need any work clothes during the period.

My understanding is they will give economy passengers A$50, business passengers $150 and First passengers $300. BA seem to do the same. Have not had the problem with anyone else !!!

 

[Dave Noble]

Of, course, the insurance company will then get the amount you successfully claimed reimbursed by the airline; often pocketing any applicable excess they may charge you.

my policy has no excess on the delayed baggage
If they are able to claim off of the airline, that's fine, but why have insurance and not use it. Whether they would be able to claim the full $500 back from airline I have no idea. Claiming off of insurance for this is quick n painless ime so I never worry about trying to squeeze some money out of the airline

Dave