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Flight Overweight Situation - Help!!
lovetodive
Posts: 10 Forumite
We have recently returned from a Thomson package holiday to the Maldives. Our luggage was offloaded from the transfer flight due to an overweight situation and we had to board the international flight and return to the UK minus 2 bags. We will have been without them 11 days by time our bags are eventually returned to us via DHL. Thomson After Travel Customer Support have refused point blank to compensate us for the delay with the bags, phone calls and texts to UK and Maldives we have made in trying to get our bags returned and for essential items that were in these bags that we have had to buy in the meantime (things like toiletries etc...) or to investigate fully why this situation occured in the first place.
Here below are the full facts as we feel that Thomson should have an obligation to ensure that a large enough aircraft for the transfer was supplied to enable all passengers and their baggage were brought back and this failure to realise the full implications of a much smaller aircraft being used caused this situation. This was peak February half term so resort was full and therefore the flights full, the increased platinum customer baggage allowance had only just been brought in, all factors which when added together change what they might have got away with previously when there were less passengers. We feel this needs investigating as it could happen again at the next peak period say Easter if lessons arent learnt and changes put in place to prevent this situation from re-occuring.
We also would be grateful for any advice, are we infact entitled to any compensation for a situation such as this and would we be looking at making a claim using either the Warsaw or Montreal Conventions for "delayed luggage" (well it has been delayed in being returned to us) and who would ultimately be liable ... Thomson or Maldividian (who offloaded the luggage in the first place)?
In the Maldives transfers are either by Seaplane, Speedboat or Internal Domestic flight and then speedboat. In their terms and conditions Thomson tell customers about 20kg limit on hold baggage for seaplane customers (extra weight is charged as an excess) and that their luggage is often transfered by speedboat instead. There is no mention at all about luggage restrictions on internal domestic flights and they do not tell you in advance which carrier they are using. The resort we went to in the Maldives has recently been upgraded by Thomson to a Platinum Resort. One of the additional benefits of a Platinum Customer is an increase in luggage allowance to 23kg per passenger of hold baggage and 7kg of hand luggage. None of our hold bags actually weighed 23kg. One was 20kg the other 22kg. For transfers on domestic flights within the Maldives, Maldivian is the carrier. Thomson don't issue you with any tickets or documentation for this transfer. At the domestic terminal in Male, your hold baggage is weighed, your handbaggage is weighed and even you are weighed, so they do know for safety reasons precisely what weight they are carrying per passenger in total. On our outgoing flight a Dash 8 -200 37 seater plane was used. It wasn't totally full to capacity and all passengers and our luggage flew to Hanimaadhoo with no problems. Note - I have now checked Maldivians website where it says that their free baggage allowance for this type of plane is 20kg. We were not asked to pay for the bag that was 2kg over this limit (but obviously would have if requested to) and our Thomson luggage allowance for the holiday is supposed to be 23kg per person anyway.
The precise times of return transfers are sorted out the day before your return and your resort advised so as to co-ordinate speedboat transfers. Remember the airlines have all the weights and details of every passenger from the incoming flight already in their system, so you and your handbaggage are not reweighed at the departure airport and from this they should know exactly what size aircraft to provide. Note - this flight was not listed as a standard scheduled flight in Maldivians winter Timetable for this time slot, so one assumes this was a special charter arranged by Thomsons. The plane supplied to bring us back was a small Dornier 228 16 seater. There were 14 Thomson passengers and 1 crew. There were no overhead lockers so handbaggage was having to be piled up on the floor and on the empty seat next to the crew member. On return transfers you do not get to check in your luggage this is all done for you by the resort staff, you just take your handluggage and go through to departure gate when called from coffee lounge. Never at anytime in Hanimaadhoo were any of the passengers on this flight alerted to the fact that there were problems with the baggage weight. No-one was requested to pay any excess baggage charges either. When we arrived in Male we found out then that 3 items of baggage had been offloaded off that flight due to an Overweight Situation. 2 of the bags were unfortnately ours, the other belonged to another couple. their bag was 20kg, the same as one of ours. Note - on Maldivain website it states that the free baggage allowance on this smaller aircraft is only 15kg per passenger. So with a Thomson allowance of up to 23kg and only a 16 seater plane for 14 passengers and one crew and probably all the luggage exceeding well over 15kg per passenger it must surely be obvious even to an idiot that this plane was simply too small to carry the capacity it was expected to of passengers and luggage - remember they would have had the total weights information available to them a week before anyway and it is our opinion that they should have used the larger Dash 8 aircraft to transfer us instead as they had on the way out. Note - it is dearer to charter the Dash 8, so maybe someone was trying to economise and save money at the expense of passengers luggage). We were given letters from Maldivian apologising for overweight situation and saying they would ensure our luggage was delivered to our doorstep at their earliest.
On our return we got passed about from pillar to post at Thomson trying to establish exactly where our luggage was and when it was likely to be returned to us. No-one wanted to accept ownership of the problem or to deal with it, one girl even gave us the number of the lost teddy bear dept at Gatwick to ring just to get rid of us. After spending many hours we blew a fuse at Thomson Customer service and were passed to a Customer Operations Dept. Therein followed days of misinformation and stories that were incredulous, firstly we were told that our luggage at Hanimaadhoo had been mislaid which is why it hadn't made the flight - erm excuse me this building is the size of a cowshed, you'd be tripping over it and we had been told by Maldivian at Male that it was overweight issue which all the facts back up. Then we were told that actually our bags had been sent back to the UK, but DHL hadnt been able to deliver them due to a postcode problem, so they had been sent back to Male again. Oh really? It physically takes DHL 4-6 days to get bags just back to UK, so this clearly hadnt happened as not possible within the timescale. I also had DHL check my postcode on their system and they assured me that bags would have been deliverable with either existing postcode or its changed one from 5 years ago as both were in their system. Which having worked at Royal Mail Streamline Marketing I suspected would be the case. They offered to investigate this for me if I obtained the waybill number, of course I never got this information out of Thomson as clearly the bags did not really return to the UK in the first place. What we suspect happened is they were sent down to Male, no attempts were then made to get them put onto any passenger flights to the UK (despite BA flight leaving same evening they were offloaded and a Thomson flight on the Monday) instead they sat there waiting for Maldividian to finally get round to despatching them back via DHL a full 5 days after offloading them. Note Maldivian Operations or their MD did not respond to any emails sent asking for updates on this situation. So here we are still waiting for bags to be returned, currently tracking them via DHL and ohhh surprise, surprise that other couple's bag is coming back with ours, I'd have thought at least there's wouldn't have had a postcode problem and would have been deliverable had it reached the UK!! Having spent over £10,000 in the past 18 months with Thomson you'd have thought they'd have been more bothered about losing a customer like ourselves, but clearly not from their attitude, if they can get out of compensating you they will.
Ohhh and lastly a bit of insider information for any Thomson Passengers on here that were stuck in Goa for an extra night on 25/2/11 because there was no plane to bring you back. Don't know what you were told but truth is your flight was cancelled because Thomson used your designated aircraft to bring us passengers back from the Maldives instead because it was deemed cheaper to leave you out in Goa than to pay for us to stay an extra night in the Maldives.
Here below are the full facts as we feel that Thomson should have an obligation to ensure that a large enough aircraft for the transfer was supplied to enable all passengers and their baggage were brought back and this failure to realise the full implications of a much smaller aircraft being used caused this situation. This was peak February half term so resort was full and therefore the flights full, the increased platinum customer baggage allowance had only just been brought in, all factors which when added together change what they might have got away with previously when there were less passengers. We feel this needs investigating as it could happen again at the next peak period say Easter if lessons arent learnt and changes put in place to prevent this situation from re-occuring.
We also would be grateful for any advice, are we infact entitled to any compensation for a situation such as this and would we be looking at making a claim using either the Warsaw or Montreal Conventions for "delayed luggage" (well it has been delayed in being returned to us) and who would ultimately be liable ... Thomson or Maldividian (who offloaded the luggage in the first place)?
In the Maldives transfers are either by Seaplane, Speedboat or Internal Domestic flight and then speedboat. In their terms and conditions Thomson tell customers about 20kg limit on hold baggage for seaplane customers (extra weight is charged as an excess) and that their luggage is often transfered by speedboat instead. There is no mention at all about luggage restrictions on internal domestic flights and they do not tell you in advance which carrier they are using. The resort we went to in the Maldives has recently been upgraded by Thomson to a Platinum Resort. One of the additional benefits of a Platinum Customer is an increase in luggage allowance to 23kg per passenger of hold baggage and 7kg of hand luggage. None of our hold bags actually weighed 23kg. One was 20kg the other 22kg. For transfers on domestic flights within the Maldives, Maldivian is the carrier. Thomson don't issue you with any tickets or documentation for this transfer. At the domestic terminal in Male, your hold baggage is weighed, your handbaggage is weighed and even you are weighed, so they do know for safety reasons precisely what weight they are carrying per passenger in total. On our outgoing flight a Dash 8 -200 37 seater plane was used. It wasn't totally full to capacity and all passengers and our luggage flew to Hanimaadhoo with no problems. Note - I have now checked Maldivians website where it says that their free baggage allowance for this type of plane is 20kg. We were not asked to pay for the bag that was 2kg over this limit (but obviously would have if requested to) and our Thomson luggage allowance for the holiday is supposed to be 23kg per person anyway.
The precise times of return transfers are sorted out the day before your return and your resort advised so as to co-ordinate speedboat transfers. Remember the airlines have all the weights and details of every passenger from the incoming flight already in their system, so you and your handbaggage are not reweighed at the departure airport and from this they should know exactly what size aircraft to provide. Note - this flight was not listed as a standard scheduled flight in Maldivians winter Timetable for this time slot, so one assumes this was a special charter arranged by Thomsons. The plane supplied to bring us back was a small Dornier 228 16 seater. There were 14 Thomson passengers and 1 crew. There were no overhead lockers so handbaggage was having to be piled up on the floor and on the empty seat next to the crew member. On return transfers you do not get to check in your luggage this is all done for you by the resort staff, you just take your handluggage and go through to departure gate when called from coffee lounge. Never at anytime in Hanimaadhoo were any of the passengers on this flight alerted to the fact that there were problems with the baggage weight. No-one was requested to pay any excess baggage charges either. When we arrived in Male we found out then that 3 items of baggage had been offloaded off that flight due to an Overweight Situation. 2 of the bags were unfortnately ours, the other belonged to another couple. their bag was 20kg, the same as one of ours. Note - on Maldivain website it states that the free baggage allowance on this smaller aircraft is only 15kg per passenger. So with a Thomson allowance of up to 23kg and only a 16 seater plane for 14 passengers and one crew and probably all the luggage exceeding well over 15kg per passenger it must surely be obvious even to an idiot that this plane was simply too small to carry the capacity it was expected to of passengers and luggage - remember they would have had the total weights information available to them a week before anyway and it is our opinion that they should have used the larger Dash 8 aircraft to transfer us instead as they had on the way out. Note - it is dearer to charter the Dash 8, so maybe someone was trying to economise and save money at the expense of passengers luggage). We were given letters from Maldivian apologising for overweight situation and saying they would ensure our luggage was delivered to our doorstep at their earliest.
On our return we got passed about from pillar to post at Thomson trying to establish exactly where our luggage was and when it was likely to be returned to us. No-one wanted to accept ownership of the problem or to deal with it, one girl even gave us the number of the lost teddy bear dept at Gatwick to ring just to get rid of us. After spending many hours we blew a fuse at Thomson Customer service and were passed to a Customer Operations Dept. Therein followed days of misinformation and stories that were incredulous, firstly we were told that our luggage at Hanimaadhoo had been mislaid which is why it hadn't made the flight - erm excuse me this building is the size of a cowshed, you'd be tripping over it and we had been told by Maldivian at Male that it was overweight issue which all the facts back up. Then we were told that actually our bags had been sent back to the UK, but DHL hadnt been able to deliver them due to a postcode problem, so they had been sent back to Male again. Oh really? It physically takes DHL 4-6 days to get bags just back to UK, so this clearly hadnt happened as not possible within the timescale. I also had DHL check my postcode on their system and they assured me that bags would have been deliverable with either existing postcode or its changed one from 5 years ago as both were in their system. Which having worked at Royal Mail Streamline Marketing I suspected would be the case. They offered to investigate this for me if I obtained the waybill number, of course I never got this information out of Thomson as clearly the bags did not really return to the UK in the first place. What we suspect happened is they were sent down to Male, no attempts were then made to get them put onto any passenger flights to the UK (despite BA flight leaving same evening they were offloaded and a Thomson flight on the Monday) instead they sat there waiting for Maldividian to finally get round to despatching them back via DHL a full 5 days after offloading them. Note Maldivian Operations or their MD did not respond to any emails sent asking for updates on this situation. So here we are still waiting for bags to be returned, currently tracking them via DHL and ohhh surprise, surprise that other couple's bag is coming back with ours, I'd have thought at least there's wouldn't have had a postcode problem and would have been deliverable had it reached the UK!! Having spent over £10,000 in the past 18 months with Thomson you'd have thought they'd have been more bothered about losing a customer like ourselves, but clearly not from their attitude, if they can get out of compensating you they will.
Ohhh and lastly a bit of insider information for any Thomson Passengers on here that were stuck in Goa for an extra night on 25/2/11 because there was no plane to bring you back. Don't know what you were told but truth is your flight was cancelled because Thomson used your designated aircraft to bring us passengers back from the Maldives instead because it was deemed cheaper to leave you out in Goa than to pay for us to stay an extra night in the Maldives.
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Comments
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Ok, inconvenient for sure but compensation? For what exactly? For having to buy essential items like toiletries to keep you going in the meantime? Sorry, I don't know about you but toiletries feature on my weekly shopping list anyway! Or is it perhaps the trouble you are having managing in the UK in March without the bikinis, sarongs and flip-flops which I presume were normal attire in the Maldives?
Anything essential should be packed in hand luggage which presumably you have? Just be thankful you didn't have the inconvenience of your bags being delayed or missing on your outward journey, in which instance I could understand the upset.
If your bags fail to make it back to you claim on your travel insurance if you can; its what insurance is for!
Sorry if you think I'm being blunt but I speak as I find!0 -
Not everything can be carried in handbaggage, or is allowed, sharp items, liquids, mobile phone chargers, razors, scissors, cosmetics these arent all on my weekly shopping list actually. This situation was entirely avoidable and down to bad practises, it was not our fault and we have had to spend time and money in phonecalls resolving it and actually there is winter attire in the bags from the outward journey including shoes, cardigans, jumpers that we are having to manage without. So it's just acceptable to inconvenience and treat customers in this way?0
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ahh your back now- every thing has been sorted. you got your bags back.
dont let it ruin your holiday memory.
( cant you claim any thing of your insurance)credit card bill. £0.00
overdraft £0.00
Help from the state £0.000 -
lovetodive wrote: »essential items that were in these bags that we have had to buy in the meantime (things like toiletries etc...) .
You were the one that suggested you wanted compensation for having to renew toiletries and I remarked that I bought these weekly.
I always carry my mobile phone charger in my hand luggage, not sure why you don't?
Again, I would ask what you are wanting compensation for? I can understand that you might be peeved in having to run up a phone bill to try and get matters sorted but are you seriously saying that you are struggling to manage without the one set of winter clothes that you wore for the outward journey?
I really do think you are overreacting, sorry! You have to accept that sometimes these things happen and it sounds like the wheels are in motion to get your bags returned to you. Please remember that they were stranded on a dot of an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean so it's a tad harder logistically than retrieving bags from Paris, for example.
Hopefully your exhaustive complaint will give Thomson a nudge into looking into the luggage situation and making sure that their passengers are aware of any inconveniences that may be caused due to inter-island flight scheduling.0 -
If I were Thomsons, Id send you a tenner as recompense for this life shattering tragedy, just so my staff could get on with dealing with real complaints.0
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I'd absolutely dread to be in the position of having a real "real complaint" then if our experience of dealing with Thomson and the days spent trying to get our luggage back with all the false excuses they kept giving us is anything to go by.... it might sound to you lot that we are just making a fuss over nothing but when things go wrong it sure demonstrates which companies have good Customer Service practices or not and at the end of the day one has a choice where to spend ones money and for us it won't be with Thomson in future as we now know what sort of after service to expect !!0
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That must win the prize for the longest ever post...........
Cant even be bothered to read it half way thro0 -
But you have yet to state exactly what you would like compensation for?
Your luggage is not yet lost, merely finding its way back to you from a small island in the Indian Ocean!
I suggest you send a copy of your phone bill to Thomsons and ask them to reimburse you for the calls you have made in connection with this matter and I should think there's a fair chance they would do so.0 -
The OP ought to receive considerable compensation for distress and inconvenience. A judge once awarded me a payment in the small claims court for distress and inconvenience (not travel related) but it's a valid legal principle and it sounds as if the OP definitely has certainly suffered this. In addition, the OP didn't receive the service that had been paid for in that the service was negligently deficient, suggesting some kind of breach of contract.
It's high time that delayed baggage was treated with the same severity and financial consequences as denied boarding. I hope that the EU will impose some kind of statutory compensation for delayed baggage, as there's no excuse for it to happen. A lot of people would prefer to stay behind at their departure point and go on the next flight if they were made aware that their baggage wasn't going to travel with them.0 -
The OP ought to receive considerable compensation for distress and inconvenience. .
Of course its a valid legal principle!
The question is, of course, what price can you possibly put on the distress caused by not having access to a suitcase full of beachwear in March once you are back home in the UK and your holiday is finished?
Perhaps the OP would like to put a figure on this?0
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