British Airways compesation

juliene

Before compesation
I recently traveled with British airways and they lost one of my hand luggage. What happened is my 7month old baby (at the time) and I had two hand luggage but it appeared there was not enough space on the cabin for one of them. So the attendant took it somewhere else. On our way out after we had landed to our destination the attendant assured me that the hand luggage was placed among the checked in baggage, so i should be able to get it among others on the belt. Unfortunately, it wasn't among and they have not traced it anywhere four months later. Please bare in mind this bag contained things i would need in-case of any emergencies on board, such as my baby's medicines, pampers, formula milk, toys, feeding bottles, clothing, cameras, etc. I have been advised to fill a claim form and attach receipts for everything that was in the luggage for compensation.
How does one retain receipts for things that were bought years ago for heavens sake! The only option i can think of right now is the bank statements to show purchases i bought with my debit card. I feel like torture still going on.
Has anyone been in this kind of situation that can advise me? Thank you.

After compesation
A few days after posting the above somewhere on this site, i received a compesation of 190 pounds and i was told they wont compasate for the medicine and the camera. I don't know why yet they were all in the same bag. Although somewhere it was mentioned that the bag was too big for the cabin. I don't think i was made a favours to have this bag on board! i was just using the services i paid for and within the allowances limit and am sure it was checked. Whooooooh, i am so tired of this.

tomjonesrules

You might want to reread - your post makes little sense. What is it that you want?

shaun_from_Africa

I don't know about the medicine, but the reason for there being no compensation for the camera will probably be down to the fact that BA state all valuable items must be taken in hand baggage and not put in checked luggage.

Did your 7 month old have a full ticket of their own?
If not, then they wouldn't have had a carry on baggage allowance which would have meant that you were limited to only 1 main carry on bag and a small one for baby items only.
Because of this, they would have been entitled to take one bag and put it in the hold.

hcb42

wouldn't medicine be free for baby anyway? Other than the odd bottle of cough mixture or whatever which is only a few £££. For £190 I think you might have done reasonably well here.

somethingcorporate

Medicine would be free for your child so no costs associated with this.

Do you have home insurance? perhaps your camera would be covered under this.

visidigi

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I don't know about the medicine, but the reason for there being no compensation for the camera will probably be down to the fact that BA state all valuable items must be taken in hand baggage and not put in checked luggage.

Did your 7 month old have a full ticket of their own?
If not, then they wouldn't have had a carry on baggage allowance which would have meant that you were limited to only 1 main carry on bag and a small one for baby items only.
Because of this, they would have been entitled to take one bag and put it in the hold.

all well and good but the passenger was allowed to board with the hand luggage, BA should have refused the bag at check in if there was an issue with this, they cannot retrospectively refuse compensation based on the bag size - it would have been up to the check in staff (and even those on the bag drop if using self check in) to refuse.

The only issue here is there was no space in the cabin for the bag, this is not the fault of the passenger - if the bag was put below it needed a tag applied - there is plenty of space on board the crew could have put a bag - heck my mum had a chandelier put in the captains closet once

BA can't be selective over compensation here, if anything, by putting the camera in the hold they opened the OP up to the risk, not the otherway round.

Hintza

visidigi wrote: »

.....all well and good but the passenger was allowed to board with the hand luggage, BA should have refused the bag at check in ....

Probably didn't even know the OP was going to take extra hand baggage onboard.

visidigi

Hintza wrote: »

Probably didn't even know the OP was going to take extra hand baggage onboard.

OP should have followed the rules in the first place. £190 seems generous to me.

Oh come on - it is not up to the passenger, its up to the staff - that's why they are there, that's why they are required to ask how many pieces of hand luggage.

Also...the allowance for luggage depends on route and travel class, all of which are identified by the ticket handled at least twice by staff anf indicated at least twice on screen when scanned.

They do this at...

Check in, Bag Drop and have the opportunity to do so at Boarding Gate and Door greet.

BA are trying to worm out of a situation they allowed to happen, which suited them until they failed in the duty of care to the passengers bag.

£190 might seem generous in your opinion but it doesn't cover the OP's costs as otherwise they wouldn't be here now.

agrinnall

I agree with Visidigi that BA are trying to worm out of paying the full compensation that is due to the OP. However, I'm puzzled as to why the OP allowed the cabin crew to take away the bag containing "things i would need in-case of any emergencies on board, such as my baby's medicines" and put it in a place where it was inaccessible during the flight. While I understand that travelling with a baby is difficult surely it would have made sense to take the two pieces of hand luggage and put the things you don't need and are less valuable in the bag that is going to be taken away from you.

Pollycat

juliene wrote: »

Please bare in mind this bag contained things i would need in-case of any emergencies on board, such as my baby's medicines, pampers, formula milk, toys, feeding bottles, clothing, cameras, etc.

It would be helpful if the OP could say what her hand luggage allowance was - one bag or 2.

I wonder what was in the bag she kept in the cabin.
It sounds like most of the important stuff was in the bag placed in the hold.

Was she given a choice of which bag would go in the hold?
Did she tell cabin crew about necessary items in the bag that was taken from her?
Wouldn't one of the bags fit under the seat?

If the bag was put in the hold, shouldn't it have had a bar-code destination tag put on it and the corresponding 'receipt' with the same bar code given to the passenger as proof in case of loss?

I find this very strange from the OP's first post (posted bizarrely on the 'Child Support' board):

juliene wrote: »

Thanks guys. Just to let you know that i was compesated 190 pounds. However this came about after i was sent a survey form to fill. Which means if i had ignored this survey like i do to most of them i wouldn't have gotten any response. They also said they can't pay for the medicines and the video camera- they did not give a reason.

It sounds like the OP didn't formally submit a claim for this lost bag.

Hintza

visidigi wrote: »

£190 might seem generous in your opinion but it doesn't cover the OP's costs as otherwise they wouldn't be here now.

I thought airline lost luggage was covered by a convention and since yo have a maximum weight limit both hold and hand the the airline will be using that formula, especially since the OP can not provide receipts. If the airline oes not cover it then their next port of call will be their insurer.

Dear BA I had 10kg of gold in my hand luggage which you lost please compensate me for my loss...... extreme I know but where do you draw the line.