Lost Luggage -- Where to go from here?

katgold

On the 24th of August, my husband, my 3 children and I travelled from Glasgow to Des Moines, Iowa via London and Chicago.

At Chicago, we had all of our luggage, bar our pushchair when we cleared customs.

However, at DSM, one of the bags was missing, as well as our stroller. This bag contained all of the clothes for myself and my 3 children, as well as the formal outfits for the wedding we were going to the US to attend and a large amount of baby and swimming gear.

THe stroller was returned to us, but the bag was not. We had to spend over $900 just replacing the bare minimum of clothes, baby gear and wedding outfits. Most of these clothes were not suitable for our return from hot Iowa to cold Scotland.

We were initially told there was a 4-6 week waiting period before we would be compensated. Then 6-8, then 8-10. We waited. All the while we racked up charges on the credit card we had to pay for replacement items on, as well as spending over £50 in telephone charges.

Finally, just before Christmas, we were issued with a letter saying we were being paid the "Maximum Entitlement" under the Montreal Convention, just over 1000SDR "per passenger".

We did not hear anything until last week, when I had to chase it up again, as no money has come through our accounts. Only to find out that we had been paid on the 5th of Jan and only the payment for 1 passenger, when there was 5 people's things in that bag.

However, the money has not turned up in our accounts. Its been 11 days. Even the rather pathetic settlement is desperately needed as this situation has crippled us financially.

THe payment was from the Heathrow office to a Santander account. They have our correct details. I have phoned the Heathrow Office a number of times, but have gotten no where with the department. They insist we have been paid, but the bank has no record and will not discuss it with us.

I just don't know what to do, where to go next. We have travel insurance and are waiting for their decision as well, but couldn't do anything until American made their decision.

Thanks in advance for your help.

silvercar

You will get payment based on one case per passenger, not 5 passengers sharing one case.

However your insurer should pay out on the basis of the value of the items that went missing, less any payment already received. So the exact amount you receive from the airline doesn't matter, provided you are insured for more.

I'm surprised you haven't been in more frequent contact with the insurer.

Don't forget to include the value of the suitcase itself.

katgold

Thanks, silvercar. The payment issue makes sense.


Do you (or anyone) know what to do about the missing payment. Our insurer (American Express) is going to pay on the basis of the letter that has been sent saying how much AA is going to pay, but the money is not in our account, they are insisting they have paid and are unwilling to do anything about it?

So, while technically the airline is supposed to be paying £1k, they haven't paid us a penny...

silvercar

If this is a genuine missing payment, ie the airline has paid and the payment is lost in the banking system, as opposed to the payment not actually having been sent, then the searching trail has to start from the issuers bank. Starting searching from your bank end would be worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.

Cheque your insurance policy, £1000 for a suitcase contents is quite high on the scale of what insurers cover on a standard policy - there may not be much more the insurer wil pay!

katgold

Thanks. AA isn't being very helpful. They say the payment has been sent, but haven't made any moves to trace it.

Thanks again.

silvercar

katgold wrote: »

Thanks. AA isn't being very helpful. They say the payment has been sent, but haven't made any moves to trace it.

Thanks again.

Not surprised, it's a pain to have to trace payments.

You may need the receiving bank to nag them that it has not been received.

The simplest mistake to make (by a sending bank) is to forget to put a foreign country code on the IBAN. All bank accounts worldwide have an IBAN to send and receive internationally. All UK bank accounts start GB, but it is the easiest mistake for the sender to routinely put their own country code in error, as it wiuld be the default on their system.

katgold

oh if only that were the problem. Its actually Heathrow dealing with it sending a BACS payment. Thanks though.