Need advice on holiday disaster!

peachyprice

SimonDBlaney wrote: »

Yes we're insured but that would only cover a certain amount and I feel we are due compensation for this. I have pictures of the substantial damage. A lot of the destroyed items were one off hand-made items that have no receipt and the wedding dress was bought second-hand and therefore had no receipt either.

TBH, if you knew you were carrying expensive hand-made, one-off items you should have taken out appropriate insurance that would cover them in such an event, not a bog standard travel insurance policy.

Luggage not only gets damage but also goes missing never to be seen again on a regular basis, sadly you were under-insured for either eventuality with the higher than usual value of your contents.

lea2012

I get married in May next year and plan to take my dress and table decorations etc in my hand luggage so it is with me on the plane. It will not be going in the hold luggage.

Most airlines will allow you to take a wedding dress onto the aircraft with you too, either in a dress bag or one of the wedding dress travel boxes that you can buy.

I would suggest if you had to replace items, contacting the airline again and sending them the receipts for the replacement items. I would also send them evidence of your wedding (i.e copy of your wedding cert etc) to prove your point a little more.

I wouldn't expect alot in compensation, but would suggest that a £50pp voucher to go towards another flight would be a decent goodwill gesture.

zagfles

Of course the airline are liable if they lose or damage your baggage, though there are limits as per the Montreal convention (replaces the Warsaw convention).

See http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/problem/the-airline-has-lost-or-damaged-my-bag-what-can-i-do

If you have insurance and you made a claim the insurance would likely claim off the airline anyway.

photome

zagfles wrote: »

Of course the airline are liable if they lose or damage your baggage, though there are limits as per the Montreal convention (replaces the Warsaw convention).

See http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/problem/the-airline-has-lost-or-damaged-my-bag-what-can-i-do

If you have insurance and you made a claim the insurance would likely claim off the airline anyway.

I had read that but it doesnt specifically mention claiming for damaged goods inside a case....unless I am missing it

casp1997

My daughter got married in cyprus we all took stuff in our hand luggage ie bridsmaid dresses flowers and thomas cook looked after my daughters dress in the hold its costs over £1,000 we had no probs with ours but we had insurance we paid extra as well x

zagfles

photome wrote: »

I had read that but it doesnt specifically mention claiming for damaged goods inside a case....unless I am missing it

Of course it covers the contents:

If your luggage has been damaged or lost, you can claim compensation from either the airline or your travel insurance provider.

Luggage is the case and contents. It would be pretty useless if it just covers the case!! And not many cases are worth 1131 XDR (over £1000 !!)

photome

zagfles wrote: »

Of course it covers the contents:
Luggage is the case and contents. It would be pretty useless if it just covers the case!! And not many cases are worth 1131 XDR (over £1000 !!)

Ok I bow to your superior knowledge.

Lets hope the OP returns and gets over £1000 back, somehow I doubt it

SimonDBlaney

The airline was Thomson. I have been told by someone my mother knows who works for an insurance company that the airline have a duty of care and as they were negligent they are liable and it's up to them to make it right not the insurance company. I did have wedding insurance that covers it but this doesn't cover the emotional stress and damage caused. Imagine arriving at your destination for what should be the best holiday of your life to find everything destroyed. All our hand made menu's damaged/destroyed. The guest book that my wife's nan had made for us when we got engaged was completely missing, only the ripped cover remained. My tie had melted to the case, my shirt was in shreds and trousers ripped apart. One of my shoes had disappeared completely, the other was scratched. All of my toiletries were gone, however the toiletry bag still remained (?) with only my razor left in it. The wedding dress stained. Jewellery bought for my wife as a wedding gift gone. Some of these items as I have said didn't have receipts. I feel that simply paying for the damaged goods isn't enough. The damage was in the words of the airport staff and the Thomson reps the worst damage I've ever seen". It really was one of the worst moments of my life discovering that.

It would be nice to say Thomson have offered to replace everything but they haven't even done that. They have just fobbed us off. Their reply, which I was told would be made in under 28 days, came 29 days later and was a short impersonal email. No acknowledgement of any of the details in our claim. Feel very upset and angry at the whole situation.

zagfles

photome wrote: »

Ok I bow to your superior knowledge.

Lets hope the OP returns and gets over £1000 back, somehow I doubt it

The issue will be proving the damage occurred while in transit and the value of items damaged etc. But the OP would have the same problems with an insurance claim.

SimonDBlaney

zagfles wrote: »

The issue will be proving the damage occurred while in transit and the value of items damaged etc. But the OP would have the same problems with an insurance claim.

We can prove it happened on transit as we have photos on the way to the airport and then as they sent it out we have photographic evidence of the damage too. It wasn't only our case either, one other person in our party and another (unrelated to our party) passengers' bags were damaged and 3 or 4 pushchairs were damaged. Ours was by far the worst though unfortunately for us.