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Any Airline Baggage Experts On The Board?



Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
69,880
As a wise man once said: NSC sees all, knows all. Any airline baggage experts able to offer some thoughts on my recent predicament por favor?

Just back from a trip to Oz, booked with the very excellent Trailfinders. As a treat to myself went business class, Gatwick to Rome with BA, to hook up with China Airlines Rome to Taipei to Sydney. Less than half the price of similar trip on BA or Emirates. Bargain!

All BA had to do was fly me and my hold baggage to Rome. Their booking reference had all legs of my flight through to Sydney listed, as did the luggage label issued at BA's Gatwick check-in desk.
Trouble is, BA never loaded my hold luggage. When I got to Sydney I found that BA had sent my hold luggage to Heathrow instead. It eventually arrived in Sydney 2 days after I did, having gone out on BA via Singapore! Then it took another day to catch up with me in the outback.

Just got a snottyish letter from BA rejecting my claim for compensation. They say:

It’s important to us that we offer each of our customers outstanding service and I know this wasn’t the case when you travelled. We try to make sure all bags are handled correctly when they’re within our care, and I absolutely agree we’ve let you down.
I do understand that you'd like us to offer you compensation for the ruined holiday due to the issue you had with the luggage. I'm sorry to inform you that we're unable to help you with your request
I'd like to inform you that, baggage will normally be checked to your final destination, provided your journey is on the same ticket. However, if you hold separate tickets for the flights in your journey, we will only through check your baggage to your final destination if the connecting flights are operated by us or by another oneworld airline.
As your connecting flight was not a oneworld airline, you need to speak to China Airlines, as they are the final carrier you travelled with to register your complaint and start a claim. This is an agreement within the airline industry to make sure we’re consistent. It means you only have to speak to one airline, as it can cause confusion when two airlines search for your luggage. Because China Airlines were the last carrier you will have to contact them directly.


Can’t see China Airlines providing me with compo seeing as how they never even saw my luggage at any point. What do NSC experts think? Should I just suck it up and be grateful BA actually delivered my luggage at all, or carry on a claim against them, if only to make them go and sit in the corner and think about what they’ve done?

Thanks for reading.
 






drew

Drew
Oct 3, 2006
23,007
Burgess Hill
It's the norm to tell you to use the last airline. However airlines dont usually pay out for delayed luggague, other than any costs incurred while you waited i.e. buying extra clothes/toiletries etc. Link below might help

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/c...ine-compensation-for-lost-or-delayed-luggage/

Or you could claim on your travel insurance for delayed luggage.

Did this really ruin your holiday or just start it off with a sour taste and, out of interest, what level of compensation were you claiming? Were you trying to get back the whole cost, the cost of the flight to Rome or just a percentage of the whole cost.
 






ady1973

Active member
Jul 27, 2008
351
New Milton
Having worked in the aviation industry for more than 15years. There are numerous reasons why bags miss flights such as the labels coming off so the scanner can't read the bar code. The xray machine breaks down, or just by human error.
The bag would of been taken to Heathrow overnight as all the oz flights depart from there,and then put on the first available flight leaving uk to syd. The Oz flights tend to depart in the evening with a stop over in HkG before carrying on to Syd. So really 2 days late isn't that bad when you consider the extra work involved.
Hope that helps but can be frustrating....at least you did see your bag
 


Bwian

Kiss my (_!_)
Jul 14, 2003
15,898
How was China Airlines? Nearly booked with them but seemed too cheap so went elsewhere.
 


Pinkie Brown

I'll look after the skirt
Sep 5, 2007
3,532
Neues Zeitalter DDR
BA at Gatwick screwed up not China Airways. The buck stops with them. Had China Airways lost your bag it would have been their problem - they didn't. Like all airlines will do, they are fobbing you off initially, hoping you just give up. Having a handful of receipts for replacement goods will be very useful. A place to gain good advice is the Martin Lewis Money saving forum. Depends how long you want to dedicate to chasing BA.

I had a long drawn out saga of letter/email/telephone call ping pong with Air Canada several years back after they lost a bag of mine for four days. I eventually got about $120 from them after jumping through many hoops. I'm currently pursuing a case against Norwegian Air for delay reclaim where they have tried fobbing me off despite there being a ruling in the European Court. There have been rulings in the eu courts which have come out in the plaintiffs favour but the airlines are a law unto themselves and simply play hardball with those make claims. They usually cough up when issued with papers from the small claims court.

Another issue re BA at Gatwick. They have none of their own ground handling staff anymore on the ramp. Handling on the ramp area is contracted out to a third party handling agent where running the operation as cheap as possible comes before customer service. They pay peanuts and get *some* staff you might expect, particularly in the area of baggage handling. The standards have gone well down in recent years.
 




Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,435
Not the real one
The BA letter is right. The travel agent or website you booked with should have made clear that if you are booking with different airlines that do not have a codeshare or partners, then you will have to collect your luggage in Rome and clear customs, then check your bag in the China airlines desk with your bag. To be fair the BA check in desk at Gatwick should have known this and informed you, but only if you showed them your full itinerary. Otherwise they would never have known. You cannot check a bag through to a final destination unless the airlines are working together on codeshare. This is the risk of booking with agents and online agents that puzzle different flights together. You might have an agents reference for your booking. But I bet the BA one (edited to add.. I mean BA's own booking reference) didn't show up your other legs. Your bag would have been rejected either at Gatwick (if the check in agent had tried to check it all the way to Sydney), or it went to Rome, was unclaimed, then went to Heathrow to be sent to Sydney. I'm amazed BA sent you the bag at all. You could owe them for cargo charges as you only bought a flight with them to Rome, but they spent the money sending the bag all the way to Sydney for you. I'd take this matter up with the agent or website you booked with.
 
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Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,435
Not the real one
BA at Gatwick. They have none of their own ground handling staff anymore on the ramp. Handling on the ramp area is contracted out to a third party handling agent where running the operation as cheap as possible comes before customer service. They pay peanuts and get *some* staff you might expect, particularly in the area of baggage handling. The standards have gone well down in recent years.

Outsourcing can mean a poorer service, especially if pay and experience of staff is significantly lower. I can imagine what happened here is the check in staff tried to check to Sydney, unaware that on Tom Harks booking it was impossible. Unless TH didn't tell them about the connection to China airlines. As far as the airlines are concerned they are different bookings with no connecting traffic between the two. The Trailfinders screwed up not informing TH he had to collect his bag in Rome. I think it might be a bit of both.
 






Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
69,880
Outsourcing can mean a poorer service, especially if pay and experience of staff is significantly lower. I can imagine what happened here is the check in staff tried to check to Sydney, unaware that on Tom Harks booking it was impossible. Unless TH didn't tell them about the connection to China airlines. As far as the airlines are concerned they are different bookings with no connecting traffic between the two. The Trailfinders screwed up not informing TH he had to collect his bag in Rome. I think it might be a bit of both.

Well, normally i'd agree with you. However Trailfinders issued me with a full itinerary for all flight legs and also included both a BA standard reference number i.e. the six digit one you get anytime you book a BA flight, and also a separate China Airlines reference. When I logged onto BA website using BA reference number I was impressed that it showed me full details of all legs of my journey, both BA and CI. When I logged onto CI website using THEIR reference number I got details of the CI legs only. So BA were fully aware of my full itinerary. Also, BA's luggage label attached to my hold luggage at Gatwick also itemised each flight leg all the way through to Sydney, including both BA and CI flight numbers. So I didn't suspect anything was amiss at Gatwick and the check-in person, fully aware of my full itinerary, never warned me there would be a problem else I'd have asked them only to only check my bag through to Rome. As you say, probably a bit of both and I'll be making sure Trailfinders are aware that they should be warning travellers of possible problems across carriers/alliances. Still very happy with my trip overall though and I'd certainly use China airlines again. BA? Not so much.
 


Springal

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2005
23,708
GOSBTS
This is what travel insurance is for. Should claim off that, and even better have claimed a load of new threads in Sydney when you were missing your bag.

Airlines don't tend to have what is known as 'interline' agreements outside of their own programs / alliances.

BA probably doesn't have any relationship with Air China, so they would have no way to check your bag through. What should have happened is you collected your bags at Rome and re-checked in.

I'd probably take it up with the travel agent if they did not tell you this or at least make you aware of the risks of separate airlines and tickets.
 


Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,435
Not the real one
Well, normally i'd agree with you. However Trailfinders issued me with a full itinerary for all flight legs and also included both a BA standard reference number i.e. the six digit one you get anytime you book a BA flight, and also a separate China Airlines reference. When I logged onto BA website using BA reference number I was impressed that it showed me full details of all legs of my journey, both BA and CI. When I logged onto CI website using THEIR reference number I got details of the CI legs only. So BA were fully aware of my full itinerary. Also, BA's luggage label attached to my hold luggage at Gatwick also itemised each flight leg all the way through to Sydney, including both BA and CI flight numbers. So I didn't suspect anything was amiss at Gatwick and the check-in person, fully aware of my full itinerary, never warned me there would be a problem else I'd have asked them only to only check my bag through to Rome. As you say, probably a bit of both and I'll be making sure Trailfinders are aware that they should be warning travellers of possible problems across carriers/alliances. Still very happy with my trip overall though and I'd certainly use China airlines again. BA? Not so much.

Its extremely unusual for an airline that is not codeshare to show up on another's itinerary. Something is wrong, it's would be the same the other way around China airlines to BA. if you have the baggage receipt with all legs printed, and a BA booking reference that shows all the legs and how many bags you had allowance for (all the way to Syd), then you might be able to take it further with BA. Like I said, it's very strange for non codeshare to show up on a BA booking reference. You wouldn't expect to see an Easyjet or Lufthansa leg on your BA booking, so why China Airlines I have no idea. I think it may be a mixture of an initial mistake by Trailfinders and then the BA check in agent. As someone else said, Gatwick is all outsourced now. Interesting though that CI didn't have your BA legs, so maybe Trailfinders are at fault there too for not registering your BA leg, in which case your bag would never had made it on to the CI plane anyway. Wired situation.
 




studio150

Well-known member
Jul 30, 2011
29,555
On the Border
If you can afford to go business class, you can no doubt afford a new t-shirt and other items for a few days.

Also as others have stated claim on your travel insurance, which will require far less hassle than you have placed upon yourself by writing to BA (and presumably now China Airlines)
 


um bongo molongo

Well-known member
Jul 26, 2004
2,646
Battersea
Shit happens.
Suck it up and move on.

Battling for £50 in China Air vouchers will probably do you more mental harm than good.

This is probably the best advice. Plus make a mental note to avoid BA wherever possible - absolute khazi of an airline these days - as with most privatised ex-national airlines, they've never really got their heads around customer service.

I don't work in the industry, but I do fly a lot. There's a reason emirates etc are more expensive...
 


The Spanish

Well-known member
Aug 12, 2008
6,477
P
Its extremely unusual for an airline that is not codeshare to show up on another's itinerary. Something is wrong, it's would be the same the other way around China airlines to BA. if you have the baggage receipt with all legs printed, and a BA booking reference that shows all the legs and how many bags you had allowance for (all the way to Syd), then you might be able to take it further with BA. Like I said, it's very strange for non codeshare to show up on a BA booking reference. You wouldn't expect to see an Easyjet or Lufthansa leg on your BA booking, so why China Airlines I have no idea. I think it may be a mixture of an initial mistake by Trailfinders and then the BA check in agent. As someone else said, Gatwick is all outsourced now.

Bookings being linked in the pnr have no bearing on this issue. All ba had to do is get his bag to Rome. His complaint is with trail finders, not BA. BA have gone further than they needed already.
 


StonehamPark

#Brighton-Nil
Oct 30, 2010
9,762
BC, Canada
This is probably the best advice. Plus make a mental note to avoid BA wherever possible - absolute khazi of an airline these days - as with most privatised ex-national airlines, they've never really got their heads around customer service.

I don't work in the industry, but I do fly a lot. There's a reason emirates etc are more expensive...

Yep, I tend to stick to Virgin or Emirates when I can. Delta have also been very good.
I've not been on a BA flight for about 16 years so couldn't comment on how they are these days.
 




Pinkie Brown

I'll look after the skirt
Sep 5, 2007
3,532
Neues Zeitalter DDR
Well, normally i'd agree with you. However Trailfinders issued me with a full itinerary for all flight legs and also included both a BA standard reference number i.e. the six digit one you get anytime you book a BA flight, and also a separate China Airlines reference. When I logged onto BA website using BA reference number I was impressed that it showed me full details of all legs of my journey, both BA and CI. When I logged onto CI website using THEIR reference number I got details of the CI legs only. So BA were fully aware of my full itinerary. Also, BA's luggage label attached to my hold luggage at Gatwick also itemised each flight leg all the way through to Sydney, including both BA and CI flight numbers. So I didn't suspect anything was amiss at Gatwick and the check-in person, fully aware of my full itinerary, never warned me there would be a problem else I'd have asked them only to only check my bag through to Rome. As you say, probably a bit of both and I'll be making sure Trailfinders are aware that they should be warning travellers of possible problems across carriers/alliances. Still very happy with my trip overall though and I'd certainly use China airlines again. BA? Not so much.

If the check in person was fully aware of your itinerary, she 'should' have known and told you the requirement to collect your bag in Rome and re-check in with China Airways. If China Airways are not part of the One World Alliance or a codeshare on the route, the bag would never have been transferred through.
 


Captain Sensible

Well-known member
Jul 8, 2003
6,435
Not the real one
Bookings being linked in the pnr have no bearing on this issue. All ba had to do is get his bag to Rome. His complaint is with trail finders, not BA. BA have gone further than they needed already.

This is true, but his legs showed on BA.com with China airlines. That's the part I don't understand. In order to have another airlines leg on a BA booking reference, it needs a BA flight number. eg an American Airlines leg will also have a BA flight number and visa versa. Also the Check in Agent should not have tried to label the bag all the way to SYD as it would not connect. I agree with you that Trailfinders seem to be the initial problem. The way in which they book the ticket in the first place was shoddy. To add different flights on different airlines with no connecting rights and sell it as a connection, is misleading at the very least. All they did was bunch seperate flights together. There would have been no missed connection compensation either. Say TH missed the connection in Rome. BA would not have had to rebook him or get him accommodation and compensation as they would with a normal connection. As far as they are concerned they did their job getting TH to Rome in this case with no connection rights also sending the bag all the way to Sydney for him when he only booked to Rome. China Airlines didn't have to transport his bags, they got off Scott free. Trailfinders should make it clear the bookings are separate. Still I do understand that TH was inconvenienced at no fault of his own.
 



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