If you're quick, you can claim for lost or damaged luggage. Not a lot of people know that, writes CONOR POPE
There are few more miserable ways to start your holidays than by staring at an empty baggage carousel, waiting in vain for your luggage to appear, or finding your twin buggy has lost a wheel after being manhandled by overly enthusiastic baggage-handlers.
But such things happen frequently – around 42 million times a year worldwide, in fact. Each day, 115,000 pieces of airline baggage are mishandled, lost, broken or tampered with. Trying to get recompense from airlines can be a trying experience, particularly if an Irish airline has done the mishandling.
In the event of a bag going missing or breaking, both Ryanair and Aer Lingus insist on all communication being done in writing, and neither will entertain queries about the status of investigations over the telephone. The airlines say this is to keep detailed records of correspondence but it can prove very frustrating for consumers.
For all its faults, Ryanair has a good record when it comes to lost and damaged baggage, because it is an exclusively point-to-point airline and does plenty to dissuade people from putting baggage in the hold. However, given the experiences of readers who have contacted us, it is hard to escape the notion that airlines in general make it difficult for people to track the status of complaints about baggage, in the hope that they will just go away.
Given the level of ignorance Irish people have about their rights when bags are mishandled, this is what frequently happens. According to a recent study published by the European Consumer Centre, just 5 per cent of Irish consumers know all their rights when they fly.
The study, which was carried out among passengers departing from Dublin Airport in March, found that one of the air-travel regulations people are most sketchy about is the time limit on compensation claims for damaged baggage. Nearly two-thirds of fliers were unaware that the maximum compensation if luggage is lost or delayed is €1,150.
Consumers are legally entitled to compensation if luggage is damaged or delayed but in the case of damaged luggage, a claim has to be made within seven days of the damage being done, and people are often still off sunning themselves when the deadline passes.
Passengers are protected by the Montreal convention, which came into force nearly 10 years ago. It states that while airlines have a responsibility for bags they allow to be checked in, that responsibility is limited.
If a bag fails to show up after 21 days, it is considered lost forever, and compensation to a maximum amount of 1,000 Special Drawing Rights (around €1,000) can be claimed.
Airlines can demand receipts for everything that was in the bags or detailed lists of when and where all items were purchased, and then there is the problem of communication.
Frequently, it is easier to claim off a travel-insurance policy and allow the insurance company to deal directly with the airline, although that assumes that you have a travel-insurance policy, something which a surprisingly high percentage of Irish tourists don’t bother with.
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