Dear Tripped Up,
I am a co -owner of Luaka Bop, a New York -based record label, and last June I accompanied Staples Jr. Singers, a Gospel Group from Aberdeen, Miss., On a European tour. For a British Airways flight from London to Paris, three musicians had to control their guitars, but only one instrument arrived in Paris with us. We completed the forms and tried to impress the employee the importance of taking the guitars before the group appeared the next night. One of the two lost guitars arrived in Paris the next day, but British Airways could not or did not want to deliver it, so our tour manager took a taxi at the airport just to find out that he was closed. When the band returned to Britain by train, it was still under two guitars. We took one back a few shows later, and finally found the other at Heathrow Airport lost and found – with his neck cut and his damaged case. We ended up with over $ 5,000, including guitar rental for twelve concerts and buying a guitar and case (both used) for Arceola Brown, whose instrument was destroyed. We submitted the most receipts with the initial claim to British Airways on July 25 and then added a few more on August 7 and September 11, for a total of $ 3,331. (We didn’t keep receipts for the rest.) But beyond receiving a case number, we never heard again, despite several subsequent emails. Can you help? Yale, New York
Dear Yale,
If I could choose a story to tell here, it would be amazing about how Staples Jr. Singers recorded an album in 1975 that almost no one paid attention to decades later. It was re -released in 2022, the album received rave reviews and led to international tour tours.
What a story. Alas, this space is dedicated to much more common and intimate issues, such as lost and damaged luggage.
It is true that the lost luggage was cooler than most samsonites: a retrieved Fender Telecaster and a Casio Midi was so radically destroyed that I wonder if a luggage operator channeled Pete Townshend of the Who and broke it into smithereens on the airway. The problem you had to compensate, however, is a tired known story in the Tripped Up Inbox.
Together with photos of the Casio Midi guitar, you sent me a frustrating timetable for your team’s efforts to regain the guitars and later to seek compensation for renting and replacing the guitar and case of Mr. Brown. (Unfortunately, Mr Brown died on November 16th.)
I intervened for the first time by writing to a British Airways spokeswoman in early November and the airline quickly sent an apologetic letter to you offering compensation for the oddly accurate and inadequate amount of $ 493.97 pounds or about $ 600. The carrier included a separate $ 250 coupon for future flights.
I intervened again, but on January 7, your airline only wrote to promote the original offer, an unnecessary price much less than the claim.
I looked back to the evidence you sent me and remembered that you submitted the proofs to three lots. The second and third batch amounted to $ 493.97.
The airline seems to have exchanged coins, which may be an indication of how carefully your problem has been carefully.
As for the first batch of evidence, they seem to have never succeeded when you submitted them.
On January 11, the carrier called you to ask you to re -upload the evidence, something you did. I received a brief statement on January 15 – “We apologized to customers and we work directly with them to resolve their claim” – but you didn’t hear anything further. So, on January 21, on my own proposal, you sent an email to your contact again. You said you were ordered to upload evidence again, something you did, and they told you that $ 3,941 would be returned.
This is a curious number – more than your receipts, less than your losses – but I think I can explain it, as the airline refused to do so or answer any other question, including how the guitar was destroyed, Because the airline to deliver the guitar to Paris or why the evidence was not processed when you first sent them in July.
Here is my best guess: the Montreal Convention, the international treaty governing lost luggage (including) on most international flights, limits the responsibility of airlines. This luggage lid at the time of your flight was about $ 1,700 per passenger or $ 3,400 for the two musicians together. However, on December 28, the value of damage to most international flights increased to equivalent to about $ 1,980 per passenger.
The airline seems to have applied the newest value to your losses, though it was not needed, and you end up having more money than you really owe, a little compensation for the suffering you endured.
For those who fly inside or between countries who have not signed the Montreal contract, local or national laws apply to lost, stolen or damaged luggage. (In the United States, the Transport Department limits the losses for lost, damaged or late luggage to $ 3,800.)
But these numbers do not mean much if you are facing seemingly irrational obstacles when you apply for compensation – such as the British Airways interface that you called cumbersome and seemed to lose the evidence you sent with trouble. My inboxes are full of airline stories that are repeatedly requested to seek evidence already submitted.
The multifaceted story of many months you have endured with British Airways should be a reminder that travelers today have to do more than the share of them at work to find their lost objects. Adding Airtags or other Bluetooth trackers to luggage delivery is a smart first step, so when airlines claim that they do not know where your luggage is, you can tell them or even share their location as the possibility is now common Use with a third party.
Of course, you should carefully pack the fragile items (on its website, Fender offers guitar tips) and maintain each piece of paper starting with control of your bag. Then, if you need to make a claim, note the name of each employee with whom you interact, take photos, record conversations when you can, and create copies of your documentation. The information will be critical when you apply for returns.
Most of the time, you won’t need it. But if you ever need to fight with an airline, the documentation will be useful. And if you have to write to the tripped up, it will move you to the front of the line.
