Travel Troubleshooter: Lost luggage, ignored claim

British Airways loses three bags belonging to Izlen Umut Egeli's family. Under the rules, the airline must compensate the travelers for their luggage, but Egeli is trapped in a bureaucracy of claim forms, phone representatives who can't help, and fax machines that won't. Is there a way out?

Q: My parents and I recently traveled between Los Angeles and Istanbul on British Airways. Three of our checked bags were misplaced by the airline. We reported our loss when we arrived in Istanbul and British Airways promised to send our luggage to our home address.

But after two weeks the airline said they could not find our bags and sent us a claim form. They asked us to provide receipts for all our missing items, but we didn't have the receipts for our belongings, since it had been at least six months since we bought them.

British Airways told us to contact the merchants and get duplicate copies of the receipts. We did, and faxed them to the airline. It's been four months and we still haven't heard a thing from them.

The only way to contact a customer-service representative is by e-mail, fax or letter. There's no phone number I can call. We have repeatedly tried to contact British Airways through every available channel, but haven't received a single reply.

This has been a terrible experience for us. Would you please help us?

-- Izlen Umut Egeli, Northridge, California

A: British Airways should have delivered your luggage to you while you were in Istanbul. When it didn't, it should have reimbursed you promptly for your lost property.

Under the Montreal Convention, British Airways is liable for the destruction, loss or damage to baggage up to 1,230 euros. There's an exception for a defective bag, and you can get more from the airline if you make a special claim at check-in and pay a supplementary fee.

Your case is particularly interesting in light of the airline's recent decision to charge some passengers more for their baggage. For example, on certain international routes, you would be charged an extra 120 pounds per bag if you have more than two bags to check.

I'm not denying that British Airways has the right to make you pay whatever it wants for carrying your luggage. It seems to me, though, that if it is charging passengers for luggage before they board the plane that it should also reimburse them with the same speed when it loses their luggage.

The system you describe for tracking lost baggage is one of the most complained-about aspects of British Airways' North American operations, at least from my perspective as a troubleshooter. I've heard from many exasperated passengers who tried to navigate British Airways' bureaucratic maze of fax numbers, nonresponsive phone agents and paperwork requirements. Many tell me that they just give up in despair.

On one hand, my best advice is to never trust an airline with your luggage. Ever. If you need your bags to be delivered to your hotel, consider packing light and hiring an overnight delivery service such as Luggage Concierge (http://www.luggageconcierge.com) to transport anything that won't fit in your luggage.

On the other hand, not everyone can afford a luggage concierge. So if you're going to hand your bags over to an airline, how do you make sure it doesn't become another statistic?

First, make sure you aren't packing anything that isn't covered by its contract of carriage -- the legal agreement between you and the airline. That usually includes cameras, electronics or anything fragile. For the rest, make sure you have a receipt (or can readily find a receipt).

I contacted British Airways for you. It reviewed your case and mailed you a $2,900 check to cover your loss. E-mail to a friend

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.

Copyright 2009 CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

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