i hope they get the luggage problem sorted out
"Meanwhile, some reports suggest as many as 20,000 passenger bags may have been displaced at Heathrow since Thursday.
BA, which said the bulk of misplaced luggage would have belonged to its passengers, said it was still trying to get 5,000 bags to their owners by road or air. "
Our friends have just come back from Eygpt on the return flight on the plane that had to land in Italy.On arriving home they have found that 3 battery charges that had been put into suitcases have gone missing. One for game boy the other two for mobile phones.
They also said it was absolute carnage at Gatwick with a lot of other suitcases just lying all over the place broken and ripped.They had to wait one and half hours for the cases to be put onto carousels.Nobody seem very bothered about getting things sorted out.
My friend has now been told by her insurance company who is Nat West that she cannot claim for the battery charges that had been put into the suitcase.
So be aware of what you are packing and what you are covered for if anything.!!
Chris (Harribobs) referring back to your picture on how we should travel, this may be not be so far off!!
You do not say why your friend's claim has been declined. If it is because packing the items in the hold baggage was in breach of a policy condition, I suggest:
Write to the insurer;
Put "COMPLAINT" at the top of the letter.
Make sure the policy number is quoted in the heading;
Write the first sentence as "Please accept this letter as a formal complaint within the meaning of the regulation of your firm by the Financial Services Authority and the requirements of the Financial Ombudsman.";
Then quote their declining language and state that in the circumstances of the heightened security requirements, the policy condition is unreasonable and they should not rely upon it and you look forward to settlement of your claim;
Keep a copy of the letter.
The FSA rules require all complaints to be entered into a register, acknowledged quickly and resolved in a period (I think it is eight weeks). Failures can result in heavy fines.
The resolution may be that they maintain the declinature, but then the complaint can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman. A complaint form can be downloaded, or completed online at
www.financial_ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/form/complaint_form.doc For fairly minor claims, the insurer will normally find it easier to make an offer to close the complaint than go through all the regulatory hoops and then deal with an ombudsman office which has a reputation for trying to find every reason to support a consumer against a commercial entity.
Two years ago, we were about to be called for a flight from Norita (Tokyo) to Brisbane when my wife found the diamond from a ring had fallen out. This could have happened anywhere from Heathrow, where she saw the stone when putting the ring between her teeth before washing her hands, and the Norita departure lounge. The repair cost was £350, the policy excess being £100.
The insurer said I was in breach of the condition that all losses must be reportrd to the police.
I sent such a letter saying to report the loss we would have had to return airside, lose our APEX tickets, book into a hotel and pay for regular replacement tickets, all of which would far exceed the loss. The condition is obviously intended to deter fraud, but I was not looking for a cash settlement, only a repair.
Within two weeks they sent me a cheque for £350, not even deducting the excess!
