How Do I Explain To Customer Service That They Did Not Put An Item In My Bag

Lost, Delayed, or Damaged Luggage

While the vast majority of airline passengers' checked numberless get in at their destination on time and in the condition received, a passengers' bag may occasionally become damaged, delayed, or lost in transit. Nether DOT regulations (for domestic travel) and international treaties (for international travel), airlines are required to recoup passengers if their numberless are damaged, delayed, or lost. Y'all tin discover tips on how to pack, check-in, and claim your luggage to minimize the chance of harm, delay, or loss in DOT'due south Wing Rights publication here.

Damaged Baggage

What are airlines' responsibilities when they damage your baggage?

Airlines are responsible for repairing or reimbursing a passenger for damaged baggage and/or its contents when the damage occurs while the bag is nether the airline'south control during transportation (subject field to maximum limits on liabilities).

Airlines are not responsible for pre-existing damage to the bag or if the damage was acquired by improper packing.

When the harm to the pocketbook cannot be repaired, airlines will negotiate a bounty corporeality based on the value of the handbag and its depreciation.

Can the airlines exclude liability for certain items?

Airlines frequently exclude liability for certain categories of items (for example: fragile items, electronics, cash, perishable items, other valuables, etc.). These exclusions are typically listed in the airlines' contracts of railroad vehicle.

For DOMESTIC travel, airlines are not required to recoup passengers for items they have excluded in their contracts of carriage.

For INTERNATIONAL travel (including the domestic segment of an international itinerary), airlines are responsible for these items if they accept accepted them for transportation. This applies even if passengers did not disclose, when they checked-in, that these items were packed in the bag.

Passengers may wish to consider purchasing additional insurance for valuable items.

What almost damage to the wheels, handles, or straps of baggage?

Although airlines are non required to cover fair wear and tear, airlines cannot exclude liability for impairment to wheels, handles, straps, and other components of checked luggage.

Delayed Luggage

What should a passenger do if his or her bag is missing afterward taking a flight

When a checked bag does non arrive at its destination, airlines are responsible for locating the bag. Airlines accept tracking systems in identify to endeavor to identify the pocketbook's location.

Some airlines now offer applications for cell phones, tablets, and other electronic devices, which provide passengers with data on the location of their baggage. Information technology may be helpful to use this technology to locate your baggage, if bachelor.

Passengers should file a baggage claim with their airline as soon every bit possible.

Passengers should stay in shut communication with the airline after filing a merits and during the baggage location procedure.

What are airlines' responsibilities when your handbag is delayed?

Airlines are required to compensate passengers for reasonable, verifiable, and bodily incidental expenses that they may incur while their bags are delayed - subject to the maximum liability limits.

Airlines are not immune to set an arbitrary daily corporeality for interim expenses. For example, an airline cannot have a policy that they volition reimburse a passenger up to only $50 for each 24-hour interval that a passenger's purse is delayed.

Lost Baggage

When does an airline consider a pocketbook lost?

Airlines may accept unlike policies to make up one's mind when a bag is officially lost. Virtually airlines will declare a handbag lost betwixt v and fourteen days subsequently the flight, but this tin can vary from ane airline to some other.

Whether your bag is declared lost may also depend on the blazon of itinerary (international vs. domestic), whether more than 1 airline is responsible for the flying, the airline'southward searching machinery, and other circumstances.

If an airline unreasonably refuses to consider a bag lost subsequently it has been missing for an unreasonable period of fourth dimension, the airline could be subject to enforcement activity by the DOT.

What are the airlines' responsibilities when your bag is lost?

Once an airline determines that your bag is lost, the airline is responsible for compensating yous for your bags' contents - subject area to depreciation and maximum liability limits.

Airlines are also required to refund any fees you paid the airline to transport the bag that was lost.

Airlines may require receipts or other proof for valuable items that were in the lost bags.

Limits on Luggage Liability

Domestic Baggage Liability

For DOMESTIC flights, DOT regulation allows airlines to limit their liability for a lost, damaged, or delayed bag. Airlines are free to pay more than than the limit, but are non required to do so.

The maximum liability amount allowed past the regulation is$3,800.

International Baggage Liability

For most INTERNATIONAL flights, a treaty called the Montreal Convention applies to the carriage of baggage. The maximum luggage liability for flights covered past the Montreal Convention is currently ane,288 Special Drawing Rights (approximately $1,780.00 US). This is the most that airlines must pay a passenger for a lost, damaged, or delayed pocketbook. Airlines are gratis to pay more the limit, but are not required to do so.

The Montreal Convention's international baggage liability limit is reviewed for inflationary adjustment every five years past the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

In the few situations when the Montreal Convention does not apply to travel to and from the United States, an older treaty called the "Warsaw Convention" may utilize.

Assistive Devices

An assistive device is any piece of equipment that assists a passenger with a disability in coping with the effects of his or her inability. These devices are intended to assist passengers with a disability to hear, see, communicate, maneuver, or perform other functions of daily life. Assistive devices include (but are not limited to):

Crutches, Canes, and Walkers

Braces/Prosthetics

Wheelchairs

Hearing aids

Portable Oxygen Concentrators (POCs)

Continuous Positive Airway Force per unit area (CPAP) machines

Prescription medications and any medical devices needed to administer those medications, such as syringes or auto-injectors

Note: If you are not certain if your device is an assistive device, contact your airline'southward inability or special assistance desk.

Assistive devices used by passengers with disabilities that are lost or damaged during DOMESTIC air travel are non subject field to the rules limiting liability for lost or damaged baggage. On domestic flights, airlines' liability for lost or damaged assistive devices is the original buy cost of the assistive device. If an airline destroys or loses a $xx,000 assistive device during a domestic flight, the airline is liable for $20,000. If an airline damages but doesn't destroy a $20,000 assistive device, then the airline is liable for the damage up to the toll of original purchase price.

Assistive devices used by passengers with disabilities that are lost or damaged during INTERNATIONAL air travel are subject field to the maximum liability limit set by the applicable international treaty.

When a passenger's wheelchair or other assistive device must be disassembled for stowage during air transportation, the airline must return the assistive device in the same condition in which the airline accepted information technology, including making necessary repairs if the device is damaged.