Lost Luggage

[prawn_86]

WK,

the strange thing is i watched the carousel so would have thought i would have seen my bag as it was not a busy airport here in Busan. I also watched it in Ho Chi Min as i had a stopover and had nothing else to do...

i have resigned myself to the fact that i am not going to see it again, but hopefully it turns up one day.

Myh biggest annoyance is the lack of service and compo from Vietnam Air. I mean $400 is pathetic, you think thay would at least also offer to upgrade me to 1st class for the return trip

 

[wildkactus]

Prawn,
I hope it is either found or you can get a better payout from the airline.

I have always found these smaller carriers are always the hardest to deal with in these types of situations, they just don't want to know.

anyway best off luck.

 

[prawn_86]

Well 2 weeks after submitting my claim to the travel insurance co i had a meeting with them. They say that its not a replacement policy and that all my items of clothing will be depreciated, plus the fact that i dont have receipts (who keeps receipts for clothes???), that they will take ANOTHER 2 weeks to assess it, but i shouldnt expect to get more than half the total value back.

So basically i have lost all my clothes and will only get half the amount back to buy them again.

I have a feeling im screwed here and there is nothing i can do. From now on i will be keeping clothing receipts and just loading up my carry on with expensive clothes...

 

[sam76]

Well 2 weeks after submitting my claim to the travel insurance co i had a meeting with them. They say that its not a replacement policy and that all my items of clothing will be depreciated, plus the fact that i dont have receipts (who keeps receipts for clothes???), that they will take ANOTHER 2 weeks to assess it, but i shouldnt expect to get more than half the total value back.

So basically i have lost all my clothes and will only get half the amount back to buy them again.

I have a feeling im screwed here and there is nothing i can do. From now on i will be keeping clothing receipts and just loading up my carry on with expensive clothes...

If you had taken photos of your clothes as you packed them (pehaps with a copy of you itinery/ticket next to them) made a difference with your claim?

seems easier then keeping receipts.

 

[prawn_86]

Yeh i guess that would also work Sam, but having never lost my luggage before i didnt really think of it. Expensive lesson though...

I hardly see the point of having insurance if they just screw you to the wall

 

[sam76]

Yeh i guess that would also work Sam, but having never lost my luggage before i didnt really think of it. Expensive lesson though...

I hardly see the point of having insurance if they just screw you to the wall

Yeah it sucks mate.

Insurance is getting to the stage of being a real pain in the ass.

Never pay up but increase their premiums each year.

 

[prawn_86]

The other thing i cant get over is that they depreciate clothes. Its not like you can just go out and buy the exact same design for cheaper a year after it has been released.

If anything the value (to me anyway), appreciates because you cant get the same designs after 1 season.

Im pissed off, more so at the fact that i know i cant do anything about it

I'll wait and see what they offer and then if its **** call the ombudsman, but dont expect much from them. Its going to be about 6 weeks from when i submitted my claim to when i get paid...

 

[Julia]

If you had taken photos of your clothes as you packed them (pehaps with a copy of you itinery/ticket next to them) made a difference with your claim?

seems easier then keeping receipts.

I expect the insurance company would still have trotted out the 'no receipts' argument. They could say that for all they know you could have bought the clothes at St. Vinnies for a dollar.

Bad luck, Prawn. Very unfair.

 

[Prospector]

nine times out of ten these days a missing bag really is a stolen bag straight of the carousel, very few airports check bags to people.

Actually, having just returned, Vietnam is the only place that they actually do compare the sticker on your ticket, with the luggage you have collected off the carousel. So it is unlikely to have been taken in HCM. They do other nasty stuff in HCM but not that!

I am thinking, like others, that maybe it never got on the International Flight from Virgin Blue Adl - Sydney. Even with Jetstar, you have to collect your luggage if you are connecting with Qantas!

My bumbag was stolen in Vietnam, and today, 2 months later, they finally settled my claim (Mondial) I had to prove that I wore glasses, and had a mobile phone. That was the bit that took 2 months. Yet they paid my cash claim for $130 cash lost, (I had counted it beforehand and they accepted that), and for the replacement of my bag within 3 weeks. And yeah, they depreciated everything except the money! So I am out of pocket, but at least I did get some compensation for it.

 

[Prospector]

Also, unless forced to do otherwise, Insurance companies will deny every claim and most people give up at that point and go away. Keep on pushing until you are as satisfied as you can expect to be (given depreciation, gap payments etc etc) Ain't that right Julia

 

[Julia]

Also, unless forced to do otherwise, Insurance companies will deny every claim and most people give up at that point and go away. Keep on pushing until you are as satisfied as you can expect to be (given depreciation, gap payments etc etc) Ain't that right Julia

Ah, old memories, huh, Prospector. You're so right.
(For other readers, I was about to give up on an insurance claim and Prospector goaded me to persist. She was right. They paid out).

 

[cuttlefish]

Prawn - just curious - did you have your own tag with your name and an international contact number on your bags? (I guess there's a slight risk in doing this but I always do it so that if the airline tag comes off or it ends up in who knows where there's at least my name and phone number on it).

As others have said I'd also be chasing it up in Sydney. People that work at check-in counters have little knowledge of what goes on at the other end and will say whatever they think sounds good at the time.

Did you book the whole trip through Virgin or did you book the Virgin leg separately to the Sydney onwards legs? If so then its almost certain that the baggage would have ended up in Sydney and not been sent on and will be somewhere in Sydney.

Keep chasing it up at Sydney - you never know you might end up with an insurance payout and still also get your bags back (I doubt anyone would follow up whether you got your bags back once the payout has been made, plus the inconvenience of not having the luggage still applies and is worthy of the insurance payout regardless).

 

[cuttlefish]

Just re-read in your earlier posts that it looks like you booked the whole trip through Virgin so I guess it was reasonable to expect the bags to go through all the way as well. I still think Sydney is the most likely location for them though.

 

[prawn_86]

Just re-read in your earlier posts that it looks like you booked the whole trip through Virgin so I guess it was reasonable to expect the bags to go through all the way as well. I still think Sydney is the most likely location for them though.

I actually booked the whole trip through Vietnam Air, who have a co-share agreement for domestic flights with Virgin. I was explicitly told (by the check in chicks supervisor), that my bags would go all the way through to Korea.

I think my bags are in SYd somewhere also, but im ****ed if i can contact the right number or people, i just keep being told to contact a different department. All the lost and found numbers are for inside the terminals and no-one seems to have a clue what the actual checked-in lost baggage number is.

 

[cuttlefish]

Yeah its frustrating being told something explicitly and then find it doesn't happen - maybe they did put it through and it was something else that went wrong. Not a fun way to start an overseas trip!

I don't know if you've tried this number, but its supposedly the Virgin lost baggage number for Sydney airport:

+61 2 9352 7650

They don't seem to provide different numbers for the domestic and international airports which I find a bit odd as I would have thought there would be different contacts for each and it would be the domestic airport you'd want to be speaking to I would think.

 

[prawn_86]

Thanks cuttlefish, i'll try that one later.

I was told that the Qantas baggage handlers handle Vietnams Airs unloading and loading at Syd, but surprise surprise havnt been able to get a contact number for them!

Very frustrating

 

[nioka]

As a last resort, and you seem to be there, why not try channel 9, a current affair. Nothing like a bit of bad publicity to loosen up some results.

 

[prawn_86]

As a last resort, and you seem to be there, why not try channel 9, a current affair. Nothing like a bit of bad publicity to loosen up some results.

Yeh i have thought about that, but i would really hate myself for it. I loathe those sorts of shows.

Its still in the back of my mind, but unlikely. We'll see what offer i get from my insurance first.