You are going on a plane and you have carefully prepared every detail. Although in your hand luggage you will carry the most delicate objects and those that you are going to need during the flight or your passage through the airport, sometimes you also need to bill part of the luggage. It is not the most common, but once we see how our bags move away by the conveyor belt that limits the billing counter, it is difficult to be safe one hundred percent to find them again in our destination or that they are intact and have not suffered No damage.
According to a study by the technology company Airhelpin 2023 a total of 36.1 million suitcases were either lost or suffered some type of delay or damage worldwide. The most repeated incidence (in 77%) was the delay of the luggage, which was followed by damaged bags (17%) and 5%, loss of luggage. According to the Airhelp report one in 125 suitcases invoiced in Spanish airports suffers physical damage, it is lost or delayed.
Although they are not such common incidents as the delays or cancellations of flights, they are situations that can happen to us. The first thing you have to be clear in case you see yourself in that circumstance is that if you want to claim you should not leave the airport without having recorded said incidence, although there is a period of seven days to formalize the application. And the claim must always be done at the counter of the company with which you have traveled. If the application takes effect, compensation can reach up to € 1,609.
You will have to fill in a claims sheet and the part of the irregularity of the luggage (PIR) and, according to the organization of consumers and users (OCU), “You can also confirm the claim by submitting a letter in the company’s customer service department.” The OCU, on its website, facilitates a model for free so that we can use it as a guide.
The wheels or handles of the suitcases are usually the most damaged parts of the luggage that we invoice for the impacts they receive on the road from the conveyor belt to the stairs of the plane, or in the same cabin of the aircraft. Although we also have to check that none of its parts has been advocated, in the case of rigid suitcases, or that it has been cracked if the ones we use are nylon, polyester or canvas.
In the PIR we will record the damage that our suitcase has suffered, as well as if any of the objects it transported has been broken because of the blows.
As we have indicated above and is responsible for remembering the State Air Security Agency (Aesa), “In incidents that occurred to destruction, loss and breakdown or delay of luggage, the airline will be, as a general rule, the person responsible for repairing or restoring the damage caused.” And insists on the importance of writing the claim before leaving the airfield: “In the counters of the airline, or if it had no presence at the airport to its agent Handling or representative ”, to whom you will be delivered to the PIR – in which we will have indicated the flight number, the labeling of the luggage and a description of the damage – and it will be required that they facilitate a copy.
In some cases, companies can also demand that we attach photographs of the damage that the suitcase has suffered to be able to have evidence that demonstrates the scope of the damages.
After pir
After formalizing the first step, which is the completion and delivery of the PIR, the next step is to present in writing a formal complaint in which the part of the irregularity of the luggage will be attached. These are the deadlines to do it, according to the Montreal Agreement that regulates these circumstances and in which “certain rules for international air transport” are unified:
- If you have been damaged your invoiced luggage with which you travel you only have a period of seven days to formalize your claim.
- The deadline is extended until 21 days in case your problem has been the delay of your suitcases.
- And for the loss of luggage, according to Aesa, “there is no limit established in the agreement, but it is recommended to make the claim as soon as possible, after 21 days during which the suitcase has been delayed, or after the airline You have confirmed that your luggage is lost. ”
As explained from the State Air Security Agency, if both parties fail to reach an agreement to resolve the conflict – being a private conflict – the way to resolve the issue is the judicial one for which a period of a period of Two years from the date of the flight in which our luggage has been damaged or lost.
Specifically, according to article 17.2 of the Montreal Convention, “the carrier is responsible for the damage caused in case of destruction, loss or breakdown of the luggage invoiced by the sole reason that the fact that caused the destruction, loss or breakdown has occurred aboard the aircraft or during any period in which the invoiced luggage was found in the custody of the carrier ”. However, it leaves the door open to it is not the responsibility of the carrier “to the extent that the damage is due to nature, to a defect or a vice of the luggage.”
If there is no agreement and the case comes to court the competent will be “the state of the carrier of the car Connection with more than one company, it is possible that it can be billed from the exit to the final destination. ” If that is your option, you could claim “against any of the companies that have transported the luggage.”
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