Monday, January 30, 2012

What to do when your luggage was damaged?

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Damaged
Our trip to Mallorca, Spain in 2008 was something unforgettable. Not because it was a wonderful experience but because that trip had us suffering almost every traveler's nightmare.

First, there was an almost six hour delayed flight, we used Thomas Cook/Condor, which resulted in us cooling our heels in an airport hotel and spending midnight in the airport while waiting for our flight to be called. And then arriving at our hotel at 6 am when the kids, who managed to sleep in the bus ride to the hotel, cant sleep anymore.

And then the flight back which was horrible for MC as she was only throwing up during the two hour flight. And then our luggage ending up so damaged that my husband had no choice but to spend more precious time complaining about it. The grip was completely broken (see photo) and the locks, too. Good thing we had a luggage belt to keep our things in tact!

Well, since we don't really have any idea on what to do about it and MC is still weak from the flight -- I had to wait for my husband alone with two cranky kids.

What did we discover when it comes to reporting damaged luggages?

1. Go directly to the airline counter where you are booked.

2. Report the damage, show them the bag.

3. Don't forget to keep your record of the flight -- number, seats, date and time. And don't forget to ask about the name of the person you talked to.

4. In our case, the person told us someone from DHL would call to pick up the damaged luggage in a few days time. They would have to look at it and consider if it could still be repaired or if we could get a replacement.

5. After a couple of days, DHL called and said they are ready to pick up the luggage. Well, they arrived the same day, too.

6. After a day, a call came to us saying that the luggage cannot be repaired so that we would be getting a new luggage that would more or less be the same size as the one that was damaged.

7. And then another day and our new luggage arrived! It was better, bigger and lighter than our old battered one.
New
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Let me tell you, we were really surprised how fast they handled it. Just so sorry that their airplanes can't bring us as fast to our Mallorca vacation.

5 comments:

rommel said...

Wow - so complains actually work. If that happened to me - I'm sure I'll just take it home and add it to my horrible experience. But you did better as it was replaced - good on you.

anney said...

Wow! Buti na lang ni replace nila yung damaged luggage nyo at ang bilis. I wonder kung ganyan din dito sa Pinas.

haze said...

You took an insurance ano ? I think it is good to pay extra fee for the insurance din so in any case like this we will be taken care of. Ang ganda ng luggage bagong bago ah :D !

Elaine said...

That's great Keng after all the hassle you have a new luggage. Elaine

raqgold said...

hi rommel, since we are still in the airport when we saw the damaged, we decide to complain already. or else we'd forget about it, too.

anney, am sure as long as you make kulit and you show them the damage immediately, there'll be compensations. sana :-)

haze, we have an insurance but since it was the airline's fault, they paid for the luggage. and mind you, maganda talaga tapos magaan pa sya. luma na sya ngayon kasi that happened in 2008 pa.

elaine, oo nga e. it was good that we complained agad.