One evening, we had just finished dealing with a case at London Heathrow, and were on our way out, when we noticed two men wandering around aimlessly, looking lost and befuddled. We approached them and asked them if there was anything we could do to help.
They explained that they were part of a group of 11 passengers who had travelled from Warsaw to New York via London Heathrow. The plane from Warsaw to Heathrow was a small plane, and as a result the cabin crew took the hand-luggage from all the members of the group for stowing, advising that they would get their bags back when they landed in London. Upon arrival they were told that they could find their bags on the luggage carousel. However, their bags were nowhere to be found.
The other nine members of the group decided that their bags must have been transferred to their connecting flight, and being concerned about missing the connection, they rushed to catch the flight. These two men, however, having food for their onward journey and some valuable items in their hand luggages did not want to leave Heathrow without having found out what happened to their bags.
But despite talking to several people, nobody seemed to be able to tell them what was going on. At some point they were told that the only baggage found under their names was 11 suitcases. Since they were only 2 people, they decided that it could not be their baggage.
And this is when we found them. Wandering around the terminal, having missed their connecting flight, and still no idea where their bags were. When they approached the check-in desk for the Airline, the airline wanted to sell them a one-way ticket to New York for $1700 each.
Upon hearing this tale, we approached the Airline desk and spoke to a member of staff. After a brief conversation we immediately assessed what had happened. When the cabin crew took the 11 hand-luggages from the entire group, they put all those bags under one name, and just by luck, it happened to be under the name of one of these gentlemen. When the airline had advised them that they had 11 suitcases under their name, nobody made the connection that it might belong to the entire group, and therefore they dismissed it as not being theirs.
Once we figured out what the problem was we could arrange for the retrieval of the luggage. However, there was the small issue that the Airline wouldn’t release just two bags, as according to them it was one consignment and therefore they couldn’t break it up.
However, before dealing with that, the concern was to get these two men on the earliest possible flight back to New York. We approached the Airlines desk and explained that the reason why the missed the flight was because of this whole palaver, and therefore the customers were not entirely at fault for missing their plane, and therefore should not have to pay an astronomical fare. Once the ticketing desk understood what had happened, and confirmed it with the relevant baggage handlers, they accepted that the customers only missed the flight because of a situation caused by the airline, the Airline booked them on the first flight the next morning at no charge.
With the two passengers booked on a flight, we could now try to get their bags. The Airline did not want to release just the two bags saying that they either take all 11 or none. The gentlemen had personal documents including driving licences, credit cards, a bit of cash, some food, and various other items that they didn’t want to leave behind.
We asked the airline what will happen to the bags if the passengers don’t take them. They explained, that as all the bags belonged to passengers who were on a connecting flight to New York, these bags were tagged to travel to New York at some point, but they couldn’t guarantee when and on which flight.
We explained to the airline that the fact that they had 11 bags that they didn’t want to break up was not really the problem of these two men. They simply wanted their bags back. But since we try to mediate and assist both passengers and the airline, we came to an agreement.
We accepted that the airline could not break up the 11 bags, but we asked them for reassurance that all those bags would be on the next flight to New York i.e. the flight that these two men were booked on. The Airline readily promised that they would ensure to put the bags on that flight.
Flyaison Case Involvement:
- Upon hearing the tale from the two men we immediately knew to contact the baggage handling department.
- We didn’t insist on the Airline splitting up the luggage but come to a mutually agreeable solution.
- The passengers were happy that they knew that their luggage was safe and they didn’t have to pay $1700 per ticket.