Lost, damaged and thrown out luggage and personal effects

[sharonp]

Hi there

Just wondering if you can assist with the best way to proceed with a claim from Emirates on an overseas holiday. Travelled with 18 month old baby and 3 adults and just arrived home.

1) The lost pram
Checked in a pram at Adelaide airport which never arrived in Dubai. Filled out appropriate paper work at Dubai to which they told me pram was at the airport just missing. I stressed that I needed a pram as we were there for 4 days and they gave me a broken umbrella stroller with no sun cover on it. I thought this would be ok for a short while as they were positive that I would have that pram that 'afternoon'. I have purchased a pram a year ago especially for travel, with a rain/sun cover, storage underneath, easy to fold and most importantly had the ability to lie baby back for sleeps out and about.
Over the next 4 days, 5 phone calls were made to Emirates. First the pram was in Dubai, then not in Dubai but in Adelaide, then not anywhere. On the last phone call I confirmed three phone numbers and an email address they could reach me on when the pram was located as we were traveling to Europe. They said I could keep the temporary pram as likely mine would arrive very 'shortly'.
Arrived in Milan and checked with Lost Baggage, no update, told me to email if heard nothing for another 7 days
Emailed 7 days later with all information and confirmation of email address and phone numbers. No response.
Called 7 days later and was told that the pram had been located and someone from Dubai baggage would be in touch to arrange delivery by the end of the day- no contact
Called again on 23rd Sept ( 1 week before due to come back) and was told that the file had been closed as the pram had been located. No one had called me or emailed and all phone numbers and email addresses were correct. Told them that I needed to have the pram and wanted to make a claim. Told me that someone would call by the end of the day. They checked the number and emaill address again. No one called. At this point became very frustrated as the lack of the pram had been a real pain- had to come back for all of baby's sleeps during the day as impossible to sleep in the prams that don't fold, and the pram was half broken and struggled with roads and footpaths (this was europe with cobblestones etc), as had no storage we had to always plan trips to supermarkts with taxis etc as couldn't put any weight on it as would fold with the child in it.
Arrived back in Adelaide and was told that the file had been closed ( I still don't have the pram!) and no one has contacted me either.
Even if I do want the pram back I want to be compensated for the pure inconvenience of having to travel with a broken and almost unusable stroller across Europe! I asked them on a couple of occasions whether I could purchase a new stroller and they mentioned that the pram had been located and was just a matter of their staff confirming delivery. Another time they told me that I could just keep the pram they gave me and this would be adequate compensation for the fact that I had gome 30 days without a pram!
The pram is worth $600.
I have photos of the completely inadequate/broken pram they gave us.

2) The baby blanket and sick passenger

All in all we had a pretty coughpy experience with Emirates- apart from the lost pram, Emirates staff also threw out a baby blanket that was a gift for my child's christening. we were seated in the exit row and there were three adults and luckily there was a spare seat so baby got a seat too. 3 hrs in a lady walked out of the bathroom and fainted in front of my husband. He went to assist her and in the end while we were waiting for the stewards to arrive (no one in sight) he gave her his seat so she could catch her breath. Stewards arrived and 6 of them for the next 3 hrs tried to work out a machine that measures her vitals which then reports back to a DR on the ground. None of these staff had any idea of how to use this machine and they crowded around her pulling cords left right and centre, forcing myself, a sleeping baby, my mother and husband to stand over three hours whilst they administered assistance. We also had to give up another seat as she required an oxygen tank. It wasn't until turbulence that one the hostess found a seat at the back of the plane for my mum, whilst my husband had to take her seat (10 rows down) and I had to sit by myself ( not helpful on a 13 hr flight). Apart from all of that, on three separate occasions, the woman vomitted and on the first occasions all over our personal possessions, including the blanket. The steward said that I could not have it as it was covered in vomit and she had placed it in a bio hazard bag. Whilst I certainly understand that this situation cannot be helped and people get sick and need assisted (and also the flight was full), I feel that the airline should have at least tried to have the blanket cleaned and returned to me. The way we were also treated whilst they were dealing with this sick passenger was pretty bad- it's hard enough travelling with a child let alone, when you are spread all throughout the plane (we had reserved those seats) for over 10 hours. I made mention of the blanket in the email sent to Emirates re the pram.

3) Damaged bag

Arrived back in Adelaide and to top off a wonderful experience!! we find that the pop up handle on our samsonite luggage is bent, broken and the metal has been completely serrated. I did not make cliam at the airport as we had just traveled for over 40 hours with a child and were dying to get home, plus there were 10 customers lining up at the baggage area.

So, apologies for this long email, but I would love some suggestions on how to tackle this with the airline ( who basically have told me to fill out a customer service form from their website- which I can't even find). Do I mention all three things to them in one form, do I make mention of how much compensation I want or do they decide that? How do I tackle the baby blanket?
Whilst I am happy to also make a claim on travel insurance, I do not think it is fair that I don't receive any compensation from the airline, whose customer service through the whole thins was SHOCKING.

Have photos of the damage.

Thanks!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Have a look at the damaged baggage policy for EK - I think claims for damaged bags need to be made within 7 days or something? Worth checking. (Unfortunately the EK website isn't immediately clear on the time limit.)

otherwise, document as much as you can, including the email trail with EK, and claim on your insurance if EK won't come to the party.

If the passenger was sick on the baby blanket I can sort of understand it might be classified as a bio-hazard. I guess they don't know why the passenger was sick - if it was something like a gastro-intestinal bug, they might have wanted to destroy that rather than allow it out of the bag to be cleaned. Doesn't help your loss, but perhaps understandable.

Welcome to AFF! Please keep us informed how it goes.

 

[YSSY]

Sounds like a nightmare journey, not what you need when travelling. I think if you set out logically what your issues are and how you should be compensated I think they will really need to consider your claim. I'm really surprised that they didn't move you into J or do something to help you with your baby in that situation.

 

[OzEire]

Just awful. I feel for your whole travelling party.

I would normally say just try to enjoy your holiday and deal with it when you get back, but I think that you might have better luck contacting EK now. I would have thought that an upgrade for your return journey would be the very least they can do.

EDIT: thanks Mannej I missed that OP is already home. This is not a minor complaint, it is an exceptional circumstance of significant inconvenience for the whole trip. EK need to learn from this, do better in future and compensate this pax. Any less should be good cause to add EK to the list of airlines not to trust with your major travel plans (eg. family holiday) where snafus like this can really drag such a trip down. I would be unhappy if this happened to me on a business trip, but livid if it happened to my family on holiday (which is, for me, a rare and precious luxury not to be risked on an airline that cannot get these things right, of fix things quickly when they go wrong). My 2c.

 

[DElliott]

Sorry to hear about your troubles .Recently travelled back from Europe with Emirates - picked up a damaged suitcase on arrival in Brisbane ! Contacted Brisbane Airport Services , who then passed on my details to Emirates -photos of damage, passport details ,copies of boarding passes and copy of the receipt of purchase of said suitcase etc duly submitted .Claim settled for the purchase price .Whole process took about 3 weeks .

 

[mannej]

Just awful. I feel for your whole travelling party.

I would normally say just try to enjoy your holiday and deal with it when you get back, but I think that you might have better luck contacting EK now. I would have thought that an upgrade for your return journey would be the very least they can do.

The OP is already back home.

I would be following up quickly with EK to get the ball rolling.

As for item number 2, I have 2 comments, One being does EK not have Exit Row seating requirements (i.e there are other airlines that won't sit infants or those below a certain age in Exit Rows). and Two being I can understand why EK would not return the baby blanket. Ultimately I guess their priority is with the sick pax, so that does take away from the whole experience as you were disrupted. There may not have been enough seats available to push the family up to the next class, but I guess the crew could always gain some new knowledge on how to handle these scenarios through debriefing.

 

[sharonp]

The OP is already back home.

I would be following up quickly with EK to get the ball rolling.

As for item number 2, I have 2 comments, One being does EK not have Exit Row seating requirements (i.e there are other airlines that won't sit infants or those below a certain age in Exit Rows). and Two being I can understand why EK would not return the baby blanket. Ultimately I guess their priority is with the sick pax, so that does take away from the whole experience as you were disrupted. There may not have been enough seats available to push the family up to the next class, but I guess the crew could always gain some new knowledge on how to handle these scenarios through debriefing.

-------------------------
Hi everyone

thanks for responding. I have done as suggested and filled out form with all information on it. thanks for the suggestions

Re some of the issues above
1) Sorry didn't mean exit row- infant row- the 4 seats at the front of the bulk head.
2) flight was apparently full- that's why they couldn't move us, however it was not so much the fact that they couldn't move us, it was the way they treated us- like we were the inconvenience and just ignored us completely. I would like to stress that my husband was the person who assisted her and helped and lifted her to the seat whilst we were waiting for stewards to arrive. The whole manner in which they went about it was completely unprofessional- as if they hadn;'t been trained enough on the machine and some of them were just standing around looking, whilst others where running around, others seated on the floor. It seemed like an OHS issue as well with all these wires and climbing over seats etc. It seemed they were just young and inexperienced in managing the whole situation.
3) I agree re the blanket- I understand why the needed to take it, and to be honest if they had offered for me to take it spoiled I wouldn't have done it as the woman could of had any disease- (apparently it was just low blood pressure which she suffered from) However, it was the way the whole situation was handled, and I feel that the compensation of the blanket is the least they could do. Also surely they could have had it professional cleaned and disinfected and returned to me?

I will keep you updated when I hear back.

Thanks

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I would like to stress that my husband was the person who assisted her and helped and lifted her to the seat whilst we were waiting for stewards to arrive.

The whole manner in which they went about it was completely unprofessional- as if they hadn;'t been trained enough on the machine and some of them were just standing around looking, whilst others where running around, others seated on the floor.

It seemed like an OHS issue as well with all these wires and climbing over seats etc. It seemed they were just young and inexperienced in managing the whole situation.

3) I agree re the blanket- I understand why the needed to take it, and to be honest if they had offered for me to take it spoiled I wouldn't have done it as the woman could of had any disease- (apparently it was just low blood pressure which she suffered from)

Did the crew at any stage do a P/A asking if there was a doctor or nurse on board?

 

[sharonp]

Did the crew at any stage do a P/A asking if there was a doctor or nurse on board?

I actually asked them why don't they do one and they said that company policy is now to hook people up to the machine and communicate with a dr on the ground. It was in the middle of the night so perhaps they didn't want to disturb the plane. Apparently another person on the flight was very ill and there was an ambulance waiting when we arrived. Sounds like a doomed flight overall. At least we didn't crash.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I actually asked them why don't they do one and they said that company policy is now to hook people up to the machine and communicate with a dr on the ground. It was in the middle of the night so perhaps they didn't want to disturb the plane.

Apparently another person on the flight was very ill and there was an ambulance waiting when we arrived. Sounds like a doomed flight overall. At least we didn't crash.

Wonder how long it'll be before someone dies mid-flight because of some ridiculous policy when a medically trained person onboard may have been willing to render assistance had they been asked.

It'll probably take a death & subsequent lawsuit before some muppet in management decides to reinvent the wheel & makes it okay to do onboard P/A's again.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Take them to VCAT

 

[markis10]

Take them to VCAT

How, its outside VCATs coverage area as neither party are in Victoria?

 

[Sprucegoose]

How, its outside VCATs coverage area as neither party are in Victoria?

If that's the case the jurisdiction of the transaction. But the point was a small claims type of settlement as it appears to be just that.


Emirates should respond to social media pressure. It does show up the difference we all feel in terms of crew training and procedures. Which also reflects the remuneration.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

It does show up the difference we all feel in terms of crew training and procedures. Which also reflects the remuneration.

Sounds like the cabin crew training course spent more time showing F/A's how to attach the red scrunchie to their bun than they did on first aid.

 

[pblackie]

I had a flight with Emirates a few years back and spent several months of emails and phone calls trying to sort it out, nothing major they gave me the points earnings for an economy flight and not business class - I had originally booked economy but then paid the fare difference to upgrade to Business. After emails and phone calls bouncing back and forwards and getting nowhere I sent an email and cc'd Tim Clark in ([email protected]) within an hour I received a phone call from Dubai saying the issue had been resolved, might be worth a try to speed things up?