Totally ignoring mr Attitude's useless suggestion to send all luggage via courier.. let me try one more time to see if Mehnaz_Q understands why she is going round in circles.
The airline is RESPONSIBLE for your luggage. They CAN NOT shift the blame to the airport. You should NOT be talking to Karachi Airport folks (that is so stupid). Ask Gulf Airways that they should COMPENSATE you for the loss, and that you are not interested in their cock-and-bull stories about thieves roaming around in Karachi Airport. Whatever the case, it is AIRLINE's RESPONSIBILITY to safeguard your luggage.
If you can't be bothered anymore, then just forget about it all, and carry on with your lives. At a minimum you are leaving a few hundred bucks on the table, which the airlines would give you without blinking if you make even a slight effort to pin this thing on them, without being side-tracked into thieves-in-Karachi-airport-story.
hahaha.. good question. What right does a thief has to steal your stuff?
By the way theft from airports is neither something new nor is a Karachi-special. A few years ago, American Airlines was hammered by the exact same scandal, where their employees will frequently rip open bags INSIDE the aircraft’s luggage compartment and get away with valuables. If I remember correctly, the AA employees referred to it as “lets go shopping!”.
The solution was that American Airlines enforced strict security over passenger baggage and installed security cameras all over. They did NOT shift the blame on thieves-roaming-the-Atlanta-airport-so-we-can’t-do-anything-about-it.
As bad as the idea of befrieding a lawyer may sound, it is here they come in real handy.
A nice letter using the letterhead of a lawyer, spinning some lagal mumbo jumbo usually goes a long way to get the airlines to stand up and say "We are sorry about the whole thing. We will compensate you for your loss". :)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MehnazQ: *
Yaar, I can't be bothered anymore. I've written the airline, e-mailed them and phoned them and gotten no response at all. Oh well.
[/QUOTE]
Oh well... further enforces my suggestion.
Faisal... my suggestion isn't "useless" because:
It saves you hell of a time and possibly your luggage when you know thugs are out to get your stuff any chance they get.
How does it save you time?
-less wait at check-in/out lines at the airport.
-Less hassles with the security, and when they make you open your luggage!!!
-your luggage is secured and possibily insured to arrive at the destination as it was packed.
-you don't have to spend hours and hours dealing with the "no customer" service problems at airport or with the airlines which does not give a damn about your luggage to begin with as we have seen in case of mehnazQ.
ALL this means is that you get in and out of the airport rather quickly and have more time to relax and spend with your family members... at what few hundred dollars more?
Now you don't have to send ALL luggage through the carrier if you have tight pockets but send a package full of expensive and important items just in case... just in case you realize that your stuff could be stolen at the airport and airport management or airline people wouldn't give a rats ass no matter how much you call or write them.
You are in no position to tell the airline what to do, but you are in position to secure your items anyway possible and so far i haven't seen you suggesting anything better other than call up the airline... that is rather stupid-a few steps ahead of useless. ;)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
So, Mr Attitude, how many people do you think send their luggage via DHL, while they themselves travel on Air France for a two week vacation in Paris?
And at the same time, how many people do you think contact the airline when they lose/misplace their luggage?
[/QUOTE]
I don't have the exact # your majesty but I believe its close to not many... but then again paris airport may not be full of robbers and airfrance may not be customer unfriendly like the one in mehnaz's case.
For your 2nd question, I don't know how many but most of them don't get a "good" answer anyway. And same people are stupid enough to travel on the same airline possibily losing their stuff again.
Well, jabb pata nahi hai, tau aisay hi fantiyaaN tau na na marein aap.
Let me tell you. People keep valuables in their hand baggage. Fazool samaan (Kapray latay etc) are in checked baggage. And the reason people don’t courier their luggage separately is because the price of the airline ticket has built in charges for 30-70 kg (depending on whether you are flying into North America or not) of your luggage. Only a complete idiot will then mail his luggage separately.
Personally speaking, I have a good success rate with the airlines.
They damaged a suitcase at one time (utha ke phainktay hein badtameez ). When I picked it up at the baggage claim, I noticed the damaged ends. Took it to the Airlines baggage complaints section and told them they damaged it and I am not accepting it. After some stone-walling, they accepted the claim and told me they will fly a replacement suitcase for me the next day. They called me the next day that the replacement suitcase is here and they are going to deliver it to me. It came, and it was about 75% the size of the one they had damaged. I called them up and said I am not interested in this one, and they should take it back and give me $150 so I can buy a same-size replacement from the shop. They apologized and promised a same-size replacement. It arrived two days later, which they delivered. I called them to come and pick up the earlier smaller replacement, but they insisted I keep that one too, courtesy of the airlines, and apologized for the inconvenience. It was Continental Airlines.
My baggage didn’t arrive with me (surprise, surprise!). I filed the claim with the Airlines. They told me they will find out where it went and will call me in the next two days. I said, well, thats fine.. but they need to compensate me, because there is stuff there, which I needed to use the next day (kapray, jootay etc) and now I have to buy all that stuff. They said, their policy is not to compensate if the baggage arrives within three days. I said BS. THey need to give me atleast $500 so I can buy shirt, trousers and shoes for a meeting I have to attend the next day. After some negotiation, those cheapsters agreed to pay me $300 upfront and then $150 per day after day 2. They made sure I got my baggage the next day. I was asked to provide them receipts of my purchases. This was NorthWest Airlines.
We flew Thai from Japan to Bangkok and then connected to PIA. The over-weight baggage (99 lbs) never made it to Lahore. It had some irreplacable documents in it (client documents and all that fun stuff - nothing personal). We filed the claim and told them they HAVE to produce the baggage. After one week, they came back empty handed. Then we applied some pressure through PIA’s head office in Islamabad, and after another two weeks, they finally managed to locate the bag and got it to Lahore. When I went to pick it up from Lahore Airport, I was amazed by the number of stickers on the friggin’ thing. It had travelled half the world. Considering it was already over-weight (we paid a handsome amount of excess baggage at check-in for that), it was a small wonder they were transporting it to all the exotic locations in Africa and Middle Earth. Idiots!
It is quite sad to hear that Can you please give me your flight details. I think it will be worth to atleast send a fax to Civil Aviation and the airline. My experience tells that Karachi airport has been much safer then any airport in the region. However there are always exceptions.
Gulf is the worst airline when it comes to luggage handling. For last 7 years I have been hearing complaints of lost or missing luggage every time anyone I know travels with Gulf.
Its time to say good by to old Gulf and Emirates (which is now in C grade BTW). Wait for Air Blue to come to TO or choose Singapore Airlines instead. No flight leaves until all luggage is passed through in Airline's screening, monitoring and handling. They do real care for their passengers.
Smoothie, when we went for Hajj, we had no choice but to travel via Gulf Airlines .... AGAIN. What happened this time round is another story altogether which I wrote about before. Hajj group arranged it all so we didn't have a say.
If you have any choice or say at all, stay away from this airline.
). When I picked it up at the baggage claim, I noticed the damaged ends. Took it to the Airlines baggage complaints section and told them they damaged it and I am not accepting it. After some stone-walling, they accepted the claim and told me they will fly a replacement suitcase for me the next day. They called me the next day that the replacement suitcase is here and they are going to deliver it to me. It came, and it was about 75% the size of the one they had damaged. I called them up and said I am not interested in this one, and they should take it back and give me $150 so I can buy a same-size replacement from the shop. They apologized and promised a same-size replacement. It arrived two days later, which they delivered. I called them to come and pick up the earlier smaller replacement, but they insisted I keep that one too, courtesy of the airlines, and apologized for the inconvenience. It was Continental Airlines.