PIA managed to lose one of my suitcases last month when we travelled from London to Islamabad. At the time I didn’t really do anything about it…we’d waited for it for nearly two hours until it became clear that there was nothing else coming out on the conveyor belt. We reported it to an aiport official who brushed us off stating that someone else had probably taken our suitcase by accident and bereated us for having a black suitcase in the first place. No paperwork was exchanged, they simply weren’t interested in taking our details either and we ended up leaving the airport without the missing suitcase as no one was willing to assist. The airport officials said to contact the airline and the airline keep referring me back to the airport.
I’m now back from my trip to pak and want to take the matter further, who should I contact and how? I’ve accepted that the suitcase is probably long gone but I can’t even claim on my insurance for the missing case without any formal acknowledgement from either the airport or airline of the matter.
Any help or assistance on the matter would be much appreciated.
The same thing happened to my hubby, the airport officials were idiot's who weren't helpful at all and we also were not given any paperwork, its been two yrs now, did try to get answers and emailed the airport and airline then but got nowhere :(
I hope you find your suitcase and dont back down like we did :)
highly unusual. if your bag doesn't arrive, the airline staff writes up a 'lost baggage report' and then they electronically trace the bag and tell you exactly where the bags are and when they will deliver it at your address. airport has nothing to do with your lost bags. airline is responsible. they have the policy to reimburse you for late arrival of baggage.
how did you go thru the customs without a 'lost baggage report'? you have to mention number of bags you are bringing in the country on your landing card.
write to the General Manager of PIA Operations.
recently, my Bhabhi's parents lost two of the four suitcases in India and British Airways readily told them where the bags were and they would deliver them to their address...they did deliver the bags two days later in another city 400 miles away!
No one was willing to fill out any report or even acknowledge that our suitcase had not arrived. I've never had to fill in a landing card let alone declare the number of bags being bought into the country on any trip to pakistan. No one checks anything when you exit through customs let alone check the number of bags you are taking with you or whether they are even your bags. The airline are not accepting responsibility but the airport wouldn't give me any paperwork to state that I had reported the bag as missing and in Islamabad airport there aren't any staff who solely represent PIA so I had no choice but to ask the airport staff for assistance.
British Airways are known for their customer service so I'm not surprised that your bhabhis parents got their luggage back.
We had a similar issue at Islamabad airport. The bag was not lost, but it arrived damaged. At first the airport officials refused to accept responsibility and didn't want any kind of paperwork done. But I was quite adamant, created a big issue about it and got a bit loud. Then they finally did agree to fill out a "Damaged Luggage report". Unfortunately being loud seems to be the only language these guys understand.
@Brit Chick: Since there is no paperwork related to your bag I'm afraid you will never see it again.
You should never have let the matter rest when you arrived In Islamabad. Not having any paperwork to substantiate the situation does make the matter very difficult to prove/resolve.
Where in the UK are you? Is there a PIA office there?
i fail to understand how she could go through customs/immigration without her bags and landing card…everywhere else in the world you fill out a card before landing **[landing card from the customs and immigration] **declaring details of your travel documents and the articles [including number of bags] you are bringing in the country for custom purposes [in which you claim personal exemptions] in order to pay excise duty on the import.
btw, yesterday, the chairman of the PIA [some retired general] admitted in the supreme court that the services of 3 pilots were terminated because they had FAKE DEGREES who have been flying Boeing 777 on international routes, including Canada and the US! now, they have launched investigation to root out other employees with fake credentials.
Let's just talk about her lost luggage and not start dissing the airline or the country whenever you get a chance.
Brit Chick: You shouldn't have left the airport without lodging a complaint. Like Umer said, because you have no paperwork.. you won't get the luggage back. It has happened twice to people I know but they lodged complaints and they did get their luggage back so it's not like they want people to lose their luggage and not do anything about it because it hurts their reputation.
When you checked in at London, upon departure, they stick that baggage claim tag on your ticket envelope, for tracking. Do you still have that? Did anyone at the airport ask for your baggage claim receipt. It seems like that would be the easiest way to find the suitcase.
I had the same thing happen to me at KHI airport, but they were able to track my bag (which turns out was stuck in Dubai) and it arrived to us about 3 days later
A. It's been so long. Now nothing will happen.
B. No wonder the airline is dying. Good riddance. Privatize it and allow some competition. Why does it cost £80 from the UK to Turkey but £500 odd when traveling to Pak next door!!
You should've made a formal lost report. Airport had nothing to do with lost baggage. It's airlines responsibility. You can call the airlines to see if they'll do something but honestly you have no paper work.
Happened to me few times with emirates. They always delivered my bags as son add they found them to my house. They even paid my dad money for his lost suitcase.
I don't get why ppl still travel with PIA.. they don't do anything right.
Thanks for the replies guys. I've kind of made peace with the fact that I will never see my suitcase again.....for those wondering why I didn't kick up a fuss at the airport, well we hung around for over two hours trying to get someone to acknowledge that we were missing a suitcase and give us some official paperwork but were getting nowhere. The airport officials wouldn't help and said it was down to PIA and there were no PIA staff, let alone any baggage services desk (not that we could see anyway). After over two hours of getting nowhere we had to just leave the airport, we had people waiting for us outside, some of whom had ill health and my baby was getting cranky and needed feeding - let's not get started on the lack of baby feeding/changing facilities at the airport either, I had to change his nappy on the floor and there was absolutely no quiet private corner for me to nurse my baby.
I do have the baggage claim tag sticker thing for the case that is missing, but the suitcases are never checked when leaving the airport and it is highly possible that someone has simply taken my case with their own luggage in which case I'm not sure whether tracking it would be any use. And I'm not sure how to track it anyway.
Muzna, I'm in the UK. I would imagine that there must be a PIA office here somewhere although we only book our tickets through agents. Do you think that they would assist? I don't seem to be getting anywhere at all with this and my travel insurance will compensate me to some extent but obviously I need some paperwork or acknowledgement from PIA over the missing case.
And as for why we travel with PIA - it's the only airline that flies direct to islamabad from london and gives us 40kg allowance each (although I ended up losing a suitcase anyway so that purpose was somewhat defeated :p)
well if you had the luggage tag, the airlines should have been able to tell you if it made it to the airport or didnt. isnt that the whole point of tagging luggage and giving you the tag numbers?
It happened to a relative of mine once. He reported it to the airport authorities and they gave him a slip. After a week the suitcase turned up and he got a call from them to say that his suitcase had turned up and he could come and pick it up.
