While travelling, avoid keeping valuables in check-in baggage

Ever wondered about the safety of baggage that you check-in while you embark on an international travel?

Ever wondered about the safety of baggage that you check-in while you embark on an international travel?

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Well, Soci’ete’ Internationale de Tele’communications Ae’ronautique’s (SITA), which provides baggage tracking and tracing solutions to over 500 airlines and 125 airports around the world and publishes an annual ‘baggage report’, gives you the real picture. Accordingly, during 2012, the air transport industry worldwide received a whopping 26.04 million complaints about ‘mishandled baggage’, which works out to 8.83 complaints for 1,000 passengers.

Of these 26.04 million complaints, 3.35 million accounted for damaged and pilfered bags, while 1.093 million complaints were related to lost or stolen bags. The rest, constituting 82.9 per cent of the total complaints, were about delayed baggage.

According to the SITA report, several factors lead to baggage delays, including tagging, loading and ticketing errors. But the largest number of goof-ups happen when passengers are changing flights en route to their final destination. In 2012, for example, 12.5 million ‘transfer bags’ were mishandled (as against 13.67 million in 2011)

I quote these statistics for a specific purpose— to warn consumers against keeping valuables like jewellery, cash, important documents (particularly documents that are irreplaceable) and even expensive electronic items in their check-in baggage. If for some reason, you need to keep some valuable goods in your check-in luggage, inform the airlines about it at the time of check-in, declare its value and pay additional sum or fare for it.

I would also suggest that if you have made some purchases before your journey, keep those receipts safe. It is also important to put an identification tag securely on your check-in baggage, with your surname, e-mail ID and contact number. You can put a similar tag inside the bag too. Keep the identification tag distinct so that your bag is not picked up from the carousal by another passenger by mistake.

Despite these precautions, if your baggage gets lost or stolen, what are your rights vis-à-vis the airline? I will deal with that issue next week.

Vishwanath: The last time my family and I had a holiday abroad, in 2008, the airline lost one of our baggage on the return trip. We had made a lot of purchases for the family at home and they were all in that suitcase. I made a claim for R82,000 but what I got was only USD 400 . We are again going on a holiday — to Europe— and this time I want some tips on how to protect my baggage.

I think I have already answered your question. I would only like to add that in 2008, compensation for lost baggage was governed by Carriage by Air Act 1972, under which compensation was calculated on the basis of the weight of the lost baggage (as declared in the baggage tag or receipt) and limited to USD20 per kilogram.

In 2009, India finally amended the Carriage by Air Act to incorporate the compensation regime outlined in the Montreal Convention, 1999. So as per the amended Act, applicable to international carriers, compensation for loss of baggage is limited to a maximum of 1000 Special Drawing Rights. But, even to get this, you have to prove the value of the goods in the lost baggage!

Your travel insurance may also cover the loss of baggage, but you need to check the terms and conditions as well as the exclusion clauses carefully.