Sharing my faith and my life one day at a time.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Damaged Luggage and Contents

We are now back in Manila safely. Thank you to everyone who prayed for our long travel from Omaha.

Although we were flying on standby, the flights were couldn't go more smoothly. Transition between flights were seamless and our boarding passes were ready as we checked in.

As we happily landed into the city I call home, I anticipated the release of our luggage by the carousel. We had 4 pieces of total luggage.

As we got grabbed the first 3 pieces and placed them all firmly into the cart, we were a little puzzled to see that the 4th piece was wrapped in clear plastic. Robert and I gave each other a confused look.

My husband took out the plastic wrap and this was how my blue Delsey luggage looked like.




Having really low expectations on how airlines take care of their consumers, I was prepared to just go home and take the losses. My heart was so heavy and felt that this incident was terribly unfair that I was not going to be compensated for the loss.



A gentleman standing beside us recommended that we go to the Delta counter to file a claim for the damage done to my luggage under their care. The man behind the counter was warm and patiently guided me through the process of filing a claim.

He asked me to fill out this form.


Here are some of the damaged contents.








Honestly, I think something exploded and unfortunately, it hit my luggage. At this point, I am not angry or upset. No one did this on purpose and I choose to have faith in Delta Airlines to process my claim and compensate with this liability fairly.

I filed the claim Monday morning with all supporting documents and photos. Delta Airlines called back yesterday evening to let us know that the request has been received and will be processed ASAP.

There was a voice of shock from the Delta employee who called. He asked if we were "sure" that the claim is only worth $420.

It made me realize that over-estimation of the cost of damaged property is common during these incidents. I still prefer to declare the correct amount of the cost of each item.

Right now, I am waiting to hear from the Delta headquarters in Atlanta. They say it may take 4-6 weeks to process the claim.

I will give an update on the progress of their response.

7 comments

irmaloveslife said...

I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your luggage. But glad that it did not do any major damage to something very valuable.

Yes it's sad how people tend to "overclaim." And what do they get after they cheated, right?

malouatienza said...

I never thought that it's that bad when you were making kwento about it. Good thing though that the damaged items are something you can always replaced with. More than anything else, I'm glad that you are safe and sound back home. :)

Samantha Johnson said...

Thank you Irma and Malou for caring. Really hope they attend to the reimbursement promptly.

admin said...

i'm sorry to hear about this, sam. at least nothing happened to the plane itself. maybe the claim will come in handy for something you may need in the future.

take care! :)

Anonymous said...

This just happened to me today on an SFO-ATL-SAV flight. Nearly the exact same damage, but with a little deeper cut that managed to melt some clothes and bend some steel. Did your claim ever go through?

Samantha Johnson said...

Hi there! I am so sorry to hear about what happened to you. It now makes me wonder what takes place during the flights that causes this kind of damage?

Yes -- my claim went through! It took a while though, about 8 weeks but it came at the perfect time.

Just make you sure you take as many pictures as possible, and declare the true value of each item (look up the prices on the web if unsure). This ensures a smooth payment for your claim.

Hope it works out!

Samantha Johnson said...

Oh another thing, here is the blog entry that updated the readers on the claim. Hope it helps!

http://www.happysammy.org/2010/09/update-damaged-luggage-and-contents.html

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