Modern air travel is stressful enough without the abuse that some airlines inflict on passengers. If you are a legitimate victim of airline abuse and reasonable attempts at redress have been ignored or refused by the airline, I encourage you to submit a complaint via the CEDR to send a clear message to the airline that this behaviour will not be tolerated. The process is free if you are successful or £25 if you are unsuccessful. Please let me know about your success stories!
If you need legal help, I haven't used Bott & Co Solicitors personally but they have some good advice on their website about claiming compensation from airlines and have a no-win no-fee no-risk guarantee.
On June 3rd at about 6:30am, I got to Heathrow to catch my flight to Italy. I only had my carry on bag as my main luggage went from Toronto all the way to Italy so I had no bags to check. I went to a BA rep to get my passport checked and whatnot. He asked me if I had any bags to check. I told him no, this is my carry on. He asked me to put it on the scale. I said ok, but it's my carry on. He said he needed to see it. So I put it on the scale. As I was getting my passport ready to give to him, I noticed my bag was gone. I said excuse me, where is my bag? He said and I quote "oh no, I am sorry ma'am" He got his co-workers attention at the next desk over and said "I put this lady's carry on through bag check with no tag" She said there is no way she can get it now. So he called down to bag claim and informed me that my bag would either be at the gate before I boarded or it will be in Bologna when I get off my flight. When I arrived at the gate to board my flight, I spoke to two people. A gentleman and a lady who asked me “did one of my BA reps do this?” I said yes. She took down my information (name, email, phone number, and the contact info of where I was staying in Italy) and told me she would keep me posted on the whereabouts of my bag. When I got to Bologna, we spoke to Antonio in Lost and Found. He gave us the number to file a claim, took the description of my bag and told us that as soon as the bag comes, they will ship it to where I was staying. I still have not heard anything from the lady who took down my information at Heathrow. To this day, I have still not heard anything. Instead of being updated on the whereabouts of my carry on, I had to purchase two calling cards in order to call London because nobody was calling me. The lack of customer service was atrocious. After I got through to a BA rep, they informed that my bag would be delivered to me the next day. I did not receive my bag after 4 days. As a result of not having my carry on, I could not purchase anything due to the fact that my wallet was in my carry on. I could not eat, store my contacts, wear my glasses and could not take my medication. I complained to BA via Twitter and they told me that they would compensate me for "essentials" and to send my receipts. I did just that and they declined my claim. First of all, they kept saying my bag was delayed. This is not an everyday occurrence where a bag gets delayed. This man failed to do his job properly and put my CARRY ON through to bag check with NO TAG after I told him twice that it was my CARRY ON. I don't think carry on's go missing on a daily basis due to being put through to bag check after he was basically told not too. In a special situation like this, I would expect BA to take ownership of their mistake and go above and beyond and compensate me for the 91 Euros that I am asking for. I could be asking for a free trip or upgrade to first class when I came back home, but all I am asking for is what I had to pay for in the 4 days that I did not have my bag due to an incompetent BA rep. This has been going on for almost a month now and I refuse to give up because what this man did was wrong. It may have been a mistake, he obviously was not listening to me and not paying attention, but BA has done nothing to help me. Attached is my Twitter conversation with about 10 different BA reps (which is also very unprofessional. There should be one rep assigned to one issue). British Airways lack of customer service is disgusting and I am working on going to the media with my story because it is not everyday that an airline rep loses someone's carry on. Goes without saying that I will never fly with them again. They deserve to be boycotted and thrown out of business!