What happens when luggage is lost?

Just came home from a wonderful weekend in Rome, but without our suitcase!!! Aer Lingus told me that they will call me if they locate it,but if I havent heard from them after 21 days,they will class it as lost. Question is, Do I have to have receipts for every single item? GHD's arent cheap ,I have it about a yr and a half,couldnt tell you where the reciept is,same with his ipod. we bought xmas presents in Rome,didnt keep the reciepts as they are jigsaws,toy cars etc. I would love my suitcase back but if it never seen again,how does the process work with claiming insurance.I have VHI travel insurance,when I rang them they fobbed me off and told me to go threw aer lingus.
Help,please. ps ,we arrived home on Sunday morning.

VHI was correct in sending you back to Aer Lingus. For now, there is no claim as your luggage is not officially lost yet. If Aer Lingus really end up declaring it lost in three weeks, you can start looking into getting some money back.

Unfortunately, I fear you will be very disappointed with the amount. Your luggage is insured through the airline but the maximum amount is laughable. Even with all the receipts in the world, they would not pay you more than a few hundred euro. In theory, your VHI travel insurance might take over and cover the rest. But I have yet to hear of an actually useful travel insurance policy. Generally, people buy those to feel good about "being covered". When something goes wrong, they then discover that travel insurance is totally useless. And where it covers something, that cover is usually a duplication of one you already have - such as your Aer Lingus luggage insurance.

The best you can do is hope your luggage is found. Otherwise, you will end up shouldering most of the loss.

Number 1 - It's highly likely (90%+) that your case will turn up on the next Aer Lingus flight from Rome to Dublin ... they'll have given you a reference number (something like DUBEI12345) to look up the status of the bag (you can probably do this on Aerlingus.com - or if not google "Worldtracer") - keep checking that and you should see where your bag is before Aer Lingus call you.

Only if your bag doesn't turn up then you need to worry about claiming for it ... Aer Lingus liability for your baggage is based on weight - from memory about US$20 per kilo ? - it's governed by IATA regulations anyway - so if you checked a 15kg bag then the maximum they'll pay is $300 if they declare it lost - So VHI are correct in directing you to Aer Lingus in the first instance ... Your next port of call beyond this is your travel insurance, read the Ts&Cs but assuming they included baggage cover (not all insurances do) they should then "top up" the payment for your loss to replacement value (subject to excess/max payout limits in the policy).. Yes they require receipts .. but if you itemise the contents of your luggage and submit receipts for the replacement items they should accept them in lieu of original receipts... The one time that I genuinely lost my luggage forever (with the old Swissair just before they collapsed) this is what I did and it was fine ... As ever insurance companies never make it easy to get payouts, but if you're honest and persistent then they'll come through in the end.

Hi,

dont give up hope yet - a huge proportion of lost baggage are eventually found.

A couple of years ago my bag went missing on a flight to Naples. It was never found, so I claimed the bag and contents on my travel insurance.
I didnt have many recipts (after a month you cant return most clothes etc, so I dont keep all my receipts. Also I had bought many items with cash from birthday money, so didnt even have the backup of credit card statements for many items).
Luckily I am an organised packer, and had done a packing list before I went, so I knew exactly what was in the bag, and was able to provide this list to the insurers. I gave whatever proof I had (label from an item, box it came in etc), but for over half my items I had no available proof. The insurers accept this, and issued a cheque for what I claimed minus excess of E75.
So try your insurers when you hear back from AL.

Shiraz.

About 12 years ago I was flying with British Midlands (now BMI) to Heathrow and my luggage came up on the carosuel split open with the contents spilling on to the conveyor

Lost a number of items alright but the only thing that was worth anything was a pair of glasses. I contacted the airline and they told me to buy a new pair and they would re-imburse me. I duly did so and (after a little bit of hassle due not to have completed the claim properly) I got re-imbursed fully