Insurers and luggage.

[wheels36 450]

The issue of luggage insurance seems to be quite a grey issue after you have checked in, when the insurer stipulates that loss issues are firstly with the airline/cruise line. This raises the question as to when responsibility for luggage passes back to the passenger, and where does responsibility lie when the luggage is outside of the cabin, whether at the start or end of the cruise.

[Guest Solent Richard]

Good point Wheels.

 

Celebrity lost one of my suitcases while disembarking in Buenos Aires and initially were very keen for me to claim on my insurance.

 

I wasn't having any of it and, to be fair to them, they eventually found it and had it shipped back to UK via Fedex.

 

It was fun tracking it across three continents...

 

 

 

...eventually arriving at Solent Towers...

 

 

Followed by a 'One Third' off future cruise certificate. 

[cruise chef 866]

From my own experience on this the responsibility is the only the passengers when you have control of your luggage, so from the time it is left outside your door on ship to the quayside it is the cruise operators and from the time it is checked in to offloading it from the carousel is the airlines.

It has to be said that sometimes neither of them are the most careful!!!!!

[seawitch 291]

We traveled with my son and his girlfriend on Princess a few years ago and when the luggage had been offloaded at Southampton the handle was missing from her suitcase and the wheels had been broken. We went straight to the helpdesk who were very unhelpful they refused to take any responsibility for the damage and suggested she claim on her travel insurance. The problem was she was travelling home from Southampton by train and couldn't even lift the case without the handle. My son had to buy a train ticket to travel home with her so we could fit the suitcase into our car. We then had to divert from our journey home to drop off the case and pick up our son. She never received any money back for the damaged case and we were all out of pocket because we had to change travel arrangements.

[Captain Kidd II 798]

Interesting comments. When you hand your bags over you have decided to do so even though you could take them onboard yourself. It coukd therefore be argued that any third party handling cases are doing so at the owners risk and so any claim woukd be against the passenger's insurance.

If you want complete peace of mind then take the bags on yourself.

[cruise chef 866]

Sorry to hear of that Seawitch, mine was a similar expereince and also Princess. My case was on the Quayside with a big slash in it and you could put your hand inside. It was post 9/11 so I refused to leave until they had done something about it as I said they had compromised my safety at the airport as I couldnt answer yes/no to the question 'has anyone tampered with your luggage' they finally agreed to pay for a new case as the damage occured whilst in their hands.

If it happens in future stick them out!!!

[wheels36 450]

Interesting comments. When you hand your bags over you have decided to do so even though you could take them onboard yourself. It coukd therefore be argued that any third party handling cases are doing so at the owners risk and so any claim woukd be against the passenger's insurance.

If you want complete peace of mind then take the bags on yourself.

Obviously you can get insurance to cover any situation, but the standard policies are insuring your baggage for when it is in your control.

[wheels36 450]

There is another issue regarding luggage that was not discussed on the recent "check-in" thread, but affects people travelling to the port the day before.

If you have a late check-in time but must be out of your hotel room in the morning, most hotels will be happy to look after your bags for a few hours while you do some shopping or whatever. The sting here is that the luggage must be kept in a locked room with no public access, or otherwise you are not insured.

[Shetlander 188]

It coukd therefore be argued that any third party handling cases are doing so at the owners risk and so any claim woukd be against the passenger's insurance.

 

I'm not sure that the position is altered very much just because you have a choice to take bags on yourself.  I suspect the difficulty will be in establishing negligence.

 

If you want complete peace of mind then take the bags on yourself.

 

I agree, but with two children I'm just happy to get rid of the bags!