Delay of Flights

If your flight has been delayed, the airline may be obliged to provide assistance, depending on the length of delay and the distance of the flight. (Again, these rights only apply to those passengers flying from an EU airport or from an airport outside the EU to an EU airport on an EU carrier).

For example, if you are delayed overnight or more than five hours, you are entitled to meals and refreshments in relation to waiting time; two free telephone calls, emails, telexes or faxes; hotel accommodation and transfers.

Lost Baggage

Q&A: travel advice for Heathrow T5 passengers

Baggage claims, refunds, delay compensation and more. Ginny McGrath answers your questions

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T5 chaos: know your legal rights

If your flight is delayed or cancelled, or your baggage is lost, you are entitled to compensation

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BACKGROUND

• T5 hit by new flights fiasco

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In assessing your claim, an airline may well ask for a list of the items that were in the missing bag, and possibly for original receipts. In doing this, they are behaving like insurance companies. And, like insurers, their offer of compensation will be unlikely to match a claim in full. In particular, they will probably reduce the payment because of depreciation.

You may find you can get a better settlement from your travel (or home contents) insurance even after allowing for any excess on the policy, so always check these policies as well.

You should report any mishandled baggage problems to the service desk in the baggage collection hall before you leave the airport – it may be difficult to make a claim if you do not.

When you report a baggage problem at the airport, the airline should make out a Property Irregularity Report (PIR) and give you a copy. Your airline will want to see the PIR when making a claim. But it is not a legal requirement to have a PIR and an airline should not simply dismiss your claim without one.

The PIR does not itself constitute a formal claim. You will need to write to the airline, within certain time limits, enclosing a copy of the PIR.

There are time limits for claiming compensation on baggage. Damaged baggage must be claimed seven days from the receipt of the bags and delayed baggage must be claimed twenty-one days from delivery. There is no time limit specified for lost baggage but you are advised to make the complaint as soon as possible after the bag has been missing for twenty-one days or after the airline has declared the bag lost.

Delayed Baggage

There are no set rules for how airlines must assess baggage claims. For delayed baggage, some airlines offer immediate one-off payments at a set amount to cover emergency purchases such as toiletries or underwear.

Some will pay a set amount per day up to a maximum number of days. Others will not make cash payments at the time, but prefer to reimburse expenditure on essential items on seeing receipts. The general principle is to cover essential, unavoidable expenditure resulting from the delay to delivery of the baggage.

If your baggage has still not been returned to you more than 21 days after your flight, the airline should treat it as lost and settle your claim on that basis.