Travel Troubleshooter: Why won’t Swiss compensate me for my lost luggage?

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: Swiss International Air Lines lost my luggage for eight days while I was on a hiking trip to Geneva. It sent my bags to the wrong address, then finally to my home almost two weeks later after our vacation had ended. Swiss never compensated me for the hiking gear I had to buy and never provided a mechanism in person, by phone or online to get reimbursed.

The loss happened on a United Airlines codeshare flight from Washington, D.C., to Zurich, then a connecting flight on Swiss from Zurich to Geneva. Swiss has no process or points of contact online, or in person, at their airport counters for filing or getting reimbursed for lost luggage.

It seems Swiss contracts all of its public interface activities to a company called Swissport. Swissport can file a complaint, but it has no authority to process a claim. I had a three-way conversation with supervisors from United Airlines and Swiss in the U.S. regarding compensation. The Swiss supervisor gave me the telephone number of their point of contact in the Missing Bag department, which Swissport runs, but no one there could help me either. So I’m back to where I started.

I, again, arranged a three-way call with United and Swiss, and this time, a representative recommended that I file a complaint with Lufthansa, the parent company of Swiss. I filed a complaint, but never heard from them. Can you help me?

— Mark Bromley, Reston, Virginia

ANSWER: Swiss should have promptly compensated you for your lost luggage. Normally, an airline will cover items like toiletries and clothing when it misplaces your luggage. An airline representative should have helped you file a claim and then processed it quickly. By the time you contacted me, it had been almost six months since you filed your initial claim, which is far too long.

Who is responsible for your loss? Typically, you should file a lost luggage claim with the operating carrier that delivers you to your final ticketed destination, which would have been Swiss. But it doesn’t really matter who was there to take your claim — Swiss, Swissport, United or Lufthansa. Someone should have been there in Geneva to take care of you, and they should have authorized you to buy clothing and toiletries while you waited for your luggage.

Your rights to compensation are governed by the Montreal Convention and the Swiss General Conditions of Carriage. Under these agreements, you are entitled to a maximum of $1,574 for your lost luggage. You also had an insurance policy through World Nomads, which would have compensated you $700 for the clothes you had to buy, but only if Swiss failed to pay you.

You could have reached out to one of the executive contacts at Swiss who I publish on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. But I suspect your case would have just gotten lost again between United, Lufthansa and Swiss. On a side note, this is one of the major problems of a codeshare arrangement. When something goes wrong, there’s a lot of finger-pointing, and passengers are often the losers.

I contacted Swiss on your behalf. A representative responded and said it had no record of your claim. Swiss suggested that you initiate a claim through its website, which you did. Ten months after your flight, the airline sent you $1,574.

Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at [email protected] or get help by contacting him at elliottadvocacy.org/help/.
(c) 2023 Christopher Elliott
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