Airline broken bike

ricardospeedo

Hi lads a friend of mine opened his bike box tonight after travelling from Dublin to France yesterday and the frame is cracked and a complete write off.Has any one any advice as to how he can go about claiming off aer lingus as the frame cost three grand approx six weeks ago and was in a scicon hard case and packed by a bike shop .Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

fat bloke

ricardospeedo wrote: »

Hi lads a friend of mine opened his bike box tonight after travelling from Dublin to France yesterday and the frame is cracked and a complete write off.Has any one any advice as to how he can go about claiming off aer lingus as the frame cost three grand approx six weeks ago and was in a scicon hard case and packed by a bike shop .Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Christ. Was the box damaged?

That's the second report of a bike broken in flight transit that I've heard in 24 hours. I've brought bikes in boxes before, but never my good bike, always my older training bike. Think I'll stick with that policy:(

C3PO

My understanding is that an airline will only pay compensation for damage based on the weight of the item and not the value! Can't remember what the €/kg figure is but it will not go anyway towards proper compensation for the frame!
Is your friend sure that the frame wasn't cracked before it was packed? It would need to be a very severe impact to damage a bike properly packed in a hard case?

Bandara

C3PO wrote: »

My understanding is that an airline will only pay compensation for damage based on the weight of the item and not the value! Can't remember what the €/kg figure is but it will not go anyway towards proper compensation for the frame!
Is your friend sure that the frame wasn't cracked before it was packed? It would need to be a very severe impact to damage a bike properly packed in a hard case?

I'm not at all sure on this but if you booked your flight by credit card you normally have some level of insurance protection built into the card.

If you paid extra for sporting goods (which I presume you had to) it may be covered

As I say, I'm no expert but it's absolutely worth checking out with your card company

dubmess

If he left the airport without reporting the damage he probably doesn't have a leg to stand on unfortunately.

Canis Lupus

Does he have travel insurance?

ckeego

Forget about general policy about €/kg that they will try and dupe you into..

Why do you think you are paying so much more for the airline to carry your bike/golf clubs/skis etc.? They are insured for this.

The exact same happened to a guy travelling with Ryanair and was paying for 2 custom surf boards from Biarritz to Dublin and they arrived snapped in 2..

With the bike being worth that much, see a solicitor for professional advice. They may well take the route of the small claims court.

Also, you may well find that your travel insurance (if you took it out) will cover such a loss.

ckeego

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/air_travel/airline_liability.html

ckeego

BTW, the guy with the surfboards that were both snapped won his case through the small claims court.

You will also see that even if you have left the airport without reporting the damage (I travel through the airport every day!) you NEVER see people opening bags checking for damage, hence you have 7 days to make the report.

Unfortunately, what I also see pretty much every day is so called baggage handlers flinging luggage, golf bags and boxes around with scant regard for the contents:mad:

Best of luck, though. Unfortunately it is a common occurence-I only recntly saw a top of the range Colnago that was snapped on the frame in transit

nak

dubmess wrote: »

If he left the airport without reporting the damage he probably doesn't have a leg to stand on unfortunately.

For obvious reasons this is probably true. Might as well try anyway, usually has to be within 7 days. We always check our bikes before leaving the airport, even if it's in a hard case. Recently had a bike damaged on a Ryanair flight, had to report the damage to Servisair in the airport, got a reference number, used this to fill in a damage report on the Ryanair website. Was then asked to send proof of purchase, got a cheque for the damage. There is usually a limit of around €1500 with most airlines I think.

The compensation by weight isn't much and is only applied without proof of purchase and bikes aren't generally covered by travel insurance.

buffalo

ckeego wrote: »

With the bike being worth that much, see a solicitor for professional advice. They may well take the route of the small claims court.

Small claims court only covers up to €2,000, in case your bike is worth more. And if a professional solicitor goes that route, ditch them and do it yourself.

ricardospeedo

Thanks for the advice guys.My mate called aer lingus who have opened a claim and have asked for a letter from the bike shop to state the bike is beyond repair.The bike was packed properly and in perfect condition and in a scicon hard case .I think a solicitor might be the best way to go if it gets messy with the airline .

surox

Hopefully you should be covered by AL, if they have asked for a covering letter, sounds like they want to take you seriously - after all 1)you paid for a service which has failed 2)they carry a lot of high end bikes to and from france for example every year and 3)isn't part of their motto 'Great Care,Great Fare'.......

Qualitymark

Sounds like a good article for some enterprising journalist, if you can find a few people this happened to who are willing to talk and have photos taken of their wrecked bikes, boards, etc, and ring the Herald with names and numbers. If the Herald rings up the DAA and asks for comments on their luggage handling, the DAA is going to crack down on brutal luggage handling.

Incidentally, I lost a bag with my passport and other documents in it at the airport a couple of months ago; an Airport Police security guard picked it up while checking the toilets and it was there for me when i rang. When I dropped back in with a box of Roses to say thanks, they were so chuffed Good people!

Qualitymark

Sounds like a good article for some enterprising journalist, if you can find a few people this happened to who are willing to talk and have photos taken of their wrecked bikes, boards, etc, and ring the Herald with names and numbers. If the Herald rings up the DAA and asks for comments on their luggage handling, the DAA is going to crack down on brutal luggage handling.

Incidentally, I lost a bag with my passport and other documents in it at the airport a couple of months ago; an Airport Police security guard picked it up while checking the toilets and it was there for me when i rang. When I dropped back in with a box of Roses to say thanks, they were so chuffed Good people!