TONY HETHERINGTON: Lufthansa’s a lost cause with its lost luggage

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s chief investigator. He battles the reader’s corner, reveals the truth that lies behind closed doors, and wins victories for those left out of pocket. Below you can read how to contact him.

NF writes: My daughter went on a study trip to Germany and on the way back Lufthansa lost her luggage.

The airline admitted the bag was lost and offered £25 in compensation, claiming this was to deliver the luggage a day late, but in fact my daughter never received it.

Lufthansa keeps trying to pass us on to its own baggage handlers and a courier company. They refuse to admit that the luggage is lost, so we cannot claim on the travel insurance.

Tony Hetherington replies: Lufthansa behaved horribly during your dealings with the German airline and her attitude did not improve when I contacted her. In response to my request for comment, Lufthansa seemed content to tell me that ‘we don’t have the capacity to investigate baggage claims’. It asked for my ‘understanding’.

Sorry, but I don’t understand how a major airline can not just lose luggage, but then follow up with a shrug of the shoulders as if this should be accepted as a minor inconvenience that all its passengers face as a normal person at risk of flying one of its planes to fly.

Lufthansa expected you and your daughter to locate the missing baggage, even though they were unable or unwilling to do so themselves. So you contacted the Lufthansa baggage agent. It referred you to the company that runs a depot at Heathrow where the luggage may have been kept.

And finally, you questioned the Lufthansa courier company, which told you that it hadn’t even picked up the luggage, much less delivered it.

All this shows that you went beyond what was necessary. Your daughter’s contract was with Lufthansa, not with any of the separate companies Lufthansa chose to use. But this didn’t stop the airline from creating a mess and then adding to it.

A few days after Lufthansa falsely told your daughter that her luggage had been found and transported to her, it admitted that it had no idea where her belongings had gone and confessed that they could simply have been left in Frankfurt. Weeks later, however, Lufthansa reversed its earlier claim that the baggage had been found and delivered to Heathrow. It refused to provide any evidence to support this, such as a signature for delivery.

I pressed Lufthansa and gave the airline’s headquarters in Frankfurt your daughter’s name and the references in Lufthansa’s emails to her. It replied that it couldn’t find any of its own references in its system, adding: “No results by searching by last name all the way back to last February 2022 either.” In short, not only was her luggage gone, but as far as Lufthansa was concerned, your daughter was gone too.

I have passed your daughter’s details to Lufthansa, including her flight number and the date she flew. Lufthansa was silent and remained silent. It’s not just lost the luggage – it refuses to admit it has lost the luggage.

Typically, insurance companies expect travelers to receive confirmation that their belongings are truly lost. And usually airlines offer this. Your daughter was able to prove that she had reported the missing baggage at Heathrow, but not that Lufthansa admitted to losing it, so I offered to intervene with the insurer.

Fortunately, when you told the insurance company you were in contact with me, they offered your daughter £595 to settle the claim. She has accepted this, pointing out that her lost luggage, clothes, make-up and jewelery were actually worth £1,100. I explained this to Lufthansa and gave the airline one last chance to make things right. It failed to do so and still refuses to admit that the luggage was even lost. Attention Lufthansa passengers.

Reassure won’t let me get my money

HS writes: I am almost 87 and have had a small withdrawal policy for years which has been taken over by Reassure.

Due to my age and being diagnosed with cancer, I have applied to withdraw the total amount due which is approximately £4,700, but despite letters and phone calls I am still unable to get the money.

Tony Hetherington replies: You told me that the Reassure department that handles your withdrawal policy will not accept your calls.

Even worse, you received a letter stating that you had wrongly paid £1,223 and that Reassure wanted the money back, but you had not received any such payment. I contacted Reassure and within a few days you received £2,200 followed quickly by another £2,504.

Reassurance says the £4,700 figure was incorrectly stated because it repeatedly failed to adjust its valuation data to account for your past withdrawals.

Officials have apologised, but they accept that this is of little comfort and so they have decided to pay the actual value of your policy, which is £2,504, plus £2,200 as compensation. And you can forget about the £1,223 question. This was just another mistake.

If you believe you have been the victim of financial misconduct, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, no personal answers can be given. Only send copies of original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.