Workers said the transport chair was sent to baggage claim. An AirTag later showed it miles away. Who’s at fault when checked items vanish from the carousel?
Dear Tripped Up,
Last November, a $400 transport chair belonging to my 86-year-old mom went missing after our KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kennedy Airport. On prior flights in our itinerary, the airline had her chair — a lighter, more transportable version of a wheelchair that she uses because she can’t walk longer distances — waiting for us on the jet bridge. But when we arrived in New York, it wasn’t there. The ground crew told us it would be at baggage claim. When it did not appear on the carousel (and the AirTag we had sewn into it showed its last location as Amsterdam), we asked staff from Delta, which apparently handles KLM’s baggage services at J.F.K., for help. They scanned our claim ticket and told us the wheelchair had indeed arrived, but after a search they could not find it. We filed a claim and went home. The next day, the AirTag showed the chair about seven miles from the airport, at an address that on Google Street View appeared to be a medical supply store. Days later, it had settled into what looked like a medical facility. After days of frustrating back-and-forth with KLM and Delta, we were eventually told we needed to file a police report, which we did, to no avail. To date, no one has accepted accountability for the lost chair. Can you help? Josh, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dear Josh,
I bet most travelers who still check bags — a shrinking group I remain a stubborn part of — have all wondered what, exactly, is stopping someone from taking our stuff from the baggage carousel.
U.S. airlines years ago abandoned the practice of checking claim tickets at terminal exits. So, aside from security cameras and personnel, there doesn’t appear to be much to stop strangers from making off with our possessions, either accidentally or maliciously.
So who is responsible for a checked item from the moment it reaches the baggage claim area until the moment its owner picks it up?
Not us, said KLM. In an email, Elvira van der Vis, a spokeswoman for the airline, told me that what happened to you and your mother was “very unfortunate.” But “our responsibility for baggage ends when it is placed at the passenger’s disposal on the carousel at the destination.”
“As an exception,” she continued, the airline will reimburse you for the value of the chair. That is good news for you, though not for future passengers. You told me KLM has since been in touch to ask for a receipt for the chair, which you don’t have; I intervened again and was told a credit card statement would suffice. Keep me up-to-date.