Insurance claim need advice?

Question

On the 11th March I was travelling and the airline lost my baggage. I was insured. The airline has asked me to send all details and the items lost plus their value. My question is do I claim my belongings from my insurance company or my airline - who's likely to give me a better deal? and who is going to be better at dealing with the claim?

Answer 1

You need to make file a claim to the airline company 1st because they are responsible for the lost.  Then you file a claims to your insurance company for the excess of loss not payable by the airline company.  Insurance company will not compensate you until the airline pay you.

Answer 2

You will get more money from the insurers, but travel insurers will not look at your claim unless you have already notified the airline of the loss and preferably obtained a Property Irregularity Report (PIR).

The reason is the airline will pay you a set amount by weight up to a maximum of 20KG (being the maximum baggage allowance) so you'll get around £500, whereas most travel insurance policies have a limit of £1 - £2,000 for lost baggage, though they will assess it on an indemnity basis - ie what each item is actually worth after wear & tear.

It is usually a condition that you have reported it to the airline within the specified time limits as the insurers will then recover the airline's maximum against what they have paid out. They will also not usually pay until the airline has declared it as irretrievably lost, ie they have finished their search process, and this could be about a month. The insurers won't pay out until it is unlikely that the bag will turn up!

As you have notified the airline I would suggest claiming against the insurer & sending all the paperwork from the airline to the insurer so they can pursue the recovery against the airline if they want. The insurer will still want a list of the lost items & values & probably evidence of the value (eg receipts, bank or credit card statements etc showing the purchase), so you will have to provide this information either way.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You don't want to put in a claim on your homeowners if you don't have to. Besides, your deductible is probably high enough that you won't get a whole lot out of a claim. You can check your policy to see if it offers any protection in this specific situation.

You should probably start with the airline company and see what you can get. Your homeowners insurance agent should also be able to check up on what's best for you. The company you're insured with may have a way they like to handle these claims.

Answer 4

i would say airlines since they were the ones that lost your luggage, they have the liability.

Answer 5

I'm not 100% sure, but my understanding is that you should claim from your insurance company and they will then recover the amount from the airline.

Answer 6

Check your policy. See what you are covered for.

Answer 7

Insurance will normally ask you to pay some policy excess but i'm not sure with the airliners.

Claiming insurance sounds complicated with the Insurance provider so i will personally go with the airliners..

Answer 8

Go with the airline, but beware that the Geneva convention on baggage claims is only around £14 per kilogram no matter what you had in. You will still have to account for what was in the bag, £14 is a maximum.