British Jet's handling of luggage complaint

On July 6 I flew to London Stansted with British Jet. On retrieving my luggage, I found that the foot guide and wheels had been wrenched off. This particular luggage was new to all intents and purposes. I reported it to the appropriate office at the airport. The available form was filled in. When I enquired what I should do next, I was advised to contact British Jet on my return to Malta, because they had had no specific instructions or form from British Jet other than the request by British Jet to handle luggage complaints from their flights.

Having decided to travel to the continent, I telephoned British Jet from London on July 20 to enquire if they would replace my luggage so that that I would not be further inconvenienced and handicapped on my trip. After some evasiveness and at my insistence, I was put through to a supervisor called Marie Louise. No help was forthcoming. The line was disconnected (not to say hung up) and I had to call again. Marie Louise told me to contact British Jet when I returned to Malta and to show them the form.

On my return to Malta, I reported to the British Jet offices in Qawra with my damaged luggage on the morning of Saturday, August 19. I spoke to a certain Sharon. At first I was told that my luggage was not the responsibility of British Jet but of the airport and that I should have taken the matter up with the airport. I referred to my earlier conversations with Marie Louise and eventually my documents were copied and my luggage was taken, together with my telephone numbers. I was assured that Marie Louise would call me on Monday the 21st.

As your readers might have anticipated and I certainly did, I received no telephone call. On the morning of Tuesday the 22nd, I again called at the offices of British Jet in Qawra and approached the same desk. The lady there at first appeared totally unaware of what was happening. Eventually, at my insistence that I speak to Marie Louise, I was referred to a lady that had been hovering silent all the time, right behind me and whom I had noticed on entering.

The long and the short of it is that Marie Louise assured me that she would call me before the end of the week. Needless to say, I received no telephone call. I received a letter on Thursday the 31st, dated the 24th, in an envelope postmarked the 30th.

In this letter, Marie Louise complained that their appointed agents at Stansted had not signed the form and had not dated it. She further intimated that the form indicated that a written claim had to be handed in to the airline within seven days of the flight. She totally ignored the advice I had been given by their agents in Stansted to report it when I returned to Malta and by Marie Louise herself when I telephoned her from London and to the fact that their agents had clipped my luggage flight tag to the form. She added some further drivel to the effect that the airline is not responsible for damaged luggage because airports have several conveyors from which luggage could drop and also because the luggage could be overweight. My luggage going out is always light as I have all my requirements in my London home.

Might I ask when British Jet is going to repair/replace my luggage, broken when I flew with them? I had only used it the once with them: it had been a replacement without quibbling by Air Malta for luggage damaged in a flight from Libya at the end of last year. I must emphasise that the British Jet flight tickets were not what I would call low-cost. If tourists visiting us are treated in the same way, should we be surprised that the numbers drop? Do the tourism and aviation authorities and the office of Fair Trading feel that they have any responsibilities to ensure an acceptable service to passengers by such licensees and that passengers are not held hostage?