Baggage claim long overdue

I travelled to Malta with my husband in October last year to visit dear friends in Sliema, as we have been doing for the last three years since they emigrated there. We returned to the UK on October 30 with our usual airline, Air Malta.

On arrival in the UK, both of our almost new suitcases (only used three times including this trip) were damaged during transit. I immediately notified the damage to the desk at Gatwick Airport and was given details for contacting Air Malta.

Having gone through the disclosure stages I reluctantly agreed a settlement with Air Malta in November of £32 because I wanted to replace the suitcases for a forthcoming holiday. After continually chasing for the payment I finally received £25.82 in January.

I notified the claims person at Air Malta there was a discrepancy as I had obviously been paid in euro and not pounds sterling, as agreed on their offer and claim form, and I was due a further £6.18.

Despite several e-mails I am still awaiting settlement. I had agreed a paltry sum and feel I am entitled to receive the whole amount of the offer made by Air Malta.

As a result of such atrocious customer service I wrote a second letter to the CEO (the first was to get a response regarding the initial settlement of the claim – almost three months to pay £32!) but have yet to receive the courtesy of a response.

As matter of principle I have not booked my flights for this October with Air Malta but with Easyjet and I wonder how many other passengers are moving to another airline because of such dismal customer service. Look out, staff at Air Malta, redundancy could be on the way if you continue to lose passengers through poor customer service.

Such a shame as the flight crew were always brilliant!