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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Luggage Anarchy
ChrisCrossings · September 2, 1999

Q: Is there a regulation that requires the airlines to pay costs for their delay in delivering luggage to a passenger? Are there guidelines for delivering luggage to a passenger once the luggage has been located? Is it on their next flight? The next aircraft? Or is it on a space-available basis?

-- Charles Kass

A: The short answer is: "no." The federal government regulates other aspect of the commercial airline business, but when it comes down to the way carriers handle baggage, it is curiously silent on the issue.

Take a quick look at the Code of Federal Regulations to see what I mean. Title 14, Volume 4, Parts 254 on domestic baggage liability sort of addresses your concern. "In any flight segment using large aircraft, or on any flight segment that is included on the same ticket as another flight segment that uses large aircraft, an air carrier shall not limit its liability for provable direct or consequential damages resulting from the disappearance of, damage to, or delay in delivery of a passenger's personal property, including baggage, in its custody to an amount less than $1250 for each passenger," according to Section 254.4.

En Anglais, that roughly means the airline has to reimburse you for up to $1,250 if it loses or damages your checked-in luggage.

What about delays? Or delivering delayed luggage to you? Or by when the delayed luggage should be delivered? Mum's the word.

As an interesting sidenote, I know of one attorney who believes the liability limit is unfair to passengers and is challenging it in court. Leonard Bebchick, a Washington lawyer, wrote me last week to ask if anyone wanted to join his class-action suit against the carriers. He's looking for passengers who traveled between Sept. 1, 1997 and Feb. 28, 1999, suffered baggage loss or damage on the international flights of US carriers, were paid by the airline only what it claimed was its legal limit and did not receive any recovery under an insurance policy.

How about the airline contracts of carriage? Don't they afford passengers any more protection than federal law? Technically, yes. But rather than review the differences between Delta's contract and American's - honestly, I'd rather leave that to experts like Terry Trippler -- I ought to point out one problem. On more and more flights lately, when I ask a gate agent or ticket agent about their contract, I tend to get a flippant response like, "We don't use the rules anymore," or "the contract doesn't apply to this flight."

What's going on? Well, perhaps the airlines have really convinced their employees that they're above the law. With the federal government letting the airlines do practically anything they want on the issue of luggage, is it any wonder they're taking other liberties as well?

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at christopher@elliott.org. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.