Baggage Absent

The new phrase to describe lost baggage is, according to The Times, "Baggage Absent":

World-weary travellers who have lost their shirts, trousers and shoes thanks to the carelessness of British Airways' baggage handlers could be about to get their revenge.

The latest figures on lost and delayed luggage show that BA, or Baggage Absent as it is rapidly becoming known, mislaid a staggering 358,476 bags over the past three months – 30 pieces of luggage for every 1,000 travellers, or 10 bags per jumbo jet that don't get on board or get misrouted. That's a lot of holidays ruined or business meetings missed. But a bright spark has pointed out to us that travellers have the power to get their own back.

According to figures available on the Civil Aviation Authority website (almost impossible to find on BA's), the maximum compensation for seriously delayed baggage is £764 per passenger, as set by the Montreal Convention. Now that may not seem such a huge amount, given the amount of designer gear you can squeeze into a Samsonite, but multiply it by the number of times BA is exposing itself to this sort of claim and the figure for possible compensation is eye-popping: close to £280m for the quarter, or £511m for the past six months. Which, spookily enough, is not far off BA's £593m pre-tax profits for the same period.

As a spokesman for BA spluttered:

"I think we would have heard about it if it was costing us as much as that. It would have wiped out our annual profits in just one quarter."

Well, exactly. But if your passengers are all losing their shirts, why shouldn't you lose yours?

Source The Times