British Airways Destroyed Our Guitar and Won’t Pay Up

Dear Tripped Up,

I’m a co-owner of Luaka Bop, a New York-based record label, and last June was accompanying the Staples Jr. Singers, a gospel group from Aberdeen, Miss., on a European tour. For a British Airways flight from London to Paris, three musicians were required to check their guitars, but only one instrument arrived in Paris with us. We filled out the forms and tried to impress upon the employee the importance of getting the guitars before the group’s show the next night. One of the two lost guitars did make it to Paris the next day, but British Airways couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver it, so our tour manager took a cab to the airport only to find it had closed. When the group returned to Britain by train, it was still down two guitars. We got one back a few shows later, and eventually found the other one at Heathrow Airport lost and found — with its neck snapped off and its case destroyed. We ended up with over $5,000 in expenses, which included renting guitars for a dozen shows and purchasing a guitar and case (both used) for Arceola Brown, the musician whose instrument was destroyed. We submitted most receipts with the original claim to British Airways on July 25, then added a few more on Aug. 7 and Sept. 11, for a total of $3,331. (We didn’t keep receipts for the rest.) But beyond receiving a case number, we never heard back, despite several email follow-ups. Can you help? Yale, New York City

Dear Yale,

If I could choose a tale to tell here, it would be the amazing one of how the Staples Jr. Singers recorded one album in 1975 that barely anyone paid attention to until decades later. Rereleased in 2022, the album received rave reviews and led to international tours for the group.

What a story. Alas, this space is devoted to issues far more mundane and familiar, like lost and destroyed luggage.

True, the lost luggage was cooler than most Samsonites: a Fender Telecaster that was recovered, and a Casio MIDI so thoroughly destroyed that I wonder if a baggage handler channeled Pete Townshend of the Who and smashed it to smithereens on the airport tarmac. The trouble you had getting reimbursed, however, is a wearily familiar tale in the Tripped Up inbox.

Along with photos of the Casio MIDI guitar, you sent me a frustrating timeline of your team’s efforts both to recover the guitars and later seek compensation for the rentals and the replacement for Mr. Brown’s guitar and case. (Sadly, Mr. Brown died on Nov. 16.)

I first intervened by writing to a British Airways spokeswoman in early November, and the airline quickly sent an apologetic letter to you offering reimbursement for the oddly exact and insufficient amount of 493.97 British pounds, or about $600. The carrier included a separate $250 voucher for future flights.

I intervened again, but on Jan. 7, the airline wrote back to you only to forward the original offer, an odd value much less than the claim.

I looked back to the receipts you sent me and remembered you submitted the receipts in three batches. The second and third batches totaled exactly $493.97.

The airline seems to have swapped currencies, which may be a sign of how carefully it was paying attention to your problem.

As for the first batch of receipts, it would seem they never made it through when you submitted them.

On Jan. 11, the carrier called you to ask you to upload the receipts again, which you did. I received a short statement on Jan. 15 — “We have apologized to the customers and are working with them directly to resolve their claim” — but you heard nothing further. So on Jan. 21, on my suggestion, you emailed your contact again. You said you were instructed to upload receipts again, which you did, and were told you would be reimbursed $3,941.

That’s an odd number — more than your receipts, less than your losses — but I think I can explain it, as the airline declined to do so or answer any of my other questions, including how the guitar was destroyed, why the airline didn’t deliver the guitar in Paris or why the receipts were not processed when you first sent them in July.

Here’s my best guess: The Montreal Convention, the international treaty that governs lost luggage (among other things) on most international flights, caps airline liability. That luggage cap, at the time of your flight was, about $1,700 per passenger, or $3,400 for the two musicians combined. But on Dec. 28, the value on damages for most international flights was raised to the equivalent of about $1,980 per passenger.

The airline appears to have applied the newer value to your losses, though it didn’t need to, and you’re ending up with more money than you were actually due, a small compensation for hassles endured.

For those flying domestically or between countries that haven’t signed the Montreal Convention, local or national laws prevail regarding lost, stolen or damaged luggage. (In the United States, the Transportation Department caps damages for lost, damaged or delayed bags at $3,800.)

But those numbers don’t mean much if you face seemingly unreasonable barriers when filing for reimbursements — such as the British Airways interface that you called cumbersome and that seemed to lose the receipts you painstakingly sent along. My inbox is full of tales of airlines that repeatedly ask for receipts that have already been submitted.

The multifaceted monthslong saga you endured with British Airways should be a reminder that travelers today need to do more than their fair share of the work to find their lost items. Adding AirTags or other Bluetooth trackers to checked luggage is a smart first step, so when the airlines claim they don’t know where your luggage is, you can tell them or even share its location, since the feature is now shareable with a third party.

Of course, you need to pack fragile items carefully (On its website, Fender offers guitar advice), and retain every scrap of paper starting when you check your bag. Then, if you need to file a claim, write down the name of every employee you interact with, take photos, record conversations when you can, and create copies of your documentation. The information will be critical when you file for reimbursements.

Most of the time, you won’t need it. But if you ever need to do battle with an airline, the documentation will come in handy. And if you have to write to Tripped Up, it will move you to the front of the line.