[Becka_01]

I have just posted on the Flight Attendants and now I am posting here, as I really do seem to have some issues with CO.

On the occasions I have flown with CO, they have managed to lose at least one piece of luggage per flight. I have had luggage turn up over 4 days late and left outside in the snow overnight, my sons stroller was broken and his carseat lost. Yes every single flight I have had something go missing.

I have never had an apology from the airline, I have had to go running round looking for a car seat to put my son in to drive home and the car seat CO lent me was terrible, it offered absolutely no protection to my son if an accident were to happen, it was a flimsy piece of crap.

Yes CO both on the ground and in the air are absolutely terrible.

[HoustonFlyer]

When an airline loses or damages your belongings, you are entitled to be compensated. An apology is always nice, but there is no need to fuss about that. If you arrived without your car seat and you need a car seat to drive your son home, and the one the airline offers you is flimsy, ask them for a suitable one. If not, I would suggest that you go try to get one from any airport shop then claim a reimbursement from the airline. If your stroller is broken in flight, get another one and claim a reimbursement.

[Becka_01]

Our final arrival airport does not have a store where they sell car seats, actually the extent of what the airport sells is magazines, food and coffee. As for the stroller I was told I did not have proof it was broken inflight therefore I could not claim anything. To be honest the stroller is the least of my worries, the car seat for me was the main issue. My sons carseat cost me $200, I don't have the money to go replacing that every time CO loses it.

I think you must work for the Airline, isn't there hub in Houston? If you don't like what I write about your airline, may be you should do something about your airline to improve it's standards.

[HoustonFlyer]

Originally Posted by Becka_01

If you don't like what I write about your airline, may be you should do something about your airline to improve it's standards.

OK. I'll have a word with them

[jimworcs]

The stroller can be dealt with later.. but if an airline lost the car seat and it was required to safely transport the child home, I would put the ball back in their court. You can often rent seats from Car Rental places, so perhaps you could have asked CO to rent one for you.

Unfortunately, however, I think you would face a basic problem. You don't say which country you landed in, but if it was either the US or UK, car seats are required to meet minimum legal safety standards, and seats which do not meet these standards cannot be sold. So, I think it is highly unlikely that CO would have offered you a seat which didn't meet these miminum standards. Unfortunately, these minimum standards were clearly below the standard of seat you would require. That doesn't mean in law that CO acted unreasonably. They attempted to mitigate your damages by providing you with a seat to enable you to transport your son home and that is what any court would require them to do. Unless you could show that the seat CO provided was below the legal minimum safety standard, I don't think you have a case.

The bigger question is why you persist with CO. They have repeatedly failed you and yet you continue to give them your custom. This is the reason airlines don't respond well to customers. They know that convenience of the route, or their localised monopoly position at their hubs, means that customers will often repeat fly, even when dissatisfied. This will not change, until the monopoly hub system is broken up and passengers like you vote with their feet. Ultimately, it is down you to you. You have to stop giving them your custom.

[Becka_01]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

The stroller can be dealt with later.. but if an airline lost the car seat and it was required to safely transport the child home, I would put the ball back in their court. You can often rent seats from Car Rental places, so perhaps you could have asked CO to rent one for you.

Unfortunately, however, I think you would face a basic problem. You don't say which country you landed in, but if it was either the US or UK, car seats are required to meet minimum legal safety standards, and seats which do not meet these standards cannot be sold. So, I think it is highly unlikely that CO would have offered you a seat which didn't meet these miminum standards. Unfortunately, these minimum standards were clearly below the standard of seat you would require. That doesn't mean in law that CO acted unreasonably. They attempted to mitigate your damages by providing you with a seat to enable you to transport your son home and that is what any court would require them to do. Unless you could show that the seat CO provided was below the legal minimum safety standard, I don't think you have a case.

The bigger question is why you persist with CO. They have repeatedly failed you and yet you continue to give them your custom. This is the reason airlines don't respond well to customers. They know that convenience of the route, or their localised monopoly position at their hubs, means that customers will often repeat fly, even when dissatisfied. This will not change, until the monopoly hub system is broken up and passengers like you vote with their feet. Ultimately, it is down you to you. You have to stop giving them your custom.

Jim, if there was another airline that offered the connections that CO has done I would gladly fly with them. I have decided next time to fly out of BOS in to LHR and rent a car and drive the 5 hours to my Moms house and I will rent a car seat from the car rental place.

Sorry yes, my lost and broken luggage has always been from EWR to MHT, MHT being my ultimate destination in the US and the reason I know this is because in EWR I have to go through customs which means I have to get my baggage in EWR for checking, then I have to put it on to the next carousel to go to our connecting flight.

Ah well I guess whats done is done, I just know know I won't be using CO again, they really are beyond bad!

[jimworcs]

If your Mom lives in the UK, five hours from LHR, it can often be a better alternative to fly via Paris, Frankfurt or Schipol and then take a flight to your nearest regional. Since the UK government imposed new, ridiculously high taxes last month, this can also be significantly cheaper. From BOS you can also try Aer Lingus via Dublin. It is almost never a good choice to travel with US based airlines internationally. They have built up monopoly hubs and have merged to become hughly powerful, so customer service is very low down their priority. CO is dominant at EWR and has just recently merged with United, which will make matters even worse.

From BOS to LHR I have had good experiences with both BA and Virgin, but also to BHX for example with Aer Lingus via Dublin and Air France via CDG. It may well be that if your routing from BOS offers a lot more choices and you can avoid LHR altogether.

[Becka_01]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

If your Mom lives in the UK, five hours from LHR, it can often be a better alternative to fly via Paris, Frankfurt or Schipol and then take a flight to your nearest regional. Since the UK government imposed new, ridiculously high taxes last month, this can also be significantly cheaper. From BOS you can also try Aer Lingus via Dublin. It is almost never a good choice to travel with US based airlines internationally. They have built up monopoly hubs and have merged to become hughly powerful, so customer service is very low down their priority. CO is dominant at EWR and has just recently merged with United, which will make matters even worse.

From BOS to LHR I have had good experiences with both BA and Virgin, but also to BHX for example with Aer Lingus via Dublin and Air France via CDG. It may well be that if your routing from BOS offers a lot more choices and you can avoid LHR altogether.

I never even thought of going via BHX, thanks for that information, I'll be looking in to those flights shortly

[Researcher]

Dear user: I am developing a Doctoral research on Mishandled baggage (see General Discussion- Mishandled Baggage Research ) Could you please, provide the airline complaint form (minus personal information) you filled with the airline or send me an email to mishandledbaggageresearch@yahoo.com and I will send a survey. The survey is very similar to the one you must file with the airline and does not contain personal information.
Thanks before hand

[Researcher]

Dear user: I am developing a Doctoral research on Mishandled baggage (see General Discussion- Mishandled Baggage Research ) Could you please, provide the airline complaint form (minus personal information) you filled with the airline or send me an email to mishandledbaggageresearch@yahoo.com and I will send a survey. The survey is very similar to the one you must file with the airline and does not contain personal information.
Thanks before hand