Qatar Airways damaged our bag - resolved

Hello folks,

I had mentioned in my India Return 2010 - Part 2 that Qatar Airways had damaged one of our bags and I will post on what was the result of the inquiry and claim.  Well here it is.  After 2 months of back and forth conversation, this issue is finally resolved when we got the new bag from them.  Here are the details.

In the beginning of December when I came back from India,  our first stop in US was Washington Dulles airport and we found out that one of our bag was damaged...such that its chain was broken and the bag was wide open.  Thankfully nothing fell out.  I try to contact Qatar everyday only to find myself holding on the line for 35 - 45 minutes and then hanging up since no luck.  Finally I get hold of someone after 40 minutes of hold and the person tells me to talk to Qatar staff at the Washington Dulles airport.  I call the next day and get hold of an agent.  I explained to him the situation that we couldn't file a complaint at the airport since we had to transfer the bags to the final destination and he asks me for my email address to send me the process info.  I get the email within few minutes to send him the following information in order to begin to process the claim.

• Scanned copy of the passport of the traveler making the claim
• Scanned copies of the original luggage claim checks for bags checked in from origin airport
• Scanned copy of the boarding pass of the traveler
• Detailed description of the damage to the luggage with photograph of the bag in question
• The age of the luggage, approximate cost of the luggage, and the brand of the luggage.

The same weekend I got sick so couldn't send the information until the following weekend.  I gathered all the details and sent it in an email to the agent.  3 weeks go by and I don't hear anything and I didn't call them either because it was Christmas and New year weekend, so I thought people might not be working during those times.  I call them after 3 weeks and luckily get hold of the same agent I had talked to couple of weeks ago.  I tell the agent that I have not heard back from anyone regarding the claim and he says he will contact me with the details within half an hour.  Surely after an hour I get a call from him telling me that they are working on the claim right now and will get back to me again in an hour.  Apparently I don't hear from him the same day, and I wait couple of days before calling again.  The agent tells me that the claim has been processed and gave me the reference number.  He told me that someone will contact me within a week from baggage agency to get the replacement of the damaged bag.  I was somewhat happy to know that they were going to replace the bag.

The same weekend, I get a call from Qatar Airways agent to get our home address to send the new bag to.  The following week, I get the call from the baggage agency who asks me whether it's OK for them to send another brand bag since our bag brand was old and that she came make sure that we get something nice.  I was like "No problem" (lady, you are giving me a new bag...I don't care if it's the same brand or not..just get me something nice :D ).  She goes on asking me "Now, we don't have brown colored bag (my old bag color)...the only color we have is black, is that OK?"...and my reply is "Of course!!".  Haha...I was pretty surprised with the treatment and the lady was really nice.  She ends the conversation by confirming my home address and letting me know that we should get the new baggage within 7-10 days.

Surely after 2 weeks, we get the new bag via FedEx.  The bag is actually 6 inches smaller than what we had, so it's little bit smaller but it's ok.  Also one other thing I noticed is that when you open the bag, there is sometimes a clothe covering the bag which can be opened with a zipper to see the inside boards surrounding the bag.  I opened that zipper and turns out that one of the side boards of the bag was broken and was fixed up by a black tape.  Haha...I think they gave us a bag which must have been damaged in the manufacturing and fixed it up and gave it to us.  Well, it's ok ...I mean there is nothing we can do.  It's not like the board is going to break in one time use, but I just found it hillarious.

I have said this before and I will say it again to everyone that if you ever come across an issue of damaged bag by an airline, always file the complain and follow up.  In worse case scenario, they will reject your claim and won't do anything, but on a positive side, you might get a new bag to replace the damaged bag.  It's always worth a shot.

Wow...I didn't realize how much I wrote until I read the entire post again :P.  Hope this info helps if you are ever in a similar situation.