Baggage lost at the airport? What to claim from Royal Air Maroc?

Baggage lost at the airport: what to do if Royal Air Maroc is responsible?

Nothing could be more unpleasant than being left without a suitcase at the airport. Here are the steps to follow to find it as quickly as possible and, if necessary, to be compensated.

At least one in seven travelers has had the unpleasant surprise of having their suitcase lost after an airplane flight.

Airlines have been making efforts for several years to reduce the amount of lost baggage. According to the report by the International Aeronautical Telecommunications Company (SITA), the number of incidents and routing errors has fallen by 70% over the past decade, to 5.57 bags per 1,000 passengers. In the vast majority of cases, they are found after a few days.

What to do in the event of a delay in the delivery of your luggage?

At Royal Air Maroc, we even pride ourselves on a return rate that is among the best in the world: out of 100 delayed bags, 90 are returned the next day.

The company’s baggage service as the first point of contact. So if you don’t see your suitcase on the conveyor belt upon arrival at the airport, don’t panic. You must first go to the baggage service of the airline.

After 21 days, the baggage is considered lost. The traveler must then relaunch the company’s customer service, and formalize a claim for compensation. To do this, he lists the effects present in the lost baggage, and provides all types of supporting documents: invoices, websites on which he bought the products, etc.

Compensation of up to € 1,400. The compensation ceiling is set at around € 1,400 for companies and countries that have signed the Montreal Convention. This text applies to all European companies, and, for non-European companies such as Royal Air Maroc, when the countries of departure and arrival have signed the agreement. It therefore relates to most trips.

In the rare cases where the Montreal Convention does not apply, we fall under the regime of the Warsaw Convention, which provides for compensation of approximately € 20 per kg of luggage. For your file to be processed more quickly, alerting the company via social networks is extremely effective.

Check your payment card or home insurance options

It is also possible to obtain additional indemnities, thanks to insurance. There is insurance built into some payment cards, such as American Express or Visa Premier, which can cover essential purchases, such as glasses.

You can also be compensated if you have taken out the travel insurance option with your home insurance, or with the airline when you bought the plane ticket.

Three weeks is the time it will usually take to find a lost suitcase.

On the way out, everything is going well, but on the way back, a bad surprise awaits them. at the arrival airport, one of the two suitcases does not appear on the conveyor belt. You must therefore go to the baggage service of Royal Air Maroc, the Moroccan company that we had borrowed, to complete a declaration form and report your lost baggage.

Compensation granted to passengers if their luggage is damaged

You have just collected your luggage when you get off the plane and you notice that your suitcase is damaged, that your luggage is damaged. You can file a complaint with the airline.

The carrier is responsible for the good condition of the baggage

The applicable text in this matter is the Montreal Convention of May 28, 1999 laying down the international rules on liability in the event of accidents for international air transport. It was signed by the European Union, which also adopted the provisions of the convention by Regulation (EC) n ° 889/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of May 13, 2002.
The carrier’s obligation regarding the condition of the baggage

The carrier, that is to say the airline from which you buy your tickets, is responsible for the good condition of the luggage entrusted to it, from the check-in counter to the luggage conveyor at the exit of the ticket. ‘plane.

Any damage occurring during this period is attributable to him and the traveler is entitled to claim compensation for the damage caused by the damage to his luggage.

It should be noted here that this only concerns checked baggage. Cabin baggage remains the responsibility of the passenger who must keep it close to him and ensure that it is properly stowed on board the aircraft.

Any claim relating to baggage must be addressed to the airline within 7 days of the damaged baggage being collected.

The amount of compensation for damaged or damaged baggage

The maximum compensation payable to passengers whose luggage has been damaged depends on the origin and destination of the flight. The amount of compensation is capped at € 1,250 for:

– flights operated by a company from the European Union, countries of departure and destination indifferent;

– flights within the European Union, regardless of the airline operating the flight.

– flights departing from the European Union to one of the 120 signatory countries of the Montreal Convention, regardless of the company;

– flights to the European Union from a country signatory to the Montreal Convention, regardless of the airline.

In other cases, compensation is capped at € 20 per kilo of luggage.

In all cases, you will need to justify the amount you are claiming from the airline company, in particular by providing invoices and photos.

Lost luggage: how to track your luggage?

Who has never been afraid of losing their luggage when traveling? This is particularly true for air baggage: Europe holds the world record for lost suitcases with 7 bags lost per 1000 passengers, compared to 5.6 worldwide … which nevertheless represents one bag lost every 3 seconds, half of which in transit.

It is almost worse when traveling by train or bus, the company is only responsible for the theft of luggage if it has been checked in: this is very rarely the case, whereas these luggage thefts in France seem to be increasing steadily. How to find a lost suitcase? How can you stop losing your things or have them stolen? The solution exists: you need suitcases with tracking (baggage tracking system).

Why track your luggage?

Luggage tracking is an operation to install a tracer in your luggage, to find its exact position in the event of theft or loss. Whether you are a business or leisure traveler, losing your luggage or having a suitcase stolen is always an unpleasant or traumatic experience.

This is all the more true for the professional traveler, because his luggage is often an extension of his professional activity, on the one hand because it can contain professional equipment, and on the other hand because it contains clothes allowing him to ” properly play a representative role: arriving at a professional meeting in dirty clothes following the theft of suitcases would be of the worst effect for the professional and for his company.

Tracking your luggage is therefore important for any leisure trip or any bleisure trip, especially for a responsible professional.

Three ways to track your luggage

 – The smart label

The smart tag is defined as a tag incorporating RFID chip technology with micro-antenna: this radio-identification technology makes it possible to retrieve stored data remotely. This is the same technology as that used for electric chips in pets, replacing tattooing.
In some cases, the smart label can be completed with a QR code, readable on a basic smartphone
This luggage tracer is compatible with the SITA WorldTracer standard, used by airlines around the world.

You will find several such baggage trackers on the market (TraceMe, ReboundTag, E-Lostbag®…). The smart label is so promising that airlines are embracing it. Air France will deploy this technique from 2020 with ADP, first on Roissy-CDG, and gradually on all its stopovers.
The owner of the suitcase will receive an SMS on the position of his suitcase at each stopover. Paragon ID will manufacture up to 40 million RFID tags per year for Air France: they know the transport industry well, since they also produce the Navigo Card for RATP.

For the private traveler, however, the smart label has two drawbacks:
It is fragile like a traditional tag and can be torn or torn off if it is not inside the luggage;
Geolocation is currently only possible after reading the label voluntarily, which is of no interest in the event of theft of luggage.

   – The GPS tracker

Suitcase tracking using a GPS tracker or GPS beacon uses the same technology as the trackers, allowing a person or a vehicle to be geolocated via a “tracking device”. By interrogating your smartphone, you then receive an SMS with the position and the corresponding map. There are different models that work with or without a SIM card, with or without a subscription.

A plotter without a SIM card usually does not allow real-time localization, it simply records satellite positions. To have a position in real time, you must have some form of connection: this is the case for new GPS beacons without a SIM card, communicating via networks of connected objects such as LoRaWAN. Most are in the process of being deployed but are expected to grow very quickly in the years to come.

For suitcase tracking, you should preferably choose a small, autonomous GPS tracker. Avoid using a GPS tracker with a SIM card, which is prohibited for use in airplanes, and whose roaming / connection costs abroad could be prohibitive. In addition, the legislation on lithium-metal or lithium-ion batteries requires in a number of cases to remove the battery in the hold, making a GPS tracker of this type inefficient.

This is an ideal system when you are not taking a plane, especially in Europe. It is effective in the event of luggage theft or lost luggage. Be sure to hide it, however: if the tag is out of the suitcase, it is no longer possible to track your luggage. Ultimately, this type of GPS suitcase tracker could perhaps incorporate a timer, removing the aircraft position on landing and reactivating real-time tracking.

The connected suitcase

A connected suitcase is a piece of luggage equipped with:

– a tracking device (tracer),
– a communication device (often via a smartphone),
– a battery or recharging system (power bank),
– sometimes ancillary devices (motor, scale, intelligent locking, etc.)

The smart suitcase perfectly meets the needs of tracking your luggage. Its design most often incorporates the main regulatory obligations in air transport, the use of lithium-ion batteries being more and more prohibited in the hold or strictly regulated.

The choice of an airplane connected suitcase must therefore be made mainly on three criteria:

•  Batteries: A removable battery or standard alkaline battery operation is required.
• Connectivity: Bluetooth should be preferred.
• Removable GPS box: Ideally, it contains less than 100 Wh of lithium, in accordance with IATA regulations. Some companies prohibit all lithium batteries in the hold, a removable case remains a source of security.

When traveling by plane, always remember to check the airline’s regulations.

The connected suitcase remains to this day the solution of choice for tracking luggage. It can be used by plane or abroad, subject to GSM transmission: you can then follow the position of your suitcase in real time from your smartphone. This is a useful solution in the event of theft or loss of luggage.

For any other question on this subject, Royal Air Maroc invites you to inform its customer service by sending an email to the following address: serviceclient@royalairmaroc.com, or, send a complaint form to your air carrier, at this address: InventoryForm@royalairmaroc.com.