Delayed or canceled flight? Lost luggage? Here's who you need to 'take it up with' at the airport

Flight delayed? Or, worse, canceled? Lost or damaged luggage on arrival? When something goes really wrong at the airport, before or after a flight, it is important to know who to 'take it up with'. That is, who to turn to in order to contain the damage, getting re-routed on other flights in the best way or getting your baggage back as quickly as possible.

Example: it is useless to rant at a check-in clerk if the flight is delayed, in case the attendant is not an employee of that same airline. The case is very frequent: the vast majority of carriers, especially at airports located outside their own country, rely on handling companies, i.e., airport services (including baggage handling), for check-in operations.

So, if your flight is delayed or canceled, the check-in clerk is not 'at fault' (she wouldn't even be at fault if she were an employee of the company, but if she is not, she has nothing to do with it at all). In that case, you have to hope that she is a competent and patient person and that she will find you the best possible alternative to the 'blurred' or severely delayed flight (if you have pressing commitments at your destination or a connecting flight to catch).

The figure of the foreman

The next move may be to ask to speak with the foreman., who is the most senior representative (he, or she, yes) of the airline. The airport manager is responsible for all of a carrier's ground operations and for the relationship between it and the entity that manages the airport. But, as the airline's representative 'in chief,' he or she is also the person who has the final say when it comes to re-routing on other flights, possibly with a travel class upgrade. His word is, in short, final.

Baggage problems

In the case of lost luggage, on the other hand, the airline you are traveling with has little or no responsibility unless, by making a stopover during your trip, the first flight was so delayed that it was impossible to transfer your suitcase to the second flight.

Responsibility in baggage handling lies with the handling companies that handle baggage at airports. At the larger airports there are several, under a competitive regime that should incentivize service quality. In the event of a serious delay in baggage reclaim or its loss, it is therefore necessary to check which company is responsible at the airport of destination and go to their counters (which are usually a few meters from the baggage reclaim belts) to file a complaint or to report the damaged or lost suitcase.

In the latter case, it will be essential that you are in possession of the baggage receipt, that laminated coupon that is usually stuck by check-in clerks on the back of the boarding pass. If you have thrown that away, and consequently the coupon, you are in a lot of trouble. And, almost certainly, you will have to say goodbye to your luggage, since retrieving it will be, for the attendants, virtually impossible.