U.S.: Delta airlines under lawsuit over lost baggage
29 December 2011A class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month in the US District Court in Miami by California consumer attorney John Mattes, Florida attorney David Tucker, and two other law firms, claims that Delta is only reimbursing passengers for a fraction of what they’re entitled to by law.
Passengers are allowed to claim up to $3,300 in reasonable expenses for their lost or delayed bags, according to federal regulations. Delta airlines, however, told passengers last year that they were only responsible to repay customers $25 a day for lost or delayed baggage, and up to $125 total. The airline was fined $100,000 by the US Department of Transportation for those claims.
About 130,000 bags were “‘mishandled'” by domestic airlines in October alone, according to the most recent DOT data. Delta reported mishandling about 16,000 bags that month and a total of about 328,000 for all of 2010. Over 2 million claims of mishandled bags were filed by passengers in 2010.
