As a bonus, on our way back to San Francisco, two of our bags were broken
into! Here's a letter I sent to Singapore Airlines. We'll just
have to see if we get anything out of them.
Re: Missing items from baggage on SQ860/SQ2 from Singapore to San
Francisco
SummaryUpon our arrival in San Francisco, we discovered that two bags we had entrusted to Singapore Airlines had been placed on the wrong flight, had been damaged externally and had some items removed from them.Singapore Airlines appears to deny any responsibility or liability for these problems. Singapore Airlines have failed to live up to my expectations of them. I would be grateful if you could send me a letter acknowledging receipt
of this letter.
BackgroundMy wife and I have spent just over a year working in Singapore. During that time we have traveled with Singapore Airlines on many occasions between Singapore and the US, Singapore and Australia and in the Singapore region. We had reached the end of our stay in Singapore, and so were travelling home to San Francisco with four large bags, more than normally like to carry. We decided that as this would be our last trip through the region in a while, we’d take advantage of our flexible ticket home and stop over in Hong Kong.The DetailsSaturday 14th February 1998At about 07:30 local Singapore time we checked into flight SQ860 to Hong Kong. This was to be the first leg of our flight home to San Francisco, with the second leg being on SQ2 the following day, Sunday 15th February. We had four items that we wished to check-in, as follows:<bag1> A bright blue, hard shell suitcase with bright yellow fittings. <bag2> A boring green soft-sided suitcase <bag3> A small, black, hard shell suitcase. <bag4> A small soft sided case, which was a wheel-on bag that we decided to check in. All of the bags were secured with a combination of straps, padlocks and combination locks. We asked that two of the bags (<bag1> and <bag2>) be sent through
to San Francisco, and that the other two bags (<bag3> and <bag4>)
be given back to us in Hong Kong. The baggage receipts showed the
following:
Sunday 15th February 1998We checked <bag3> and <bag4> in for flight SQ2 at 19:35. For completeness sake, here are the details from the receipts we got in Hong Kong:
We collected <bag3> and <bag4> and went up to the Singapore Airlines office. At the office we were asked to describe our bags (in fact I went in and pointed them out). <bag2> had no baggage labels attached to it at all, so the Singapore Airlines staff had to take our word for it that this was our bag. The bags were in an awful state. The straps that were securing <bag2> were all hanging off, and <bag1> looked like it had been to war. At the time, I put it down to rough handling, and the fact that the bags had been cleared without us being there. At home, we opened <bag1> and <bag2> and found that the contents were in a mess. Again, I assumed that this was just a part of clearing the bags through customs without us being there, but my wife pointed out that both bags had been locked, and they were locked when we picked them up. But Justina did notice that the combination lock on <bag1> was set to just one number off the correct combination - she had jumbled up the combination before we set off from Singapore. As Justina unpacked, she first noticed that a suit of mine was missing from <bag1>. And soon after that we found that other items had also gone missing. In most cases things had been removed from packaging, and the packaging had been returned to the case. The situation was increasingly upsetting as the list grew, especially as some of the items were bought for us as wedding presents. As I’m sure you can imagine, the value of those items to us is far, far greater than their dollar worth. As soon as I was aware of what had happened, I tried to contact Singapore Airlines. I found that none of the numbers in the phone book got me through to a person, or would even let me leave a message. I called the airport information desk, and was put through to the airport police. I spoke to a person who (eventually) gave his name as Linney. Mr. Linney told me that there was nothing he could do unless I came along to the airport in person, and then all he could do was give me a form to complete and mail back reporting the missing items. Mr. Linney told me that if I did make a report, this would compromise my position with Singapore Airlines, as they would be able to disown the problem. I asked Mr. Linney if he could at least note in the log that I had called, so that there would at least be some small record that I called. Mr. Linney said that no such log existed, and in any case, how was he to know I was who I said I was. I asked Mr. Linney to simply note that someone had called who claimed to be Mr. Badger reporting the loss of some items from checked baggage. Mr. Linney said he could not do that, and repeated that I would have to go in person to take this any further. At this point I asked him for his name, which he reluctantly gave me. I then called back to the airport information desk again to see if they
could page the airport for a member of Singapore Airlines staff.
I was told that this would not be possible, but that it may be possible
that I could be put through on an internal extension. That worked.
I was talking to Edgar who worked in the baggage area (I think).
He said his boss (Thelma) was not in, but he took the details from me and
told me that someone would call back. Edgar was very helpful - please
pass on my thanks to him.
Monday 16th February 1998We didn’t get any call back from Singapore Airlines on this day, but then it was a public holiday. We discovered that one or two other items had gone missing.Tuesday 17th February 1998I called Singapore Airlines from my office and spoke to Barbara Quintero. Barbara had heard about our situation (presumably from Edgar). I went through the details again, and Barbara said she’d look into it and call back.Barbara called back later in the day to tell me that Singapore Airlines
were not liable for our losses, but that I could write a letter explaining
the situation. This is that letter.
Conclusion.I’m not exactly sure on what basis Singapore Airlines feels that they have no responsibility in this matter.Barbara said that we should not have put "valuable items" in checked baggage. But the most valuable item that went missing was my suit! Is Singapore Airlines seriously saying passengers may not put suits in suitcases? Clearly our cases had a hard time. One had no labels when we collected it, and Singapore Airlines staff had to trust us when we identified <bag2> as ours. We were given <bag2> because we said it was ours (but anybody could have said the same thing). Are Singapore Airlines saying that this is normal? <bag1> and <bag2> were sent on the wrong flight. They should have been on the same SQ2 that we flew on, but instead were placed on the previous day’s SQ2. This seems pretty scary to me. I’m not at all comfortable with the idea of being on planes that are carrying the baggage of people who aren’t even aboard, and yet that’s just the situation you put all the passengers of flight SQ2 in on Saturday 14th Feb. 1998. Do Singapore Airlines deny all responsibility in this area too? My wife and I entrusted our lives and our possessions to Singapore Airlines for our return trip to San Francisco. I find the abdication of responsibility by Singapore Airlines to be extremely worrying. The staff we have spoken to have been very helpful, and have offered their personal sympathy. But as an organization, Singapore Airlines has completely failed to live up to my expectations of them. For your information, here is the list of the things that went missing
with prices and estimates of the US Dollar value:
Yours,
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