British Airways has denied it has changed its policy on compensating customers for lost bags after it emerged it asked two to file a police report instead.
The Times reports today about two cases highlighted by US consumer rights journalist Christopher Elliott and columnist at the Chicago Tribune.
In both cases the customers were asked to report to the loss to the police after BA apparently refused to take responsibility for the missing luggage saying it might have been stolen.
The carrier did eventually pay $1,200 and $850 compensation after the complaints were raised with the airline by Elliott.
The Times reported BA as stating that it had not changed its policy and continued to pay out under the agreed international rules on lost baggage.
However, the airline said passengers who wanted to claim more than the maximum liability could do so through their insurance.
The airline was quoted as saying: “Thanks to our very sophisticated baggage tracking system, it’s rare for any items to be truly lost, but when luggage genuinely can’t be found we will compensate our customer, as we did in the two cases described.”