QANTAS did me dirty. Anyone copped worse than this?
And anyone receive reasonable responses from the airline?
don’t think I have. that is messy. I need to fly a new board home soon…
Ouch, That’s horrible. I think it will be hit or miss. Definitely file a claim. It has been many years since I personally have had surfboards damaged by Airlines. In one case, they paid me a reasonable amount. In the other case I took it all the way to small claims court and went before a judge. It felt like an episode of night court. The airlines sent an Attorney, not very good. I represented myself. Ultimately the Judge awarded me a reasonable amount. So in both cases I got something.
Some important things:
They kept telling me I signed a limited release tag which they claimed freed them from all responsibility. (Since then I always sign refuse if ever asked to do this. I do not say anything, just sign). The attorney did not have a copy of this form signed by me or otherwise.
If the bag the board it was in does not show damage, which it usually does not, again they claim it is not their problem and may be reluctant to give you anything.
Make sure you document everything. The photos shown is a good start. Get an estimate to repair, or in this case looks more like replace.
If you have the original receipt, that is very helpful.
Hopefully they resolve this by giving you something. If not, follow thru and document everything. It may take a bit of effort, but you should get something.
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Thanks John. Certainly didn’t sign any release on either leg of the journey. Definitely not repairable.
About 10 years ago a friend had same damage on a windsurfer both sides as if doors had closed on it. Was in Europe and no problem with airline paying up.
Just the other day I had a board come through a single leg nonstop with NO damage. First time in years I got away clean but the packaging lengths I had to go to almost make it not worth the trouble.
No amount of padding would have saved your situation unfortunately.
Important to update as QANTAS have responded appropriately. They’ve communicated a sincere apology, and have compensated the full RRP plus costs of custom spray and shipping from factory. Very much appreciated.
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Great news but I’m more amazed Qantas take dw boards as thought they were max 1.90m like most big airlines now
Mine was a 6’10", so not a lot longer than that. But some longer boards are definitely going back and forth. I was probably riding the shortest DW board that went over to Perth from the East Coast.
Maybe internal flights are different as pretty sure it’s 1.90m (6’2) on international flights
That’s awesome. Some airlines do the right thing.
Qantas outsourced its baggage handling to contractors not long ago, you have to wonder if contractors “no care, no responsibility” causes more of this type of damage?