ANA Lost My Luggage Update

An update of the lost luggage/lost bachi mentioned in the previous post. Today I finally received a phone call from All Nippon Airways (ANA) regarding the status of the search for my luggage, which they lost. Actually, they have been trying to contact me for several days now (ever since about two days after I mailed the letter) but we are always gone at taiko practice, so when they call, we're not home, or unable to answer.

Miss Sato, with whom I spoke, did mention that she had read the letter, and that the description of the bag being wrapped in ANA packing tape may help to locate it. Although, if they haven't found it by now, I don't hold out much hope for it showing up. I still cannot understand how it could get lost, other than someone just stealing it. I mean, honestly, how does something like that get lost? Anyhow. She said that if they are unable to locate the lost bag with in a month, they will give us a monetary settlement to replace the bag. That means that if they haven't found it by the end of next week, they will give us some money. The question is "how much?" I have read that airlines will not reimburse for replacement value. Rather, they estimate how much the contents of your luggage have depreciated and will give you an amount based on that. Of course, the only people who think that is fair are probably the airlines themselves. Furthermore, I don't understand why they make you get your own travel insurance to get reimbursed for the lost luggage. It is their responsibility to take care of the luggage from your boarding point to your deboarding point, and if they lose it, they should pay for all of it. To be fair, I suppose their would be room for some insurance fraud with people claiming a much higher value of the contents than what was really in there, but it seems like it would be pretty tough to commit insurance fraud with a lost luggage claim. Furthermore, since it seems that only 2% of all people that fly ever truly lose their luggage, it wouldn't be that much of a risk. Out of those 2% that do lose their luggage, I bet 90% of them are honest. Suffice it to say, I think the airlines should pay for your luggage if they lost it (pay for all of it).

We'll see how things play out next week. If they can find it, great. If they can't I will be disappointed unless I reimbursed enough to replace all the taiko sticks that were in the luggage, plus the cost of the luggage. Stay tuned...