It is not often that you find an airline maintaining a squeaky clean reputation for its quality and service in the aviation industry in its operation history of 90 years.
With its flying base in Istanbul, Turkey – the award-winning Turkish Airlines serves the largest number of countries in the world, flying more than 300 destinations (including both domestic and international).
Despite a solid reputation, air services do have their misses and screw up occasionally when passengers complain of missing or lost luggage in transit. Here are the top things to do when you are having a bad hair day with Turkish Airlines particularly with baggage.
Approach the Lost Property Office
The moment you realize that your belongings have been left behind somewhere in transit, contact the officials at the Lost and Found Office at the airport or the Lost and Found Office of the Ground Services company providing service. They will give you a lost baggage form to fill out. Please remember to include all necessary details that will help the staff to locate your bag/s. They will provide you with a PIR or Baggage Disruption Report number. Please retain any other receipts that they may issue here. You will need to have your boarding pass and baggage tag on your person. Ensure that you are delivered a baggage tag at check-in points at the departure airport. The barcodes on the bag tags help to identify your bags.
In a situation where you remember leaving your belongings onboard or elsewhere (while you waited for the flight), notify the staff immediately by filling out and submitting their ‘Forgotten Item’ form, and they should make necessary arrangements to return your stuff in the shortest time.
In a third situation where you might find your items missing or damaged, contact Turkish Airlines’ Lost Property Office. You will find the office in the same vicinity as the baggage claim areas. You can even submit a written application with supporting documents within 7 days, if you realize the loss later upon reaching your destination.
No matter what case you register, you will be given a PIR number consisting of five letters and five numbers which you must keep carefully. For more information or clarity, please feel free to visit their help page.
Fill the Online Baggage Claim
Online is the way to go if you realize your loss upon reaching your destination (which could be home or hotel). You will be required to visit their official webpage to file a missing luggage report. This is also the same site to reach for tracking the status of your baggage claim. You can submit online applications on the baggage irregularity report and follow-up the status on the go.
You can expect your baggage to be returned within 24 hours, but in the rare instance that the officials fail to deliver your bag within the stipulated time frame ( which is within the first 5 days of the missing report), you will be required to provide them a detailed list of all the contents of your bag along with their price worth. They will launch a thorough search across airports. You may create a new notification on www4.thy.com/baggage if you receive no such request from the authorities after 5 days. Leave an additional message with a clear description of your bag mentioning the name of the bag brand, color, size, etc. The deadline for the authorities to complete the bag search is 21 days, as with most airlines.
If you think that the airline officials are liable to give you suitable compensation for any baggage loss or damage, you must first familiarize yourself with their terms and conditions regarding baggage problems specified on their official website.
Reach Customer Service via Phone & Social Media
You can call their customer service representative at their call center number. Here are the important numbers to note: +90 850 333 0849 (Turkey), 0844 800 6666 (UK), 1800 874 8875 (US), 8000 3570 43 43 (UAE), +86 10 6465 1867/ 68 (China), and 022 61997900 (India). While their lines are usually jammed with high volume customer calls, this should not stop you from looking ahead. Leave a shout-out on their social media pages, and someone should reach out to you pronto. The following are the links to their social media pages – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Conclusion
It has been clearly specified on their official page that passenger luggage may be exposed to factors like “weather conditions, technical disruptions, and human mistakes”, all of which are beyond anyone’s control ipso facto. The officials sincerely regret any inconvenience that their customers may face due to variables that cannot be controlled. In such circumstances, you are better advised not to pack in any prized, perishable, and fragile items in your check-in baggage.
Do not use impaired bags during travel; install a label with clear, legible handwriting or typeface containing your name and contact details that would not come off even if the bag tags do. This will help speed up the delivery process in the unfortunate event that you must lose it somewhere in transit.
